Protection of Cartoon Characters Under Intellectual Property Law Regime

Protection of Cartoon Characters Under Intellectual Property Law Regime PDF Author: Dharmveer Singh Krishnawat
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Fictional characters are at the center of a multibillion-dollar industry, a fact that offers strong motivation for authors to fight to preserve their monopoly in any way they can. Usually copyright law protects a fictional character within the context of the work in which the character appears. In these cases, infringement is found if the alleged infringer had access to the copyrighted work and there is substantial similarity between the copyrighted work and the allegedly infringing work. The issue of separate protection for literary characters arises when the character is removed from the original work, so that the character leads a new and independent life in a separately written piece. Characters that are capable of leading independent lives are those who are especially memorable, such that they stay in a reader's imagination long after the original storyline is forgotten. An author seeking to write a new adventure for Superman, Tarzan, or Sherlock Holmes, must be aware of the legal considerations involved. Literary characters are protected within the copyright of the original work in which they appear, but the law is less clear when a character is separated from the original work and leads an independent life. Therefore, a new approach has to be derived where both the Copyright Laws as well as the Trademark Laws should go side by side.

Protection of Cartoon Characters Under Intellectual Property Law Regime

Protection of Cartoon Characters Under Intellectual Property Law Regime PDF Author: Dharmveer Singh Krishnawat
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Fictional characters are at the center of a multibillion-dollar industry, a fact that offers strong motivation for authors to fight to preserve their monopoly in any way they can. Usually copyright law protects a fictional character within the context of the work in which the character appears. In these cases, infringement is found if the alleged infringer had access to the copyrighted work and there is substantial similarity between the copyrighted work and the allegedly infringing work. The issue of separate protection for literary characters arises when the character is removed from the original work, so that the character leads a new and independent life in a separately written piece. Characters that are capable of leading independent lives are those who are especially memorable, such that they stay in a reader's imagination long after the original storyline is forgotten. An author seeking to write a new adventure for Superman, Tarzan, or Sherlock Holmes, must be aware of the legal considerations involved. Literary characters are protected within the copyright of the original work in which they appear, but the law is less clear when a character is separated from the original work and leads an independent life. Therefore, a new approach has to be derived where both the Copyright Laws as well as the Trademark Laws should go side by side.

Intellectual Properties and the Protection of Fictional Characters

Intellectual Properties and the Protection of Fictional Characters PDF Author: Dorothy J. Howell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313388873
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
In this pioneering volume, Howell addresses the extent to which fictional characters are legally recognized and protected as intellectual property. Through a judicious selection of cases chosen for their bearing on the popular arts, the author reviews the basic legal principles involved--copyright, trademark, unfair competition, and contract law--and analyzes their applications to fictional characters. In addition to tracing the evolution of the law relating to the protection of fictional characters, Howell explores the feasibility of isolating characters and protecting them via stringent copyright and/or trademark laws, addresses character merchandising and the associated legal issues, and suggests legal reforms aimed at protecting the creator. Detailed case information serves both to illustrate the legal principles and actions discussed and to stand as a model for the proprietors of future characters. Divided into two major sections, the volume begins by offering a comprehensive introduction to intellectual property law. Specific topics addressed include basic concepts of property, statutory protection of intellectual property, elements of an infringement action, defenses to copyright infringement, unfair competition, and the application of trademark principles to literary properties. In the second section, Howell analyzes the extent to which the fictional character is legally regarded as intellectual property. She reviews situations in which copyright and trademark law have been invoked to protect the creator of a fictional character, examines cases involving such well-known characters as the Lone Ranger, Superman, and the crew of the Starship Enterprise, and presents an extended analysis of the case of Tarzan. Finally, Howell considers whether right of publicity and merchandising offer additional protection for fictional characters. In the concluding chapter, she offers an analysis of copyright decisions and a proposal for their reconciliation. Both practicing attorneys and students of entertainment law will find Howell's work an important contribution to the professional literature.

The Cost of Health Insurance Administration

The Cost of Health Insurance Administration PDF Author: Roger D. Blair
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
Economic analysis of the operating cost structure of health insurance in the USA - includes a bibliography pp. 165 to 168, references and statistical tables.

