Blog – Adam Garson Law

Internet and Intellectual Property

If you use or develop online software or smartphone “apps” then you need to know about CalOPPA.  No, that’s not some form of steam-driven musical device from an old-time carousel. It’s the California Online Privacy Protection Act, and it has very real consequences for any company that does business online. This month, the State of California […]

gavel of justice

In late November, David Pogue of the New York Times wrote about a hoaxer who plastered Facebook sites with an unsolicited message that stated: In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, crafts, professional photos and videos, etc. (as […]

TM is for trademarks

If you want to protect a product by patent in Europe today, you generally will file an application in the European Patent Office (“EPO”).  When your application is (eventually) reviewed and approved by the EPO, you then must register the approved application with each individual European country in which you desire a patent and must […]

Copyright concepts

The estate of William Faulkner is furious.  In the past month it has filed two copyright infringement lawsuits, one against Sony Picture Classics and another against Northrop Grumman Corporation and the Washington Post Company.  In the Sony case, the Faulkner Estate claims that Sony infringed Faulkner’s copyright in the famous phrase from Requiem for a […]

Congressional seal

Dear Doc: I heard that some insanity has recently infected the Republican Study Committee, when it published a memo with the exciting title of “Three Myths About Copyright Law and Where To Start To Fix It”. What gives? Signed, M. Mouse Dear M: A young staffer at the RSC, Derek Khanna, wrote about our broken […]

uploading photos

David J. Kappos has announced that he will depart as the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at the end of January.  His replacement has not been announced.   Kappos has led the PTO since 2009 and filled a leadership vacuum at the PTO dating from the last few years of the last administration.  […]

Courtroom

We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating.  Remember that on or after March 17, 2013, you MUST protect your invention before offering the invention for sale or using the invention in public.  Otherwise, you lose your U.S. patent rights instantly and forever.  This is a major change in the law and requires an entirely […]

deposit boxes

Your company is threatened with a lawsuit for patent infringement.  You are confident that your product does not infringe.  Should you fight or should you surrender? These are very real questions that businesses face every day.  According to a 2009 survey by the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the average cost for infringement litigation through […]

courtroom

Imagine that you live in an apartment in a large city, and that you don’t want to have cable television.  You used to have “rabbit ears” on your television, but once the analog transmitters went off the air, you found that your apartment faces the wrong way, and now all you get on your set […]