So the FBI sent the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia) a threatening letter demanding they remove the FBI's seal from the FBI wiki page. The FBI redacted part of the statute to make it seem that Wikipedia was in violation. The response from Mike Godwin (attorney for Wikipedia) to the FBI is awesome! Lawyering like a boss! Full article can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10851394 Mike Godwin's letter can be found here: http://goo.gl/oMcqD Mike Godwin's Biography here: http://goo.gl/2FgwG

I was posting in /r/entrepreneur also and have a question about pitching/creating a videogame themed beverage to the videogame company. Is it possible to license the idea to them or collect some sort of payment even if they own the game and its characters?

any helpful resources?

Idk if this is the correct sub to post to btw

I recently developed a small aftermarket car part. It is simple and fairly cheap to make, but wouldn't be difficult to reverse-engineer. I am the only one making these and they are a fairly niche-market part. Is this something that I should patent? Is there a more economical option that I should consider? I've heard patenting can cost more than $1500 and I'd be lucky to make anywhere near that much total. There is a specific vendor that has a habit of snatching up little things like this, sending them to China, and selling them for half the cost. I'd like to be able to defend against this a bit.

Anyone know of a data on IPR strength by type by country? There are general IPR strength measures (GCI and IEF), but I'm looking for something more granular.

Hi, my family operates a small business in Canada dealing in fashion accessories such as handbags and wallets. We would like to start our own brand name and after months and months of searching we finally arrived at one which we feel works well. The only problem is, this name is already trademarked here by another company dealing in industrial materials for a type of of a ceramic glass.

My understanding is that if it doesn't create a confusion, it is not a violation of their trademark. So, my question is, since it is in an entire different and unrelated industry, can my family start using this name and eventually trademark it? Or will we run into legal troubles later on?

Thanks!

If someone took eight years to develop a course they are teaching (among other courses, also created by them), are they right in saying no when the college asks that all the course (lectures, materials, online counterparts, etc), be made available so that others can teach that same course?

One of the college's arguments is that it should be seen as in a business environment (god knows why) -- whatever you do under that company is now the company's property so they have the right to request it to be given to other people, since you use their resources (classrooms, etc) to teach them.

I can see so many things wrong with it, from it being incredibly unfair to lowering the quality of the classes themselves. In this case, the course was developed prior to that someone working at the college in question, but I am looking for more angles to support my point; I want to make sure that a precedent can not be set that will affect younger future professors starting out there -- that actually want to create high quality material without being discouraged by the thought of it being used by someone else. (How are they to remain valuable?)

... Or am I wrong? Should someone cave in and let anyone teach what they worked on without them creating anything? This would mean more profit for the college, because one professor can only teach so many classes. (Why they would want a professor that does not write their own material is beyond me...).

I apologize if this sounds confusing but any help/guidance would be much appreciated.

It is not suited for every Velcro application, but most of them. It "link[s] up easily and silently, [and won't] wear down over time", but it is much more stylish and simple than this. I do not have 20k for a utility patent, so I was thinking of finding a patent lawyer who would work for a % of royalties. My other idea would be to publicly disclose it, get a lot of press, and then I am not exactly sure what I would do.

I have a mostly working prototype, though I do not have a machine shop which is why it is only mostly working. I believe it works well enough to show the idea in action. I live in the United State. Advice please?