The Adventures of Sam Spade and other stories

The Adventures of Sam Spade and other stories PDF Author: Dashiell Hammett
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Adventures of Sam Spade and other stories" by Dashiell Hammett. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law

The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law PDF Author: William M. LANDES
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674039912
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
This book takes a fresh look at the most dynamic area of American law today, comprising the fields of copyright, patent, trademark, trade secrecy, publicity rights, and misappropriation. Topics range from copyright in private letters to defensive patenting of business methods, from moral rights in the visual arts to the banking of trademarks, from the impact of the court of patent appeals to the management of Mickey Mouse. The history and political science of intellectual property law, the challenge of digitization, the many statutes and judge-made doctrines, and the interplay with antitrust principles are all examined. The treatment is both positive (oriented toward understanding the law as it is) and normative (oriented to the reform of the law). Previous analyses have tended to overlook the paradox that expanding intellectual property rights can effectively reduce the amount of new intellectual property by raising the creators' input costs. Those analyses have also failed to integrate the fields of intellectual property law. They have failed as well to integrate intellectual property law with the law of physical property, overlooking the many economic and legal-doctrinal parallels. This book demonstrates the fundamental economic rationality of intellectual property law, but is sympathetic to critics who believe that in recent decades Congress and the courts have gone too far in the creation and protection of intellectual property rights. Table of Contents: Introduction 1. The Economic Theory of Property 2. How to Think about Copyright 3. A Formal Model of Copyright 4. Basic Copyright Doctrines 5. Copyright in Unpublished Works 6. Fair Use, Parody, and Burlesque 7. The Economics of Trademark Law 8. The Optimal Duration of Copyrights and Trademarks 9. The Legal Protection of Postmodern Art 10. Moral Rights and the Visual Artists Rights Act 11. The Economics of Patent Law 12. The Patent Court: A Statistical Evaluation 13. The Economics of Trade Secrecy Law 14. Antitrust and Intellectual Property 15. The Political Economy of Intellectual Property Law Conclusion Acknowledgments Index Reviews of this book: Chicago law professor William Landes and his polymath colleague Richard Posner have produced a fascinating new book...[The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law] is a broad-ranging analysis of how intellectual property should and does work...Shakespeare's copying from Plutarch, Microsoft's incentives to hide the source code for Windows, and Andy Warhol's right to copyright a Brillo pad box as art are all analyzed, as is the question of the status of the all-bran cereal called 'All-Bran.' --Nicholas Thompson, New York Sun Reviews of this book: Landes and Posner, each widely respected in the intersection of law and economics, investigate the right mix of protection and use of intellectual property (IP)...This volume provides a broad and coherent approach to the economics and law of IP. The economics is important, understandable, and valuable. --R. A. Miller, Choice Intellectual property is the most important public policy issue that most policymakers don't yet get. It is America's most important export, and affects an increasingly wide range of social and economic life. In this extraordinary work, two of America's leading scholars in the law and economics movement test the pretensions of intellectual property law against the rationality of economics. Their conclusions will surprise advocates from both sides of this increasingly contentious debate. Their analysis will help move the debate beyond the simplistic ideas that now tend to dominate. --Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School, author of The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World An image from modern mythology depicts the day that Einstein, pondering a blackboard covered with sophisticated calculations, came to the life-defining discovery: Time = $$. Landes and Posner, in the role of that mythological Einstein, reveal at every turn how perceptions of economic efficiency pervade legal doctrine. This is a fascinating and resourceful book. Every page reveals fresh, provocative, and surprising insights into the forces that shape law. --Pierre N. Leval, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit The most important book ever written on intellectual property. --William Patry, former copyright counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee Given the immense and growing importance of intellectual property to modern economies, this book should be welcomed, even devoured, by readers who want to understand how the legal system affects the development, protection, use, and profitability of this peculiar form of property. The book is the first to view the whole landscape of the law of intellectual property from a functionalist (economic) perspective. Its examination of the principles and doctrines of patent law, copyright law, trade secret law, and trademark law is unique in scope, highly accessible, and altogether greatly rewarding. --Steven Shavell, Harvard Law School, author of Foundations of Economic Analysis of Law

Character Merchandising

Character Merchandising PDF Author: Adams, John Norman Adams
Publisher: Butterworths
ISBN: 9780406081384
Category : Intellectual property
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
This work is designed to make the subject of character merchandising easy to understand by means of a straightforward text and helpful checklists. Precedents are provided with clear indications given of problems to be borne in mind.

