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'The Copyright Office has a new registration option for what it is calling “short online literary works,” which includes blog posts, social media posts, and other short online articles. If your business provides content via the Internet, should you be using this new registration option to protect your work? What about online courses, podcasts, and other content?
3/9/2022 Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement: The Real Version of the “Poor Man’s Copyright”In December of 2020, the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (“CASE”) Act was signed into law. The CASE Act authorized the Copyright Office to create the Copyright Claims Board (“CCB”) —a voluntary, alternative forum to federal courts for resolving copyright disputes, seeking less than $30,000 in damages (so-called “small claims”). While federal court litigation certainly remains an option for copyright claims of any size, as we constantly remind clients, litigation of any size is incredibly costly and time consuming for small businesses and nonprofits. How might the CASE Act help your business or nonprofit protect its copyright?
Innocent infringement is a common, though misunderstood, response when your business or nonprofit is accused of copyright infringement. Perhaps you’ve received a cease and desist letter demanding what seems like an exorbitant fee because of a picture posted on your website or music used in a social media campaign. Maybe you’ve even responded to the letter and pointed out your “innocence” and removed the offending content.
But is that enough to really solve the problem and settle the matter? In most cases, no. 10/13/2020 Copyright InfringementToo many small business owners assume that just because something is on the internet, it must be free to use. For example, have you ever:
In each of these instances, your business is likely to receive a nasty cease and desist letter accusing you of copyright infringement and demanding the immediate payment of money damages.
A licensing agreement is a contract in which you, the licensor, gives someone else, the licensee, permission to do something that they otherwise would not have the right to do. There are many situations in which a small business might use a licensing agreement:
While licensing agreements need to be customized to fit your particular business situation, there are some common terms that most licensing agreements should address.
Over the lifespan of a small business, you may find yourself needing to sell or transfer intellectual property rights. There are a variety of situations where this might come up:
Even though intellectual property rights are intangible, they can still be sold or transferred much like any other business asset. This week, we look at how to transfer ownership of these assets. Except for name changes, we first need an agreement between the parties describing the terms of the sale or transfer. Then, we need to record the assignment of the intellectual property rights in the appropriate office.
(Note: Licensing intellectual property is not the same as transferring ownership. Licensing deals with a temporary right to use intellectual property, not a change in the underlying ownership.) The bundle of rights associated with the concept of “copyright” exists from the moment a work is created in a fixed form. However, those rights generally belong to the creator or author of the work. So what happens when that author is someone you are paying to create the work for you, your business, or non-profit? Enter the concept of “works made for hire.” If a work meets the legal requirements to be considered a work made for hire, then the employer will be considered the author of the work even if an individual employee was actually the original creator. What are the legal requirements for works made for hire? "Just because you call it a 'work made for hire' doesn't make it so."
We’ve previously discussed protecting your brand by registering and enforcing your trademarks. But what about the unique content you create? Enter copyright law. Copyright protects “original works of authorship.” This can be anything from written works like books and articles, to musical and artistic creations, even computer programs and architectural plans. Copyright is an important area of law, not just for creatives, but any entrepreneur who creates content or uses content created by someone else.
Just what does copyright protect? And why should you register your copyrights?
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4/19/2022
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