According to the Department of Commerce, losses to U.S. businesses from the counterfeiting of trademarked consumer products are estimated at $200 billion a year. A model trademark law proposed by the International Trademark Association and currently winding its way through the legislative process in California includes a provision which appears to be an attempt to slow this ever growing enterprise.

A domain name is your address on the web, which can make it vitally important. So, what do you do when someone tries to move onto your yard?

If you work on the web at all, you know that domain names can be very similar. This raises the question of when one domain crosses the line and infringes on another. The issue is often brought up with larger commercial sites when others register similar domains.

Creativity is one of the human traits that can apply to any area of one’s life. Creative people have two tendencies. Firstly, they are capable of envisioning something new and different, such as a new way of doing something, or a new idea, or a new way of expressing their thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Secondly, they want to share their new insights with the world. Most people who have the creative gene also have the tendency to want credit for their creativity. This is where the wonderful world of copyrights comes into play.

Copyrights are created at the click of the shutter. But to enforce your rights in court for infringement claims, you must first register your copyright before you bring suit in federal court. Period. It doesn’t matter when the infringement is committed or the registration is completed, you still must register before filing suit.

It’s too bad that a freelance writer, Glynn Wilson, in Alabama didn’t learn this lesson earlier. He recently sued Kitty Kelley alleging that she used without permission some of his material for her best-selling book about the Bush family, “The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty.” The validity of his claim will never be decided in court. He had to withdraw his copyright infringement suit after realizing that he was likely to lose because he had failed to register his copyright with the United States Copyright Office. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/arts/19kell.html

Viacom has announced the first huge copyright infringement notice against YouTube. It has served YouTube with notice to remove 100,000 infringing videos.

As you know, YouTube is a site where people can post videos of just about anything. Millions of people visit the site, which made it attractive enough for Google to spend $1.65 billion dollars in stock to purchase the site. There is one problem, however. Many wonder how YouTube is any different than Napster when it comes to copyright issues.

The case of KK Sony Computer Entertainment and Another v Pacific Game Technology (Holding) Ltd [2006], concerned the infringement of copyright in computer games systems under the name of ‘PlayStation’. The first claimant was a Japanese company and the second claimant was its UK subsidiary. Both claimants were corporate incarnations of the well known Japanese electronics group, Sony.

One of Sony’s products was the latest version of its highly successful family of computer game systems marketed under the name ‘PlayStation’ which the second claimant marketed and sold in over 100 countries, including countries within the European Economic Area (“EEA”). In respect of those computer game systems Sony owned:

You take a picture of a city street. Look closely and you’ll see copyrighted material everywhere in your photo. The obvious copyrights are on the billboard, the newspaper stand and products in the store window. The less obvious copyrights are in the sculptural ornamentation of the lamppost, the patterned fabric of a woman’s skirt and the toy the kid is holding. You will never be able to track down all of these copyright owners to get their permission to use the photo. Are you out of luck if you want to use it commercially? Maybe not.

Infringement and Provisional Damages

There is no action for infringement of your patent until it actually issues. However, through publication of your application, it may be possible to obtain provisional damages for the time between publication of the application and the issuance of the patent. Once your patent issues, infringement can give rise to treble damages and an award of attorney fees. During the phase from publication to issuance, only reasonable royalty damages can be awarded. Furthermore, a claim must survive and be substantially identical from publication to the issued patent.

Copyrighting anything you have created costs you nothing. You simply put ‘Your Name 2005’ (2006, etc.) on it, beside it, or wherever the public can read it, and the act of copyright is done. It’s free — a gift from your government.

You’ve probably heard that registering your copyright costs you $30. Yes, that’s true, there is a $30 dollar fee if you choose to formally register your song, short story, photograph, painting, or whatever. You fill out Form TX for the written word, or form VA for graphic creations, such as photographs. Send in two copies of the ‘work’, plus your $30 dollars, to the Register of Copyright, Library of Congress, and your work will be entered into the archives and you will be in a better position to collect compensation in case of copyright infringement.

Many people seem to think that putting a copyright notice on their work protects their rights. They are only partly right. Registering the copyright is an important step. If you register your copyright before an infringement occurs, you have a great deal more leverage in enforcing your rights.

Question: What does Copyright Law protect?

Copyright Law protects original works of authorship, including artistic and literary works for the life of the creator plus 70 years. This means that the copyright owner has the exclusive right to license, reproduce, perform, and display the work (subject to the “fair use” doctrine discussed below).