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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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.

Hi Jean,

I am a graphic designer, and I recently designed some stationery, cards, and invitations based on royalty-free artwork. It has come to my attention that other designers are also using the same royalty-free artwork. Some of our pieces are similar, though none are exactly the same. What can I do to protect my work? I can forsee a scenario in which five designers all use the same royalty- free piece of artwork, place the graphic at the center and top of a card, and set the invitation text near the bottom. If you place them side-by-side, they would look the same, but no one really copied anyone else. What do we as designers do in such a situation? How do we protect ourselves and our work?

Jennie

Dear Jennie,

If substantially similar work is created independently, there is no infringement. This is true according to the concept of independent origination. In the situation you describe, you’re not at risk,

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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.

Hello Jean,

I am a partner in a small market research company. We are currently developing a new website and that’s raised two legal questions: 1) Is it legal to use a client’s logo on our site if we’ve done business with them in the past? If permission is required, who grants that permission? 2) Can we legally put pictures taken inside a retail store on our site? There are no identifiable brands/labels in the photos, but it is obvious where the photo was taken.

Thanks!

Luke

Dear Luke,

You can always use a company’s trademark to identify that company. No permission is required. Just be careful about using someone else’s trademark to promote your own work. For example,

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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.

Hi Jean,

I have a client that publishes a directory. In the past, the client has sold franchises to private owners who then used me to design and layout the book. Recently, they sold a franchise to a large publisher who can produce the book on its own. My client wants me to give the original files to this franchisee so that it can use them as a template. I have a signed contract from my client stating that I own the rights to these files.

So, what is normally done in a situation like this? How would I go about licensing these files? What would be a reasonable fee?

Drew Taylor

Dear Drew,

You should have an IP lawyer familiar with copyright law prepare a copyright license agreement. The agreement should speak to many issues, including how long the template can used and whether or not it may be sub-licensed.

As for pricing, it’s more an art than a science.

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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,

I am a web designer. Recently, the brand/company I worked for was purchased by another company, and I was “sold” along with the brand. The new company treated me very poorly, and my new boss was verbally abusive. I was forced to quit for my own health and well-being. They were very upset when I quit and have threatened legal action. They recently sent me a letter saying they were going to sue me for using their logo in my portfolio on my personal website. To clarify, everything on my site was created long before the brand was sold. I have taken the images down to be safe.

So my question is this: is it legal to display examples of your own work on your personal website portfolio if you produced it for a company?

Thank you so much,
Mitch

Dear Mitch,

If you are an employee of a company, all the work you create while employed belong to the company. If the company is sold, the purchaser acquires all rights, including the rights to the work you created while working for the prior organization.

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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.

Hi Jean,

I am a freelance web and graphic designer. I do logos, photography, graphics, and web design. I have never protected any of my art pieces with a copyright, and I am not quite sure whether I need to or just should?

Do I have to register every single graphic I create? It seems like a very annoying and time consuming task.

Can I instead protect all my artwork by registering once and then submitting pictures of every piece? Or, is there some other process that will make the task easier and faster?

Thanks,
Susana E.

Dear Susana,

You don’t need to register a copyrighted work to own a copyrighted work. Once you create it you own it, and it’s always protected. Registration is useful in that it provides you with a lot of legal ammunition and qualifies you for such things as statutory damages the reimbursement of attorney’s fees. However, as you point out,

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

Hi Jean,

I do a lot of PDF editing and on occasion have been asked to “unlock” a secured document.

Do you know of any existing legal forms that would require a prospective client who makes such a request to a) state that she is the owner/creator of such document or b) state that she has permission from the owner/creator, granting permission to extract, copy, or reuse information from the specified document.

Any information or insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
David

Dear David,

I don’t know of any “forms” that fit the bill, but there are definitely legal issues raised by such requests. I would not agree to unlock a secured document without some kind of release, which should not only set forth what you have stated above but also indemnify you or your firm. That should release you from any claims, in the event that your actions create a legal problem. This is a legal risk you should not be asked to take without some protection. Have an attorney draft a release for you that includes a lot of legal protection.

Best,
Jean

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

Hi Jean,

Thanks for educating us on the copyrights we hold as designers. Could you point me in the direction of a good template for designer/client agreements (both for keeping and transferring copyright)? Thanks so much.

Sincerely,
Noah Bunn

Dear Noah,

There really is no such thing as a standard designer/client agreement. I’ve produced lots of them, and no two have ever been the same. The Graphic Artist Guild Handbook has some good ones, but it’s a worthwhile investment to have a template specific to YOUR business drafted by a lawyer. It’s not that expensive, and you’ll have everything you need if there’s a problem.

Best,
Jean

Perhaps you’ve seen this story making the rounds: A Texas teenager is suing Virgin Mobile because it used her image without permission in a billboard campaign in Australia.

The girl appears in a photograph which was released under a Creative Commons license. The photographer, via the license, expressly permitted commercial use of his image, as long as he received a photo credit. Virgin Mobile Australia duly credited the photographer when it used his photograph in the ad campaign. However, because the Creative Commons license does not apply to the likeness of the girl, who found her face being used to tout a mobile phone network halfway around the world, Virgin may still be in hot water.

A photographer is free to license his own work in whatever way he sees fit, but unless model and location releases were obtained, that license does not, by extension, cover the likenesses which appear in the image. How many photos on royalty-free photo sites come with model and/or location releases? Not many, last time I checked.

So, next time you turn to the royalty-free sites when sourcing images for your clients, ask yourself these questions: (more…)

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

Hello Jean,

I am a certified HTML CSS Developer, and own and operate a registered company. I have an entrepreneurial idea. The problem is this, when I publish the idea as a completed idea, it would be very easy to reproduce. Is there any way to prevent or make unlawful the activity of duplication of my concept? It is, I am quite certain a situation of information ownership, but might I be able to get a patent for a constructed product that would limit (or reduce completely) the copying of it by others as well?

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