Thursday, 19 March 2020

Effective Ways of Avoiding Copyright Issues in Music Production


copyright registration

Without any second thoughts, getting into the music industry can nowadays prove to be quite brutal. Initially, you don’t think much about it by enjoying the phase and experiencing your dream job. You spend your time recording, producing, selling music, and getting paid for the same as well. However, after some time, you get to see the ugly face and harsh reality of the music industry, which indeed has cutthroat competition and a lot of mean people looking forward to claiming that you stole their tunes. Copyright Infringement lawsuits, in the present fast-paced society, are something that most of the music producers are accustomed to dealing with, but that doesn’t make them any uncomplicated to handle. Therefore, it is always highly advisable to avoid such complications as much as possible and as soon as possible. Let us now make ourselves familiar with how you can do the same proactively.
1.     Get all the Necessary Permissions
While being in the music industry, if you are looking forward to using the creative work of another person, then the first and foremost thing you need to do is get all the necessary permissions. It is a matter of fact that yes – the music industry is vast with a lot of artists and producers. At times you may think that you will not get caught; however, there’s no way out, and you will eventually end up getting caught, mostly in cases if you sell your music recordings. You might wake up one morning and see yourself hit by a copyright infringement lawsuit only because you didn’t receive permission from the concerned parties in the matter. Furthermore, the same applies to dead artists too. A lot of people across the globe are of the view that if a music artist is no more, then his or her creative works are open for use, which is undoubtedly far away from the truth.
The reality is that the families of the music artists who are no more and other concerned parties can still make a lot of money from royalties. Also, just because the artists are dead doesn’t mean their works are available for free. Therefore, make sure you have yourself covered in all aspects corresponding to having all the necessary permissions.
2.     Don’t Swindle the Music Tunes
There are indeed some music producers and artists who swindle the tunes from others and claim it as their own, which is a clear cut way of getting hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit. Without any doubt, you can go ahead with getting ideas from other music artists; however, you can’t take their music straight away and use it directly. There are various platforms on the Internet today that offer royalty-free sounds, loops, and sample packs to music producers. You can effectively make the most out of such opportunities by acquiring everything from the rightful owners and consequently avoid all copyright-related issues in the long run.
3.     Get in touch with a Specialized Copyright Attorney
If you wish to use a specific part of another person’s music, then it is always a brilliant idea to seek legal advice and assistance first. Copyright Laws are comprehensive with plenty of intricate details that you will miss if you begin understanding them yourself. So, get in touch with a specialized Copyright Attorney and understand whether what you are doing is legal or not. Also, under copyright laws and regulations, using some part of a music tune or song for non-commercial purposes doesn’t necessarily make it ‘fair use.’ Fair use doesn’t hold the need to seek permission from the copyright owner. However, there is a need to ensure that your case is under fair use, which again takes us to the utmost importance of consulting with experienced attorneys first.
4.     Have an Understanding about Copyrights
The copyright laws may prove to be too technical and complicated for you to understand, but you can focus on understanding the term copyright in general. When we come to the music industry, there are various misconceptions and misunderstandings related to copyright and related terms. Hence, it is imperative to know about the right things and avoid all unexpected damages. For instance, in the music industry, copyright laws not only extend to music but also the lyrics, which is something not many people know. If you use a paragraph from a poem or a book, the descendants of the writer might sue you alleging copyright infringement and demand some money if you had neglected to ask for permission. Even uploading a track (not for commercial purposes) with copyright infringement on your social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram may bring in trouble. You need to keep in mind all such details for avoiding copyright-related issues. It is highly advisable to prepare yourself for every possibility, understand the term copyright thoroughly, and know what you are allowed to do. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com


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Wednesday, 18 March 2020

USTR Retains India On The Priority Watch List

intellectual property right protection

The United States Trade Representative (USTR), yearly conducts the Special 301 Report, a result of an annual review of the state of IP protection and enforcement in US trading partners around the world. This list includes the Priority watch list countries identified as having several serious Intellectual Property Rights inadequacies that need an increased USTR supervision. Due to India’s insufficient measurable improvements on the Intellectual Property Rights framework, it once again became a victim of the Priority Watch list for the 27th year in a row. Along with India, USTR has identified 11 countries in its Priority Watch List including China, Indonesia, Russia, etc. In the recent Special 301 Report issued by the USTR, the US termed India as “one of the world’s most challenging major economies” corresponding to the management, protection and enforcement of intellectual property.
Although India has taken several steps in the past to discuss the problems of enforcement of the IP rights, many of the actions have not yet converted into tangible advantages for the creators, and, it is a matter of fact that, yes, India has definitely dismissed the observations in the Special 301 report over the years admitting it as a unilateral report of the US since India was completely amenable with multi lateral IP directives.
In this report, the US accused India of having major long-hauling IP decisions making it difficult for the applicants to receive and perpetuate patents in their respective businesses, specifically for pharmaceuticals. The report even claimed that both India and China were the leading sources of the spurious medicines distributed globally. Although the exact figures remain undisclosed, studies suggest that up to 20% of the drugs sold in the Indian markets are forged and could pose a serious threat to life. The USTR also declared that India maintained exceptionally high custom duties towards IP intensive products such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, solar energy equipment, to name a few, in spite of India’s repeated premises of restraining IP laws to increase the access to the growing trend in technologies.
At the same time, the report also noted the progress made by India in the last one year by appreciating India’s Cell for Intellectual Property Rights Promotion and Management (CIPAM) efforts to unravel processes, encourage commercialization, and increase IP awareness.
In a nutshell, the USTR wants the governments of the countries included in the Priority Watch list to support the IP systems by making sure to use obligatory licenses only when the circumstances are extremely unlikely and after putting in all the efforts required to procure authorization from the patent owner using rational terms and conditions. The US will continue to look at developments as required with the trading partners including India. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Thursday, 12 March 2020

