Final Project

When putting together this final project I found Frank Natoli who's firm is based out of New York. He was able to help with most of my questions. I began to ask him about the self mailed patent and if it was a legitimate form of proof. He responded by saying no basically, patents can get pretty complicated and its more about "how" an invention gets protected not "what." "With three important exceptions, a copyright is owned by the person who created the work." Dear Rich, CopyRight& Trademark text, pg 198.

We then began to talk about infringing on another patent and how would I know. Frank said the only way you can find out for sure is to conduct an art patent search that carefully searches the disclosures and claims for prior art to see if anything in your invention has infringes. "An Infringement search is usually much narrower in scope than a patent ability search and is conducted for the purpose of deciding whether a particular invention will infringe an in-force patent" Dear Rich, CopyRight& Trademark text, pg 133.

I then wanted to know how much it would be to register a trademark. Frank said the trademark process starts with a call due diligence which is searches threw many federal and common laws. After your conflicts are filed through USPTO the your registration process starts, but the cost depends on what you have provided. Getting a large law firm to help can also get very costly. "Although the term typically refers to federally registered trademarks, technically, any trademark that is placed on the federal list of protected marks is considered registered." Dear Rich, CopyRight& Trademark text, pg 477.

 

Anytime dealing with the law in this way, I feel you should get help. Frank agreed by saying getting a professional to conduct a deep comprehensive clearance search in all 50 states. This felt would decrease my chances of dealing with an infringement lawsuit. "In trademark infringement lawsuits, the Lanham Act bars a court form awarding punitive damages" Dear Rich, CopyRight& Trademark text, pg 476.

 

I then wanted to know about designs and how they are protected. Frank said his experience with this can be misleading but he mostly deals with the intellectual property, but when dealing with this in his law office some clients had complaints. "Visual representations of an invention must be included in the patent application, these drawings should show all the features recited  in the claims. Dear Rich, CopyRight& Trademark text, pg 75.

 

At this point the interview had come to and end, so I am glad I got to chat with Frank and I learned allot.

Week 10 EOC: Lawyer Jokes

 http://www.jokes.com

1. Why did the lawyer go to Heaven?
    Hell was full.

2. What do you get when you cross a corrupt lawyer with a crooked politician?
    Chelsea Clinton.

3. Why are lawyers buried 10 feet underground?
    Because deep down, they're really not that bad!

:)

EOC week 9: Letter of Permission

The letters I have chosen were basically what type of letters I would need if I were to need depending on what type of film I would be using in my film. Film making is one of the hardest to get permissions for, not because you have to get your permission, but by the sheer number of how many you have to get. An hour and a half long film might have over 50 different items with in the film that might need permission to release to the rights to. My field is film and I found that making music videos might be in my future so I picked a letter that would pertain to what I would need in my future. Other letters of permission might need to be approved by the state and there would be a number of guidelines to follow in the process of filming. It will be a day to remember when I have to fill out my first legit permission slip for filming. With some more experience using the cameras here at the arts institute, until I graduate I will be ready to film anything. I would like to work with some professionals first to see how the process is actually done correctly first though, just so I don’t run into problems in the future. But other then that, things should get real interesting after I graduate. One aspect is learning the 3D modeling to be able to make my own ideas become a reality. Then be able to create ideas that corporate industries would find appealing. One step at a time I guess :)

Week 8 Eoc : Bratz Vs Mattel

After a long 7 year legal battle between MGA entertainment and Mattel, the courts finally ruled in MGA's favor. According to California Employment Lawyers Published by Howard Law, "MGA subsequently claimed that Mattel gained wrongful access to toy fairs with fake passes in order to steal trade secrets about the Bratz dolls, and then concealed the evidence of such actions." A Federal Jury found that Mattel did not have the rights to Bratz doll design and was ordered to pay up 89 million in damages to the small MGA company. It a more recent report on Reuters.com, "Mattel defeats Bratz doll maker antitrust lawsuit",
" Mattel Inc has won the dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit brought by bitter rival MGA Entertainment Inc that accused the toy giant of trying to monopolize the U.S. market for fashion dolls." My thoughts on this issue are that it seems that the designer wanted to be in more control and probably wanted a better apy desinging his own toy line. I dont think its right that Bratz making a name for themselves give Mattel the right to start a legal battle. If the designer was still working for Mattel, maybe there would be a case, but since he left Mattel, its not like he was selling Barbie like products.

Week 8 Boc : Progress on Final Project

Final project is not to far off into the future at this point, and I have to start writing my questions for the lawyer of our choosing. Last week I asked my mom if she has a record of the name of the lawyer that I worked with before, but she didn't remember which was fine. We established on finding a better lawyer for this project. Since my mom works for the New York City Transit Authority, she has a office in her building full of different lawyers and she said, if you want, I will help you pick a lawyer there to help with these questions. Basically at this point now I just have to write the questions, then put it all together. Hopefully today I will have enough time to work on the questions. 

As for the progress of class assignments, I am pretty much caught up. During this quarter I only missed one Eoc, and I'm catching up on my tweets other then that everything seems to be okay.

EOS week 7: Lawyers

1. My lawyer I had in the past, have to head home for his info...

2. F. Christopher Austin | Las Vegas Intellectual Property Lawyer, 400 South Rampart
Ste. 400 Las Vegas, NV 89145 702-889-7734
 http://www.lawyer.com/f-christopher-austin.html

3. Michael J. McCue 3993 Howard Hughes Pkwy, Suite 600
Las Vegas, NV 89169 

4. Craig Friedberg 4760 S. Pecos Rd.Suite 103
Las Vegas, NV 89121 702-435-7968

5. Corey Beck 425 south 6th street 89101 702 678 1999

6. Borghese Legal, Ltd.

Intellectual property, internet and business law firm

10161 Park Run Drive Suite 150 - Las Vegas, NV 89145
(702) 382-0200

7. * The Law Firm of Andrea Hence Evans, LLC

1425 K Street NW SUITE 350 - Washington, DC 20005
202-461-3254

8.  Beller Neil J Ltd 7408 W Sahara Ave

Las Vegas, NV (702) 625-6768

9.  Harper, James E. Attorney Help Us Out801 S Rancho Dr

Las Vegas (702) 384-7111

10.  Barry Levinson & Associate
5440 W Sahara Ave, Fl3
Las Vegas, NV (702) 836-9696

Week 5 EOC: Patent Trolls

These days, it’s very hard to take a side on the matter of patent trolls. Some feel they have a right to do it. "Every plaintiff who brings one of these cases is a private attorney general who is doing a service to the United States, and I'm doing the same," says Mr. Stauffer, a lawyer in Roseland, N.J. Now that they feel they have the right to challenge these patent numbers, companies are using now have to prepare. "These cases have forced companies to spend time, money and resources investigating claims where there really isn't any injury to anybody," says Chicago lawyer Jason C. White. We all know these days that China is distributing a lot of merchandise to American stores but we also know how sneaky the Chinese can be. "You're paying the hostage fee," says Mark Willard who basically found a old patent number on a remolded rake. Many companies are being affected by their intellectual property. An Intellectual property lawyer  named Robert Koch, is advising most of his clients to refrain from marking patent numbers visibly on the product itself. This alone should help control the amount of cases being submitted.