Patent law protects inventors’ exclusive rights to the use or sale of their inventions. A patent owner can file a civil lawsuit to recover damages for past infringement and obtain injunctions against further infringing activities. Proving patent infringement in court requires a…
Federal law provides a copyright owner the exclusive right to use copyrighted materials for a wide range of purposes, including exhibiting or performing the work, making and distributing copies of the work, and creating derivative works from the original. Use of a copyrighted work without the…
When two or more parties enter into a contract in California, each party makes a promise to perform or abstain from an action. When one party fails to act according to the terms of the contract, the other party or parties may be able to obtain damages for breach of contract. What happens,…
Federal administrative agencies sometimes act in ways that may harm your interests. Luckily, Congress has put in place some rules governing agency action through the Administrative Procedure Act. The APA sets forth stringent procedural standards for agency action and some substantive…
Businesses must protect their assets to stay in business. These include physical assets, such as equipment and inventory, as well as information. Intellectual property law protects original creative works, inventions, designs, and other non-tangible assets through the copyright,…
If your competitor’s advertising is false or misleading, you are not helpless. You might have a federal claim under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act. Although the Lanham Act is often known as a trademark statute, it also protects businesses against the unfair competition of misleading…