PayRange Sues KioSoft Alleging Patent Infringement

Patent Infringement

PayRange Inc., which is a network for day-to-day purchases, has quite recently filed a lawsuit against KioSoft Technologies LLC, a technology leader in the payments industry since 2002, alleging Patent Infringement. Consequently, PayRange is now looking forward to seeking damages estimated to be over $50 million, along with a permanent injunction barring further infringing sales.
Established and founded in 2013, PayRange proactively developed the original mobile payment system for use in non-networked unattended retail machines, including amusement, laundry, and vending. The company efficiently protects its innovative technology, creative works, and Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio with 18 patents and even more than 35 pending Patent Applications.
At present, PayRange is the market share leader having millions of users and hundreds of thousands of deployed machines. On the other hand, KioSoft Technologies sells mobile payment solutions unlawfully by infringing upon PayRange’s patented technology. PayRange’s patents cover a wide variety of innovations, including the foundational approach of authorizing payment to unconnected machines leveraging the user’s smartphone, firmware updating of offline machines, viewing machine status on smartphones, and retrofitting existing machines along with payment acceptance devices.
Paresh Patel – the founder and CEO of PayRange, has stated in the lawsuit that his company has invested tens of millions of dollars in both research and development for bringing to market the solutions that have revolutionized the industry. He further said that his company shall always vigorously protect its investment to prevent the competitors from selling infringing products.
PayRange’s counsel on this matter, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, filed the Patent Infringement Lawsuit against KioSoft by stating that the company disregarded PayRange’s Patent Rights blatantly by attempting to encroach upon PayRange’s customers with a solicit new business and copycat product. Now, PayRange is looking forward to seeking recovery of damages, which may even exceed $50 million as per the lost profits, royalties, or price erosion, along with a permanent injunction for preventing KioSoft from continuing future infringement by selling, maintaining, and supporting copycat products, for instance, mobile apps.
Founded by Paresh Patel, a veteran of the automated retail industry, PayRange provides operators and customers with convenient and secure mobile payment and loyalty solutions for amusement, laundry, and vending. With even more than 3 million users and a network of machines throughout 350 cities and towns in the US and Canada, PayRange is currently the North American leader in mobile payments for unattended retail.  For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Sunday, 1 March 2020

Navarik Wins Patent For Managing Loss Reconciliation Data In Shipping Industry

patent application

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has recently issued US Patent No. 10,410,162 to Navarik Corp., a software platform provider to the petroleum supply and trading industry. The patent covers mechanisms for grouping parcels and enabling calculation of losses at the time of shipping.
It is a matter of fact that yes – some loss of cargo is expected in the oil industry during shipping; however, even these small amounts of loss product can lead to a significant loss of revenue. In this scenario, the traditional mechanisms depend on human inspection for tracking these losses and are usually prone to error. Navarik’s patented technology holds immense potential for replacing this unreliable human inspection with validated and automated software tracking. The patent efficiently describes how a company or organization can feed shipping logs into Navarik’s software, and further how that software can both validate and process those logs. Additionally, the patent also describes how the software is capable of grouping parcels for multiple different points of a long journey together to verify that they reflect the same cargo itself at different times of a voyage. Based on the parcel data, the software can then further calculate a loss between those different points for effectively increasing the accuracy of the calculation and removing the need for human intervention.
Based on their initial Patent Application in 2009, the ‘162 Patent is the second patent issued to Navarik. The first patent with US Patent No. 8, 301,517, also corresponds to the mechanisms for grouping parcels. All in all, the ‘517 and ‘162 Patents give Navarik the exclusive rights to its patented technology.
Navarik’s objective is to emerge as the leading provider of technology products for the inspection industries and commodity shipping by leveraging its industry expertise and on-demand software platform. Most of the widely-known oil companies across the globe heavily depend on Navarik’s flagship product, known as Navarik Inspection™, for data intelligence and business process automation. The product helps them significantly in optimizing trade with their counterparties and achieving better performance from their inspection firms, terminals, and vessels. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Sunday, 23 February 2020

