Three celebrities have filed lawsuits against Epic Games, the creator of the wildly popular video game Fortnite, for allegedly using their signature dance sequences in the game without their permission and without giving them credit, reports The Washington Post. The...
Year: 2018
The use of nondisclosure agreements in trade-secret protection
Our law firm regularly helps businesses, corporations and entrepreneurs to protect their trade secrets from exposure to and misappropriation by competitors. We have written in this space before about the importance of trade secrets to commercial success and stressed...
Trademarks need inherent distinctiveness or secondary meaning
At our law firm, we represent people in a wide variety of legal matters related to the protection of branding through trademarks and service marks. A trademark is a distinctive word, name, phrase, logo, symbol or even a "device" like a sound, scent, motion or color...
Licensing creative artwork
In the context of artwork, licenses are contracts in which artists grant to other parties -- often manufacturers -- the legal right to use their copyrighted creative works in exchange for flat fees or royalties based on a percentage of sales, sometimes with advances...
Presidential tweet criticized for … trademark misuse?
Some are still having a hard time accepting President Trump's use of Twitter to announce government policy or to express his personal or political opinions. One of his recent tweets, however, raised trademark issues when he modified the line "Winter is Coming" from...
When is a moving logo or image protectable as a trademark?
At our Northern California law firm, we represent people and businesses seeking trademark protections for their unique branding strategies, including words, phrases and logos used to identify their goods or services. While usually this brings to mind product names or...
Texas judge upholds large jury award in trade-secret case
Keeping trade secrets just that -- secret -- can make or break the success of a company. We have written in this space extensively about ways to keep a business's trade secrets safely away from the public or from competitors. One of those is to write ironclad...
Intellectual property rights in the restaurant industry
At our law firm, we advise California clients in the restaurant industry like owners and chefs about how to protect their valuable intellectual property. After all, food professionals invest significant creativity as well as money into their livelihoods. After...
Little Tree car freshener trademark owner goes out on a limb
Virtually everyone who grew up in the U.S. and is alive today knows what a Little Tree car freshener is. An image of the successful product dangling from a car mirror immediately comes to mind at mere mention of the tree-shaped air freshener made to improve indoor air...
Music Modernization Act: Landmark music copyright law signed
In an unusual move in this time of deep division, sweeping federal copyright legislation updating copyright law for the digital age was unanimously passed in both the House and Senate. The president signed it on October 11, 2018. Federal lawmakers all got on...