You asked your legal, copyright, and trademark questions, and Jean has answered! All questions are culled from the comments section attached to the original ‘Ask Jean’ post. We invite you to ask more questions.

Dear Jean,

Help! I’m hoping to launch a new line of children’s and adolescent’s clothing later this year. We did our research and it seems our company’s trademark has not been registered by another organization. However, it was just discovered that a particular on-line store uses a name very similar to ours. Our company’s designs are completely original. The on-line store does not design it own goods. It seems to have a licensing agreement which allows them to sell children’s clothing that promotes various musical bands, so although our concepts are different, we do both cater to the same consumer age group.

My question is: if our trademarked names differ only by a few characters, could it be considered an infringement? To provide you with an example, let’s say their name is “Lil Tike” and our is “Lil’ Tikes.” I know that confusion seems likely, so we might consider changing our name to something like “Lil’ Tikez” or even “Little Tikes.” Would these changes sufficiently distinguish the two companies? We want to avoid legal problems.

Thanks so much!

Jeannie

Dear Jeannie,

If your trademark differs from another by only a few characters, it can be considered infringement, so adding a few letters or changing “lil” to “little” won’t solve the problem. For trademark purposes, the only thing that matters

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In a post earlier this week, I reviewed the latest version of Photoshop Elements. Elements has never been a hugely popular program, but I think the recent release is well-suited to the needs of at least some users. The same can be said of the CorelDRAW Graphic Suite X4. It’s easily overlooked, but actually might be worth considering.

Photoshop Elements and the Corel line of products aren’t the most popular apps out there, but they do have their uses.

The CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 is a complete creative environment, so any task you’d perform in Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign can probably be accomplished using Corel’s apps. That said, the Corel interfaces and many of the tools are very different than what you’ll find in an Adobe program, so the learning curve is steep. Still, the whole CorelDRAW package can be yours for just $429, so maybe it’s a fair trade. Here are some pros and cons to consider before you make a final decision:

1) CorelDRAW (the vector program) and Corel PHOTO-PAINT (the bitmap program) really are on par with Illustrator and Photoshop, but they cost a lot less.

2) The X4 update includes support for RAW files and has the ability to match colors across both Corel and Adobe programs.

3) CorelDRAW is both a vector drawing and page layout program, so you don’t need to hop to a different app when design your pages.

4) There’s a very powerful bitmap/vector tracing program included in CorelDRAW. It’s called PowerTRACE, and it’s far (more…)

“Another recession could be just around the corner, but at least for now, malls and restaurants are full again, traffic is terrible and everything is back to normal.”

That’s what I wrote back in August, 2007. Since then, time-bomb mortgages have been blowing up all over the country, foreclosures have become a national crisis, major U.S. financial institutions are recoiling from billions of dollars in losses and just last week stock markets around the entire world plummeted. What a difference six months can make.

Now there is talk of a recession, jobs are being lost and Uncle Sam wants to give everybody more money, so we can spend ourselves out of the abyss once again. What is the current outlook? What does it mean for designers? Are we going to lose our jobs? Well, if the past is any guide, maybe there is still some good news out there, either way.

I have been a graphic designer and illustrator since 1979 and have worked through three recessions during that time. What I have noticed is that if you manage to keep your job, you are kept quite busy doing your own work and the work of your buddies that were just laid off. At one job, I was told to “keep my head low and look busy.” But if you do get laid-off, and can’t find full-time work, I think you will find that there are greater opportunities to find design work as a freelancer during tough times.

I was always a risk taker and toward the end of the 1980-83 recession, I actually quit my agency job to start freelancing. My business immediately boomed. There was so much work in South Florida at the time that I thought everyone should just quit their jobs. (I was young…irrational exuberance.) (more…)

Have you ever used Photoshop Elements or CorelDRAW? If you’re a professional designer, probably not. In all likelihood, you rely on Adobe’s Creative Suite. You use Photoshop for bitmap imaging, Illustrator for vector artwork, and InDesign (or Quark) for layouts. And if you work in an in-house creative department, where you have to have the industry-standard apps, this same setup would also make perfect sense.

Photoshop Elements and the Corel line of products aren’t the most popular apps out there, but they do have their uses.

However, recent updates to Photoshop Elements and the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite make these programs worth considering. They might be a useful additions or a cost-saving substitute. Especially in a freelance environment, where you perhaps can’t always plunk down thousands for the latest releases, Photoshop Elements and CorelDRAW Graphics Suite may save you money. You might also get some new features that you won’t find in the Adobe favorites.

In this post, we’ll take a look at Photoshop Elements 6. Later this week, we’ll dive deep into CorelDRAW.

