| Trademark Law and False Advertising |
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| Any advertising which is misleading in any material respect is considered false advertising. An advertisement is considered misleading if it fails to disclose facts that are important in light of what is stated in the advertisement or facts that are relevant in the light of the customary use of the product. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the statutory power to cancel trademarks it finds constitute false advertising. More... |
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| Trade Names |
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| The term ''trade name'' means any name used by a person to identify his or her business or vocation. ''Trade name'' refers mainly to the corporate, partnership, or other name of a business. The business may, in turn, market goods or services under one or more trademarks or service marks. More... |
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| Copyright Clause |
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| The founding fathers recognized that everyone would benefit if creative people were encouraged to create new intellectual and artistic works. Copyright is established in Article I, Section 8, of the United States Constitution. More... |
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| Federal Unfair Competition Law |
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| The law of unfair competition is primarily comprised of torts that cause an economic injury to a business through a deceptive or wrongful business practice. Unfair competition consists of two broad categories. First, the term "unfair competition" is sometimes used to refer only to those torts that are meant to confuse consumers as to the source of the product. The other category, "unfair trade practices," comprises all other forms of unfair competition. In this context, unfair competition does not refer to the economic harms involving monopolies and antitrust legislation. More... |
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| Copyright Joint Authorship and Ownership |
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| According to the Copyright Act, the authors of a joint work jointly own the copyright in the work they create. A joint work is defined in the Copyright Act as "a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole." Courts have interpreted this to mean that all putative joint authors must intend to make a joint work at the time of the creation of that work. If joint authorship exists, the authors of the "joint work" will be recognized as the co-owners of the copyright in that work. The contributions to a joint work do not need to be equal in quality or quantity, they only need to be copyrightable contributions and the parties must agree that the work is a joint work. More... |
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