Posts Tagged ‘owner’
The more I speak with people, the more I realize copyright is a topic that is still commonly misunderstood.
This article is intended to clarify some of the major questions about copyright so people can feel comfortable promoting their work to outside parties.
Tip 1: What is Copyright?
It only seems logical to begin this article by describing what copyright really is. In essence, copyright protects original works from being used without permission from the author or owner of the work. The reason for the protection is to encourage creators to continue with their artistic innovations, which positively impacts the economy.
Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or owner of the work for a specific period of time. The rights granted by copyright include:
* producing or reproducing the work or any substantial part thereof
* permitting the reproduction of the work or any substantial part thereof
* performing the work or any substantial part thereof
* publishing the work or any substantial part thereof
* translating the work into other languages, or creating an adaption, such as a novel into a screenplay
The significance of these rights is that the owner of the copyright can control who uses their work. As a result, the creative integrity of the work can be maintained as the owner has control over its use.
Tip 2: How do I Attain Copyright Protection?
The beauty about copyright is that it is automatic the moment you put your original work into a fixed (tangible) form. When we refer to a tangible form it means the work has to be on something physical. In other words, if you simply recite your poem to someone, you do not own the copyright. However, if you write the poem on a napkin, or record yourself reciting the poem, you will own the copyright, and the rights that go along with it.
In your everyday life you may need to find out who owns a property. Most of the people check this information while selling or buying a property to make fair dealings. If you are in the business of property and you frequently buy or sell houses then you should find out who owns a property because there is a great importance to verify the owner while finalizing any property agreement. With the advancement of technology, several ways have been introduced by means of which you can find out who owns a property and usually people prefer to go with cost effective and reliable ways.
You can visit county head-clerk office where records about people and properties are kept and maintained. After providing the address of the property you will find out who owns a property in 3-4 business days but since it takes a bit time so people usually avoid going there. Instead of checking records manually they prefer to use online resources as many websites are offering this service of checking the owner of a property.
You need to do some research in order to find a website that provides the facility to of checking public records on people and properties. They usually charge $20 to $50 to provide this service. After finding the owner of a house, you can perform background search to check criminal and fraudulent history. This is an amazing service by means of which you can have what you want within minutes.
Alternatively, you can use search engines for this purpose. Al you need is to type the address of the property in the search box and hit enter. Several results will be shown and you can easily pick reliable websites to find out who owns a property. Besides this you can also approach online directories like yellow or white pages online where after entering the address in the search column, the name, email and phone number of the owner will be appeared. But sometimes their information is outdated and not based on actual facts so people usually avoid this service.
For the inventor or small business that owns a patent, and that patent is being infringed, there are limited options. First of all, there are no patent cops. The US Patent Office issues patents, they do not enforce them. It is the job of the patent owner to enforce his (or her or its) patent!
And unlike copyright infringement, which is a crime, patent infringement is a civil matter. The patent owner facing infringement of his patent by another business has just two choices:
1. Injunctive Relief: The patent owner can go to federal court and seek what’s called injunctive relief. The patent owner can ask the court to issue an order preventing the infringer from offering for sale the product that uses the infringed patent. If the product is produced outside of the US, the court can issue an order preventing the import and sale of the product in the US. However, a legal precedent has been established that only patent owners that “practice” their patent (that is, they use the patent to produce a product or service) can receive such injunctive relief. If the patent owner is what’s called an NPE (non-practicing entity), a person or business that owns a patent but does use that patent to produce a product or service, the only alternative is to sue for damages.
2. Sue for Damages: The second option is for the patent owner to sue the infringer for both past and future use of the patent. If the court finds that the patent was infringed, it will award the patent owner a settlement that compensates him (or her or it) for the past use of the patent as well as royalties on future sales of the product. Just as most lawsuits are settled out of court, it is likely that a patent infringement lawsuit will result in an out-of-court settlement, and the infringer will agree to license your patent and pay you a royalty. Forcing a patent infringer into a licensing agreement is known as “stick licensing” and the term comes from the “carrot and stick” analogy.