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

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Intellectual Property. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.