The Copyright / Trademark Interface

The Copyright / Trademark Interface PDF Author: Martin Senftleben
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9403523719
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 673

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Book Description
The Copyright/Trademark Interface How the Expansion of Trademark Protection Is Stifling Cultural Creativity Martin Senftleben The registration of cultural icons as trademarks has become a standard protection strategy in the field of contemporary cultural productions and plays an ever-increasing role in the area of cultural heritage. Attempts to register and ‘evergreen’ the protection of cultural signs, ranging from ‘Mickey Mouse’ to the ‘Mona Lisa’, are no longer unusual. This phenomenon – characterized by the EFTA Court as trademark registrations motivated by ‘commercial greed’ – has become typical of an era where trademark law is employed strategically to withhold or remove cultural symbols from the public domain. In an extraordinary analysis of the clash between culture and commerce, and imbalances caused by protection overlaps arising from cumulative copyright and trademark protection, this book draws attention to the corrosive effect of indefinitely renewable trademark rights and underscores the necessity to safeguard central preconditions for the proper functioning of the copyright system in society at large: the freedom to use pre-existing works as reference points for the artistic discourse and building blocks for new creations, and the need to ensure the constant enrichment of the public domain. Emphasizing how overlapping copyright and trademark protection endangers the proper functioning of intellectual property rights in the literary and artistic domain, the author examines whether the intellectual property system is capable of mitigating the risks arising from cumulative protection. Such issues and topics as the following are treated in depth: the different configuration of intellectual property rights in accordance with different policy objectives and societal functions, in particular the cultural imperative in copyright law and the market transparency imperative in trademark law; problems arising from the registration of cultural icons for use on souvenir and merchandising articles; lack of sufficient safeguards in trademark law against cultural heritage branding; current scope of trademark rights, including the protection of brand value and communication functions, and the deterrent effect of trademark protection on cultural creativity; possibility of a categorical exclusion of contemporary cultural icons and cultural heritage material from trademark protection; development of a strict gatekeeper requirement of ‘use as a mark’ to prevent unjustified trademark infringement claims; development of robust, culturally based defences against trademark infringement claims; and general guidelines for the regulation of protection overlaps in intellectual property law, based on insights derived from the analysis of copyright/trademark overlaps. Drawing on aesthetic, sociological and economic theories that support initiatives to safeguard the autonomy of the literary and artistic domain and support remix activities of artists, the author suggests sound criteria for identifying signs with cultural significance that should be excluded from trademark registration. The book shows how intellectual property law can make rights cumulation strategies less attractive and avoid the loss of inner consistency and social legitimacy, easing the tension between indefinitely renewable trademark rights and the need to preserve and cultivate the public domain of cultural expressions and other intellectual creations that enjoy protection for a limited period of time, such as industrial designs and technical know-how. Its assessment criteria will assist and enable trademark examiners and judges to identify relevant cultural signs, and its proposals for regulatory responses to protection overlaps in intellectual property law will prove of great and lasting value to lawyers, policymakers, and scholars dealing with intellectual property law.

Scoping Study on Copyright and Related Rights and the Public Domain

Scoping Study on Copyright and Related Rights and the Public Domain PDF Author: World Intellectual Property Organization
Publisher: WIPO
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 89

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Book Description
This study assesses the scope of the public domain, as defined by copyright laws, history and philosophy, before turning to the issue of its effectiveness and greater availability to the public and society at large.

Goldstein on Copyright

Goldstein on Copyright PDF Author: Goldstein
Publisher: Wolters Kluwer
ISBN: 0735544859
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 5038

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Book Description
A comprehensive treatise with detailed analysis of every aspect of copyright law, from registration to licensing to infringement and litigation. Written by Paul Goldstein, Professor of Law at Stanford University and of Counsel to Morrison & Foerster. Includes explanations of applicable copyright law to the music, publishing, motion picture, commercial art, and software industries. Also covers international copyright law, as well as the intersection of copyright law with bankruptcy, antitrust law, and Lanham Act doctrines that fill in the gaps in traditional copyright protection.

The Digital Dilemma

The Digital Dilemma PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309064996
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Imagine sending a magazine article to 10 friends-making photocopies, putting them in envelopes, adding postage, and mailing them. Now consider how much easier it is to send that article to those 10 friends as an attachment to e-mail. Or to post the article on your own site on the World Wide Web. The ease of modifying or copying digitized material and the proliferation of computer networking have raised fundamental questions about copyright and patentâ€"intellectual property protections rooted in the U.S. Constitution. Hailed for quick and convenient access to a world of material, the Internet also poses serious economic issues for those who create and market that material. If people can so easily send music on the Internet for free, for example, who will pay for music? This book presents the multiple facets of digitized intellectual property, defining terms, identifying key issues, and exploring alternatives. It follows the complex threads of law, business, incentives to creators, the American tradition of access to information, the international context, and the nature of human behavior. Technology is explored for its ability to transfer content and its potential to protect intellectual property rights. The book proposes research and policy recommendations as well as principles for policymaking.