Copyrights Archives - Jafari Law Group | California Employment Litigation & Patent Lawyers

What is the Difference Between a Trademark, a Patent, and a Copyright?

September 17 2021

When you or a group of collaborators come up with a work, invention, or idea through your own creativity and original thought process, you’ve created intellectual property. Unfortunately, unlike most physical property, intellectual property is easily stolen or misattributed, which can result in its rightful owners being denied credit and compensation for their work. People …

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Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks: The Basics

December 17 2018

The economy of California has always been greatly dependent upon the ideas of inventors and entrepreneurs. Entertainment, technology, fashion, and many other industries are dependent upon new ideas. These ideas are intellectual property. Their owners have legal property rights in them, and it is important for these property rights to be protected. For decades, inventors …

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Hookah Company Inhales Copyright Loss, Exhales Attorney Fees

January 13 2014

Last week, the California Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the Court) affirmed the District Court’s summary judgment for defendant Starbuzz Tobacco, Inc. (Starbuzz), stating that Starbuzz did not violate the copyright protection granted to Inhale, Inc (Inhale) in 2011 for their hookah water container. The case, Inhale, Inc. v. Starbuzz Tobacco, Inc., specifically …

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Copyright Lawsuit Challenging Google’s Book Digitizing Program Dismissed Under Fair Use Doctrine

November 19 2013

At long last, Google has won. Specifically, Google has won the right to continue providing snippets of over 20 million books digitized from the collections of top public universities and libraries through its Google Books Library Project. Avid readers and researchers, most notably librarians and other scholars, are hailing the decision as an important step …

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the NSA

August 09 2013

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is best known as the preeminent digital rights advocacy group, possibly in the entire world. Think of any noteworthy piece of legislation in the past couple of decades and the EFF has more than likely participated in the drafting of that legislation, critiquing the legislation, or campaigned on behalf of digital …

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NY Times Blog Criticizes the Notion of Intellectual Property

July 22 2013

The New York Times blog has an article by Joseph E. Stiglitz, revisiting the Supreme Court’s decision on gene patents. As he writes in specific relation to the gene patent case, “the case was a battle between those who would privatize good health, making it a privilege to be enjoyed in proportion to wealth, and …

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Las Vegas, Now Focusing on Intellectual Property

July 22 2013

Las Vegas was one of the major American cities to be hit hardest by the global recession of 2008. People aren’t in a hurry to gamble away what little money they have in a depression, and this substantially affected Las Vegas tourism for the past couple of years. However, it seems that the famous city …

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Will 3D Printing End Intellectual Property Rights?

July 22 2013

One of the most remarkable developments of the past few years has been 3D printing, a system that can literally print a solid object using only a design and some plastic polymers. The applications for such a device are seemingly endless. It can print cheap food for impoverished third world nations and solve world hunger! …

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Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and Musical Trademarks

July 02 2013

Frank Zappa is a legend in the history of contemporary music. In the 27 years before his death in 1993, he released a mind-boggling 62 studio albums, just over two a year every year. These albums included the critically acclaimed Freak Out, which can lay claim to being both the first concept album and one …

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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Access to Copyright

June 20 2013

In 1998 Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a landmark piece of legislation in regards to copyright and the burgeoning digital market. Enforcement of copyrights was greatly expanded and providers of online services were granted specific protections so that their liability would be severely limited in instances where copyright was violated by users …

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Copyright Compilations: Sixth Circuit Affirms Copyright Limitations on Compilations to “selection, coordination, and arrangement”

March 07 2012

On September 15, 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided in a copyright case that Lexis Nexis(Lexis) did not infringe on the copyright of the plaintiff corporation LawMode. Ross Brovins & Oehmke v. Lexis Group, Case No. 05-1513 (6th Cir., Sept. 25, 2006) More specifically, the court held that Lexis’ compilation …

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