Blog – Adam Garson Law

Question on a Keyboard

Ask Dr. Copyright … Dear Doc: Some time ago, I wrote to you about the song “Happy Birthday” and the law suit over whether restaurants and film makers must still pay royalties if they sing it in public. Has anything new happened? Signed,  Happy Birthdad   Dear Hap (can I still call you that?)… Funny you should […]

Copyright

In our last newsletter we wrote about Taylor Swift’s open letter to Apple, Inc. and the ensuing kerfuffle over Taylor Swift’s hypocrisy for the way she treated photographers covering her concerts. Just to recap, Swift’s letter to Apple scolded the company for not compensating artists during its customers’ 3-month free Apple Music trial. Apple, you […]

Designs for patents

In Alice v CLS Bank, the Supreme Court determined that an abstract business method implemented by software entirely within a computer was not ‘patentable subject matter,’ meaning that the invention could not be protected by patent even though it met all of the requirements for a patent; namely, the process was novel, unobvious and had […]

Designs for patents

‘Generalissimo Francisco Franco is Still Dead!’* At least insofar as patent licensing goes.  On June 22 the Supreme Court decided yet another patent case – this one relating to patent royalties after the patent expires.  In 1964, the Supreme Court in the Brulotte case determined that even with a contract, a patent owner cannot collect royalties for […]

Designs for patents

“They’re baaack…”* *Heather Michele O’Rourke, ‘Poltergeist II,’ 1986 Congress, that is.  Several patent bills are pending, most of which will make it more risky and expensive to enforce a patent or defend against a patent infringement action in court.  These bills represent the second half of the America Invents Act, which changed the patent landscape […]

uploading photos

There are many misconceptions about posting images on websites and social media. They range from believing everything online is free-for-the-taking to assuming that if you give attribution of ownership to an image, you’re not infringing someone’s copyright. These assumptions are just plain wrong. Just ask anybody who’s received a cease and desist letter and ended […]

Designs for patents

Google is running what it calls a ‘patent purchase promotion.’  From May 8 through May 22, 2015, you can offer to sell your issued U.S. patent to Google.  You must provide the patent number, contact information and a take-it-or-leave-it price along with the submission contract.  Google will let you know if it is interested by […]