Photoshop Elements 6

I know quite a few designers who still use versions of Photoshop that predate the Creative Suite. It’s totally understandable. Most just don’t have the time to do a big upgrade right now. Still, they’re missing out on some great features. The powerful retouching and selection tools included in the most recent versions of Photoshop are incredibly useful and can save users loads of time. Fortunately, the latest update to Photoshop Elements includes some of these items, like the Quick Select, Spot Healing, and Refine Edge tools. These alone justify a $99 expenditure, especially if you’re not planning to upgrade to a CS-level version of Photoshop anytime soon.

If you spend a lot of time organizing digital photos and making minor adjustments, you might also want to consider Photoshop Elements 6. Often, it’s all you need. (more…)

In my former office, there was a stack of old Emigre magazines. I spent countless hours paging through those back issues, and I can honestly say that most of what I know about design in the 90s–when technology was changing everything–I learned from Emigre.

The magazine ceased publication in 2005, ending a slow decline that began in 2001. Recently however, a selection of essays from some of the best issues were posted to the Emigre website, where the type foundry of the same name lives on. If you’re at all interested in 20th-century typography or graphic design, I suggest you take a look.

Edward Tufte is one of the undisputed experts on all things pertaining to the display of information.

In this video and the accompanying text he shares his thoughts on the iPhone, and specifically, how it “solves the design problem of small screens by greatly intensifying the information resolution of each displayed page.”

If you design interfaces or work with people who do, this is definitely worth a look.

via kottke

Flickr and the Library of Congress have joined forces and created an exciting new program.

If all goes according to plan, the project will significantly expand the reach of the Library by making its collections vastly more accessible. So far, more than 3000 photographs from two of the Library’s most popular collections have been posted to Flickr’s pages. Users are encouraged to tag, comment on, and annotate these images, just like they would any other Flickr photo. The hope is that this added information–courtesy of Web 2.0–will enhance the collection, benefiting researchers, the public at large and posterity.

Hundreds of color photographs from the 30s and 40s, including the one above, were recently posted to Flickr pages.

In addition, and as part of the project, Flickr has drafted a new usage statement for publicly held photographic collections called “The Commons.” It reads “no known copyright restrictions,” and it’s attached to every image that’s been posted to date. (more…)

A recent post on BoingBoing, (Everyone’s favorite blog other than this one.), introduced me to a new magazine called ILLO. I guess I’m a little late to the party, as issue #1 debuted months ago and issue #2 is already in the works. Still, I’m sure glad I discovered this new magazine.

ILLO is all about illustrators and modern illustration, but it’s unlike most of the other magazines that cover these topics. ILLO’s focus isn’t digital illustration or the latest software. Instead, it delves into the creative minds, and sometimes the strange worlds, of today’s illustrators. It seeks to understand what inspires their work, and looks at how these individuals turned a love of drawing into a career in commercial/creative illustration.

That said, ILLO won’t disappoint those with just a casual interest in illustration or contemporary art. Graphic designers, vinyl toy collectors, tattoo artists, and magazine publishers will all find something to enjoy as they flick through the magazine’s colorful pages. I definitely wouldn’t call ILLO a trend magazine because most of the artists it features are not easily categorized. They come from unique backgrounds and their work is often informed by very personal ideas. These folks don’t follow trends, they define them.

If you’re still not sure that all this is worth $10 an issue, I recommend you check out the ILLO’s website. ILLO is one of just a few periodicals that offer sneak previews online, and the thumbnails from issue #1 will give you a good sense of the magazine’s overall look and feel. (more…)

PRINT is now accepting entries for its Regional Design Annual, which some call “the most comprehensive survey of graphic design in the United States.”

There are fourteen separate categories and all printed communications published or appearing in the U.S. between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007 art eligible. Art directors, designers, illustrators, photographers, and typographers are encouraged to participate.

Winning submissions will be featured in the November/December 2008 issue of PRINT. Winners will also receive Certificates of Excellence.

The entry deadline is March 3, 2008. Complete guidelines and entry forms are available here.

In Part 3 of our series about Google’s Webmaster Tools, we took a close look at the Statistics Section. This time, we’ll discuss Links and Sitemaps Sections.

The Links Section

Pages with External Links. The pages listed here are those that have been linked to by others. Once again, this is important information that affects each page’s PageRank. There’s a lot of detail here because you don’t just see the links that lead to your home page, you see all the individual pages that are linked to from the outside. You can also view the outside pages if you click on the External Links number. You can check to see if they are real links, or just links from your test server to your real server.

Pages with Internal Links. The pages on your site that link to other pages on your site are listed here. Honestly, I’m not sure why this is useful information. I have a feeling Google provides these statistics simply because they’re available. If anyone has a better explanation, I’d like to hear it.

Sitelinks. You may have noticed that when you search with Google, the primary results often come with their own set of links. These are site links, and they’re created by Google when it indexes your site.

Let’s say you’re searching for information about Celiac Disease. Your initial search may return the home page of a site about the disease, but the info you really want is buried deeper within that site. (more…)