Questions tagged [intellectual-property]
For questions concerning the ownership of ideas, designs and creative work. Specific IP tags include copyright, trademark, and patents.
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Used personal history against u by everyone even the police [closed]
Ok ten years ago a app was used to place someone on it using there personal history without permission that caused this person to have everything took from him while his ex girlfriend says it's only ...
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Can I use a 4 letter acronym of a state agency in my app
So I have made an android weather app which uses data from a state environment agency which is referred to as SORA (acronym). The name of my app is "SORA weather - unofficial".
So I have ...
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OpenAI employees' move to Microsoft: Non-compete regulations?
A few days ago, Sam Altman was fired from his position as OpenAI's CEO in a surprise move.
Altman has, as of now, accepted an offer by Microsoft to join the company as head of an AI lab. Microsoft has ...
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Is making 3d models of something, against copyright laws? [duplicate]
Is it considered a copyright infringement if I make a 3D model/print of cars like BMW or persons like actors? I have seen people already selling such 3D files or physical models. How does it work?
If ...
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Cartoons vs Publicity Rights
I've learned that it's legal to write about famous people without their permission as long as the use is "expressive" rather than advertising. However, I believe it's illegal to use pictures ...
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Can a software license be conditional on the actions of others?
I recently had an idea for a "threshold conditional" software license that works like this:
Any person/entity can purchase a license and gain the unconditional right to use the software any ...
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App Store app Ownership
Lets say hypothetically 5 years ago someone (Person A) created a company with someone else (Person B) and they split the company 80 (Person B) / 20 (Person A) and then used that company information to ...
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Extent of employer's ownership of personal IP
My employer's Code of Business Conduct & Ethics document that I have to sign has the following snippet. My employer is in oil and gas in Calgary, Canada. I have artistic projects like games that I'...
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USA Employment Law: Job Search with Moonlighting
I am a Software Developer contractor but I also want to have my own side-hustle business. This side hustle business might contain programming, research or developing new software products. However, it ...
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It is a 'fair use' of trademark if a book's advertising refers to a famous book series?
For instance can a book based on (or about) ancient mythologies be advertised as 'for fans of the Percy Jackson books'?
user51647
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Is the public domain revocable?
If a work enters the public domain, can someone "privatize" it by trying to copyright/trademark/etc. the same work without changes?
user51647
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When a historical name is trademarked, will the trademark be considered 'weaker' than an invented name?
Like the names of important people of medieval Europe, names of planets of the Solar System and its moons or geographical features etc.
user51647
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Burden of proof in intellectual property disputes involving generative media
I've been pondering a hypothetical situation where someone claims that a piece of art I created could not possibly be my intellectual property, asserting that it was AI-generated. In such a scenario, ...
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Is this IP ownership provision too vaguge?
Is this Intellectual Property provision that is found in an employment agreement too general? To my understanding things like "formulas" or "know-how" aren't protected by IP law. (...
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Are derivatives of public domain settings less distinctive than of copyright-protected ones?
e.g If a video game has over 100 characters, all based on public domain characters (those from old literature, folklore, etc.), can another game have almost exactly these amount of characters, with ...
user51647
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What is the Intellectual Property Status of a Course based on a Text Book?
When creating a course, even if you do not use figures or material from the book, might follow the flow or structure of the book to a certain extent.
I guess you might also be able to use some ...
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Are Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and other search engines allowed to copy website text because of the copyright fair use exception? [duplicate]
These sites certainly send bots out that copy the entirety of websites by stepping through links and then store the entirety of websites in databases.
Then they show any part of a quote from a website ...
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Is it OK to make some 3D art as CC0 or CC BY-SA if it contains a trademark/logo?
If I create a 3D model that I want to distribute as CC0 or CC BY-SA but it contains a logo or trademark that I'm not the owner is it OK to do so?
Lets say for example that I make a 3D Coke can with ...
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Is it legal for a train company to create an art gallery using photographs of the graffiti on their locomotives and train cars?
I have been wondering that since a train company owns its locomotives and train cars, then I am assuming that this means that they own any graffiti that has been painted on their locomotives and train ...
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Does a registered trademark end if the owner throws it away?
If somebody registers a trademark for their company name and the name of its flagship product, and uses this names for a while, but then one day decides to stop using it and publicly announce they ...
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Is it legal to intentionally wait before filing a copyright lawsuit to maximize profits?
Let's say someone uses my intellectual property without my consent and uses it for commercial purposes. Can I wait until they've made many millions of dollars off of my work, so that I can sue and ...
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Are online file converters legal?
Online file converter: Web-based tool or service that allows you to convert files from one format to another through the internet. Users upload a file in a specific format, it is converted on the site'...
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To what extent can actors use characters they've played?
Dean Norris, who plays DEA agent Hank Schrader in Breaking Bad, offers personalized videos on Cameo. For about $500, you can pay him to record a personalized video message. He donates the proceeds to ...
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Is it legal to create a website that freely provides the contents of books which are another company's IP? [closed]
This question is rather specific. I am a fan of the tabletop roleplaying game 'Call of Cthulhu' by Chaosium Inc., but find since it isn't hugely popular that there aren't enough easily accessible ...
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Is an AI model considered a derivative work?
Suppose an AI art model was trained exclusively on Mr. X's artwork. Suppose Mr. X managed to prove that the model was only capable of producing derivative works. He would then own the copyright to all ...
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Digidyne v. Data General: how does this not legally protect Apple macOS running on non-Apple branded hardware?
