Blog – Adam Garson Law

Copyright concepts

The estate of William Faulkner is furious.  In the past month it has filed two copyright infringement lawsuits, one against Sony Picture Classics and another against Northrop Grumman Corporation and the Washington Post Company.  In the Sony case, the Faulkner Estate claims that Sony infringed Faulkner’s copyright in the famous phrase from Requiem for a […]

Congressional seal

Dear Doc: I heard that some insanity has recently infected the Republican Study Committee, when it published a memo with the exciting title of “Three Myths About Copyright Law and Where To Start To Fix It”. What gives? Signed, M. Mouse Dear M: A young staffer at the RSC, Derek Khanna, wrote about our broken […]

uploading photos

David J. Kappos has announced that he will depart as the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at the end of January.  His replacement has not been announced.   Kappos has led the PTO since 2009 and filled a leadership vacuum at the PTO dating from the last few years of the last administration.  […]

Courtroom

We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating.  Remember that on or after March 17, 2013, you MUST protect your invention before offering the invention for sale or using the invention in public.  Otherwise, you lose your U.S. patent rights instantly and forever.  This is a major change in the law and requires an entirely […]

deposit boxes

Your company is threatened with a lawsuit for patent infringement.  You are confident that your product does not infringe.  Should you fight or should you surrender? These are very real questions that businesses face every day.  According to a 2009 survey by the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the average cost for infringement litigation through […]

courtroom

Imagine that you live in an apartment in a large city, and that you don’t want to have cable television.  You used to have “rabbit ears” on your television, but once the analog transmitters went off the air, you found that your apartment faces the wrong way, and now all you get on your set […]

Internet and Intellectual Property

Here’s another example of the “if value, then right” approach.  You may recall that the first sale doctrine permits an owner of a copyrighted work to sell, transfer, loan, or even dispose of the work without infringing the creator’s distribution rights.  So, for example, if you were to purchase a music CD or a book, […]

Designs for patents

Dear Doc: I have heard that there is something called “trade dress” that can be legally protected, and that it’s different from trade mark and also from design patent and copyright?  What gives? Signed, Sam Sung Dear Sam: Trade dress is pretty broadly defined as the visual impression created by the sum of all elements […]

The-Top-Computer-Companies-In

We’ve been following developments in copyright law related to the fashion industry for quite some time.  You may recall that clothing falls into the category of a functional item, which is not protectable under United States copyright law.  Yet, because fashion designs are frequently “knocked-off,” the fashion industry has long sought copyright protection for designs. […]