Cautionary Words about Words in Agreements
Cautionary Words about Words in Agreements

What seems clear can be mistaken! Two recent decisions highlight the importance of carefully writing and understanding agreements. One case involves non-disclosure agreements. The other involves the assignment of future inventions, a common provision in many employment agreements. Non-Disclosure Agreements Businesses use non-disclosure agreements in many situations: mergers and acquisitions; to obtain the expertise of […]

OG Slick's mural in Worcester, Massachusetts
Beware of Graffiti Copyright Infringement

Graffiti artist Richard Wyrgatsch aka OG Slick is in the middle of a copyright infringement lawsuit. Top Trumps USA Inc. sued Slick on May 4, 2022 because he accused them of infringing his copyright. Top is asking the court to find that they didn’t do anything wrong when they used Slick’s graffiti on a Monopoly […]

Beware of Russian Doll Copyright Infringement
Beware of Russian Doll Copyright Infringement

Russian Doll copyright infringement is when you infringe a copyright that is within another copyright, like a Russian doll, with one nested inside another, and another, and another. These can sneak up on you, and can have serious consequences.  The US Postal Service learned this the hard way, twice. In 2003, the Postal Service released […]

Trademark Registration Can Be Tricky
Trademark Registration – The Rest of the Story

A quick summary of where we left off. A doctor creates a new product with a distinctive trademark. He registers it with the United States Trademark Office. He approaches a big box store that is interested. But a few weeks later, they launch their own product with his trademark. We talked about option’s including filing […]