I was just reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_RDOS#Antitrust_lawsuit which discusses Digidyne v. Data General:
When Data General introduced the Data General Nova, a company called ...
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Creating an application to streamline Dungeons and Dragons
I've been working on an application that would streamline the average Dungeons and Dragons 5e tabletop experience, and it only recently occurred to me that doing so may infringe on copyrights.
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How to put a disclaimer about IP in an open source fangame? [closed]
I am creating a fangame. Specifically a game where you can open weapon cases from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for free and collect or trade skins that you obtain. The entire game source is my own ...
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Copyright implications of dismissing Individual and Representative Plaintiffs v. Github Inc, Microsoft Inc, OpenAI (et al.) on derived LLMs
"Individual and Representative Plaintiffs v. GITHUB, INC., a Delaware corporation;
MICROSOFT CORPORATION, a Washington corporation; OPENAI, INC., a Delaware nonprofit corporation; [...]" is ...
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Ownership/reuse of custom content purchased from online performers [closed]
I'm thinking of doing a project where I pay onlyfans creators/cam performers for custom voice/video recordings. In this case I don't actually want the content to be sexual in nature - not that it ...
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If someone committed copyright infringement and was able and willing to endure all maximum fines and prison time, could they still practically do it?
Let's say an already obscenely rich individual in the US (whose wealth is unrelated to any crime) decides to reproduce unauthorized copies of a copyrighted work for a profit and gets caught. This ...
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Is an edited version of a trademark covered through the original trademark in the UK?
Is a shortened or edited version of a trademark covered by the initial trademark.
Take the following for example:
If someone were to use this name or logo while removing the 'studio', would this be ...
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difference between work and contractual obligations
In an employment contract, what is the difference between "the course of work" and "performance of contractual obligations"?
For example, in the Swiss Code of Obligations:
Art. ...
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Are AI model weights copyrightable? [duplicate]
I know, that someone asked similar question, but I want to focus on one thing:
Can the weights of the AI model be covered by copyright?
What are the arguments for and what against?
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YU-GI-OH! name IP protection?
What is the TM and IP status for Yugioh?
Related to question Will the YU-GI-OH! card copyright ever end?, is the name 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' name protected?
This resource Justia suggests TM protection for video ...
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Can two unique inventions that do the same thing be patented?
Let's say I get a patent issued for a process/formulation that cures a disease or treats damaged hair.
Can someone else come along and invent something that cures the same disease or repairs hair, but ...
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Are there potential legal considerations in the U.S. when two people work from the same home and use the same internet connection? [duplicate]
Consider the following scenario:
Person A is employed by a large company and has the usual "everything you do while employed by us is owned by us" in their employment contract.
Person B is ...
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Can an employee use an employer's market research subscription to conduct due diligence for IP?
If an employee uses "company resources" to develop IP, then the employer owns said IP. However, what is the scope of "company resources" and "development"? Hypothetically,...
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What is "18 C.J.S., Copyright and Literary Property, § 113"?
I am working on a research paper on copyright, and I was reading O'Rourke vs. RKO Radio Pictures. It cites "18 C.J.S., Copyright and Literary Property, § 113". What is it citing?
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Are coworking companies bound by legal precedent not to use the intellectual property nor trade secrets of its customers?
The companies which operate coworking facilities are in a position to learn a lot about a person's business. Every facility I've seen is blanketed with cameras, potentially including microphones, the ...
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Is it legal to paraphrase a paid Wall Street Journal article in its entirety and publish the paraphrased article for free? [duplicate]
I know that in many countries republishing any web article from another website without consent is considered a form of plagery and copyright enfringement and is therefore illegal.
But I am looking to ...
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Is it legal to save a picture from the internet and then send it to my friends?
I'm talking about pictures of cats or flowers or a meme, nothing extreme. Is it technically legal or illegal for me to do this?
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Can my employer sue me for copyright infringement if the client owns the work product and copy rights? [closed]
I used to work for a company, and i was part of a team who produced work product for the clients. In the contract between the employer and client, it says that the client owns the rights, title, and ...
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What is the legal distinction between watching a YouTube video in a browser and downloading it for personal use? [duplicate]
If the act of watching a YouTube video creates a temporary download in my internet cache, why is it illegal to use an app that intercepts the YouTube API to download music videos to listen to later ...
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What is plagiarism legally?
We all learn from books and our environment.
I was trying to teach my kids what is money so I told and wrote:
"Money is the third good that everyone wants."
The above is an idea that I read ...
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Can I screenshot a world map from Microsoft Bing and use it for Youtube videos?
I have this nice screenshot of Microsoft Bing's map, along with the copyright mark at the bottom right corner. For the OpenStreetMap they said it clearly that I must acknowledge/credit them (https://...
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Are designs explained in academic publications considered to be in public domain if there isn't yet a patent application about it?
In academic journals, sometimes the new approach they describe seems so promising that companies may want to use those designs or designs made/inspired from the principles mentioned in the publication....
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What IP law would apply to trained weights of an AI model?
In simple terms, any AI system will consist of three elements:
Code, written by humans, that defines the mathematical model
The mathematical model itself, as it exists within the computer
The model ...
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Copyright issues when journal is defunct
Consider a seminal paper published 40 years ago in a journal that went belly up 30 years ago. Many cite it but hardly anyone has seen it. Can I expect trouble if I make an electronic copy available on ...
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Is it safe to talk about ideas that I have not patented yet over public email?
I have an idea with which I may someday make a startup. I can talk about it with experienced people, over public emails for example. However, I wonder if from patent point of view this is safe. My ...
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