Articles Posted in Uncategorized

Who Can Register a Work with the U.S. Copyright Office?

Can foreigners register their works in the United States?

Any work that is protected by U.S. copyright law can be registered. This includes many works of foreign origin. All works that are unpublished, regardless of the nationality of the author, are protected in the United States. Works that are first published in the United States or in a country with which we have a copyright treaty or that are created by a citizen or domiciliary of a country with which we have a copyright treaty are also protected and may therefore be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. See Circular 38a, International Copyright Relations of the United States, for the status of specific countries, and Circular 38b, Copyright Restoration Under the URAA

South Bend, Indiana – Days Corporation (“Days”) of Elkhart, Indiana filed a complaint asking the Northern District of Indiana to resolve infringement claims relating to three patents.

The lawsuit was brought against Lippert Components, Inc. (“LCI”), also of Elkhart, Indiana.  Both Days and LCI operate in the recreational vehicle (“RV”) industry.  They offer competing systems designed to level a vehicle, for example, one that is situated on uneven terrain causing the vehicle to be oriented on an undesirable plane.

At issue in this Indiana litigation are three patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 6,584,385 (“the ‘385 patent”), 6,885,924 (“the ‘924 patent”) and 6,619,693 (“the ‘693 patent”).  LCI claims intellectual property protection under the ‘385 patent and the ‘924 patent, while Days claims rights under the ‘693 patent.

Each party asserts that the other party is committing patent infringement. Days asks the court for a declaratory judgment of non-infringement and patent invalidity of the LCI patents.  It also seeks a judgment that LCI has infringed the ‘693 patent.  The complaint, filed by a patent litigator for Days, lists the following claims:

• Count I: Declaratory Judgment of Non-Infringement by Days of the ‘385 Patent
• Count II: Declaratory Judgment of Non-Infringement by Days of the ‘924 Patent
• Count III: Declaratory Judgment of Invalidity of the ‘385 Patent
• Count IV: Declaratory Judgment of Invalidity of the ‘924 Patent
• Count V: Infringement by LCI of the ‘693 Patent

In addition to a declaratory judgment and a judgment of infringement, Days seeks damages, including a trebling of those damages pursuant to a finding of willful infringement, and injunctive relief.

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Hammond, Indiana – ME2 Productions Inc. of Carson City, Nevada, filed a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement of the action thriller Mechanic: Resurrection, which has been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office under U.S. Copyright Registration No. PA-1-998-057.  The movie, which is the sequel to the 2011 action film Resurrection, stars Jason Statham, Jessica Alba and Tommy Lee Jones.

Eleven unnamed Defendants, listed as Doe Defendants 1-11, are accused of infringing the copyright of the film by distributing a “screener copy” illegally via BitTorrent, a file-sharing protocol.  Plaintiff states that the 11 Defendants committed copyright infringement “in a collective and interdependent manner with other Defendants via the Internet for the unlawful purpose of reproducing, exchanging, and distributing copyrighted material.”

This litigation was commenced in the Northern District of Indiana by a copyright litigator for ME2 Productions.  Plaintiff contends that the Doe Defendants are Indiana residents, stating that it determined through the use of geolocation technology that each had an Indiana Internet Protocol address.

Plaintiff seeks injunctive relief along with damages, costs and attorneys’ fees.

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Indianapolis, Indiana – The United States Patent and Trademark Office will be hosting a free program for up and coming independent inventors titled “Gender Gap in Patents”.  Following the free program you can attend an educational training session in order to learn about Patent and Trademark basics.  USPTO staff will be on site to answer your questions.

The program will be held on Thursday, March 23, 2017 at the Indianapolis Public Library – Central Library located at 40 East Saint Clair Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204.

The itinerary for the day will be as follows:

Overhauser Law Offices the publisher of this site, assists with US and foreign trademark searches, trademark applications and assists with enforcing trademarks via infringement litigation and licensing.

The U.S. Trademark Office issued the following  217 trademark registrations to persons and businesses in Indiana in January 2017 based on applications filed by Indiana trademark attorneys:

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The U.S. Patent Office issued the following 216 patent registrations to persons and businesses in Indiana in January 2017, based on applications filed by Indiana patent attorneys.
Overhauser Law Offices, the publisher of this site, assists with US and foreign patent searches, patent applications and assists with enforcing patents via infringement litigation and licensing.

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The Supreme Court on December 6, 2016, heard oral argument on whether the export by Roche, which has an office in Indiana, of an enzyme triggers patent infringement.  Roche’s customer Life Technologies imported Roche’s “AmpliGold Plus” enzyme into the United Kingdom, and used it to build genetic testing kits.  Life Technologies did not sell the kits in the US.  However, Promega Corp. sued it for vicarious patent infringement (inducing or contributing to patent infringement) claiming that by purchasing enzyme in the US, Life Technologies violated 35 U.S.C. § 271(f)(1).  This provision of the patent Act makes it an infringement to supply abroad “all or a substantial portion of the components.” The Federal Circuit had earlier held that the AmpliGold Plus enzyme, met the requirement of a “substantial” portion of the components. The Supreme Court seemed to agree that “substantial” may be ambiguous, but some Justices suggested that supply of a single component was more properly considered under Section 271(f)(2), which addresses the supply of a non-staple, specially made component. Promega distinguished (f)(1) and (f)(2) as exporting counterparts to Section 271(b) induced infringement and §271(c) contributory infringement, respectively.  The transcript of the hearing is below.

Transcript-Life-v-Promega

Overhauser Law Offices, the publisher of this site, assists with US and foreign patent searches, patent applications and assists with enforcing patents via infringement litigation and licensing.

The U.S. Patent Office issued the following 237 patent registrations to persons and businesses in Indiana in November 2016, based on applications filed by Indiana patent attorneys:

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