Often when someone copies all or part of somebody else's copyrighted material, they think they have a defense to any copyright infringement claim because of the doctrine of "fair use." Unfortunately, in many situations, it's not that easy to know whether the copying would actually be considered "fair use," and the result may be a lawsuit. Just a few weeks [...]
A recent survey shows that small businesses are much less likely than their larger counterparts to have formal sexual harassment policies, making them much more vulnerable to claims of sexual harassment. Regardless of size, all employers should have appropriate written sexual harassment policies and training procedures (including classes, videos, and the like) in place. While the applicable federal law applies [...]
Some of our clients have received invoices and "important notifications" from companies offering to monitor or renew their trademarks and/or record their trademark registrations with US Customs & Border Protection (USCBP). One invoice, from Glotrade s.r.o., offers a "similarity service that protects your trademark from copyright infringement" for one year for the price of $2,890. This incomprehensible sentence, which confuses [...]
A book's title is not protected by US copyright law, but it can sometimes be protected by trademark law. A title of a single work may be protected if the owner can prove that consumers associate it with a particular source, but only a title used for a series of works (two or more) can be registered with the US Patent and [...]
The US Copyright Office has just announced a proposed new fee schedule. The Office proposes raising fees for a standard electronic copyright application from $55 to $75. Fees for a "single" electronic application would go up to $55 from $35, and fees for a paper application would rise to $125 from $85. The already hefty fee of $800 for expedited processing [...]
This week the US Supreme Court ruled that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) does not prohibit enforcement of class action waivers in employment contracts. This means employers will be able to prevent employees from consolidating their claims and having them handled in one proceeding. That is, employers can require each employee to sue or arbitrate separately. This is a [...]
This week it was announced that 21st Century Fox has settled a group of race, gender and pregnancy discrimination lawsuits involving 18 current and former Fox News employees for approximately $10 million. In just the past few weeks, a number of other employment discrimination claims have been settled by major employers, including Dell EMC (a subsidiary of Dell Technologies), which [...]
Choosing a trademark may be more difficult than you think. You might be focusing on the catchiness of the name, but there are legal considerations that should be considered as well, such as the possibility of infringing some other trademark. People often think that if they aren't aware of anyone else using the same trademark, it's okay. They may rely on a [...]
Thousands of freelance writers are finally receiving compensation for copyright infringement by newspaper, magazine, and electronic database publishers during the early days of the internet. In 2001, a number of lawsuits were consolidated into one class action suit (known as In re Literary Works in Elec. Databases Copyright Litig.) on behalf of freelance writers. The dispute arose when publishers licensed articles [...]
Did you know that your failure to retain all relevant materials after litigation is "reasonably anticipated" could result in you losing the lawsuit or being fined or sanctioned by the court? In fact, earlier this year, a New York federal judge awarded $2.68 million in discovery sanctions in a case valued at only $20,000. Klipsch Group had sued DealExtreme (part [...]