Court Rules Against ‘GTA V’ Cheat Makers Over Copyright Infringement


Copyright Infringement

England and Wales Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has recently ruled against a pair of cheat developers in association with Epsilon (a former outfit related to GTA games) for infringing on the copyright by coding and selling the software.
The Grand Theft Auto (GTA) games are all about bad behavior for making money. Nevertheless, in the real world, their developer and publisher – Rockstar Games, Inc. and parent Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. – go hard on getting any hint about rules being broken, and thus, all the way to suing cheat app makers for Copyright Infringement.
The recent ruling is in relation to one such legal action that has gone well for the UK Company. It is a summary judgment meaning that the case would not go to trial.
Rockstar’s original Copyright Infringement Application for a summary judgment named five defendants, three of which have settled the case in the meantime. Rest two who chose to try their luck in court though affirmed their involvement with Epsilon, yet made efforts to invalidate the violation argument. They did so by saying that their team provided a disclaimer of liability to users of their cheat for the online gameplay GTA V. Nonetheless, the court said that this was a mere window-dressing.
In general, these cheats are known as the ‘mod menu’ and allow gamers to enjoy several advantages while playing. These sometimes unlock virtual in-game items and currency for which they would otherwise need to pay the real money.
Another thing the defendants said in their defense was that the Epsilon developed its software by forking the already existing code, which is available online. It means they downloaded the source code from a popular and well-known public cheating website. But, the court rejected this argument also and ruled in favor of Rockstar’s claim of violation of the contract against one defendant, dropping the charge against the other because he was a minor when the offense took place.
Although the case won’t go to the trial in association with the copyright charges, the issue related to legal cost may still require a trial. But Justice Falk, who signed the order, said that she hoped the parties would try to settle this matter. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Thursday, 20 February 2020

Philippines Marks Higher Score In International Intellectual Property Index


International Intellectual Property

With the implementation of new anti-counterfeiting and piracy measures, the Philippines has improved its score by around 4 percent in the United States Chamber of Commerce’s (USCC) 2020 International Intellectual Property Index.

Ranking 37th out of total 53 economies, the Philippines scored 39.94% in 2020 index in comparison to its 36% score in 2019. Reports showed that the key strength of the Philippines is in the IP framework that includes:

  • Amendments to the IP code to strengthen criminal sanctions
  • The fast-tracking procedure for Trademark Registration
  • Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) given in legislation
  • Incentives for research and development (R&D)
  • Growing specialization
  • Capacity Building.

On the other side, gaps in life sciences and content-related IPRs, online and software piracy, and barriers for licensing technology are reported as some of the weaknesses of the Philippines.
Abbreviated as IPOPHL, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines said that considering three additional economies in the index, Philippine standing reached 70% to the top, from 74% in the previous year.

IPOPHL officer-in-charge, Director General Teodoro Pascua, said that they welcome the verdicts of USCC-GIPC (Global Innovation Policy Center). They are happy and thankful for its positive and careful observation of the progress of their nation’s IPRs environment, especially on enforcement entrenched in IPOPHL’s effort to protect creativity and innovation.

Considering the Philippine Online Infringing Act, the USCC-GIPC is expecting that the Philippines would score higher in the 2021’s report. Under this Act, IPOPHL will be allowed to order the cancellation of an internet service provider’s operating license if it fails to remove the infringing content within ten days of notification.

IPOPHL added that these kinds of positive steps would lead to an increase in scores on relevant indicators, which will then make the index to monitor the developments in 2020 and upcoming years.

Mr. Pascua then added that 2020 would be an interesting year for IPRs Enforcement Office (IEO) and IPOPHL’s enforcement team who will be ironing out enforcement suggestions and guidelines to keep up with modern business models. He also said that IEO had identified some critical players in the supply chain of false trade with whom they believe they should engage. They desire to motivate them to set up their mechanisms to prevent counterfeiters, including those who are contributing to counterfeit trade by utilizing their channels for criminal operations, Pascua ended.  

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Wednesday, 19 February 2020

SaskTel Sent 30,000 Copyright Infringement Notices To Internet Customers


Copyright Infringement

As it turns out that a lot of SaskTel customers are allegedly involved in internet piracy, the company, since January 2019, has sent out around 30,000 Copyright Infringement notifications to customers, who are accused of engaging in downloading or uploading copyrighted materials.

A spokesperson for SaskTel said that the number of notices the Crown tends to issue has remained steady in recent years. The spokesperson explained that receiving one of such notices doesn’t mean that the user is being sued by Hollywood studio. However, it can lead to a suit if the user continues with the activity causing infringement.

Although SaskTel doesn’t monitor the customers’ online activities, it is obligated under the Copyright Act of Canada to issue notices related to infringement on receiving communications from copyright owners.

Halifax-based lawyer David Fraser, who specializes in internet privacy and technology law, warned SaskTel customers by saying that they shouldn’t take the notices lightly. Mr. Fraser, during a recent telephonic interview, said that he would neither ignore it and nor laugh it off; rather, he would take it seriously. The lawyer continued and provided an example saying that if he were to receive a notice in his house or to discover that one of his kids was doing something like a violation, he would have a conversation with the kid as he wouldn’t want the thing to go further.

According to Mr. Fraser, copyright owners can track SaskTel users with the help of companies that possess the technology to detect the IP addresses that access copyrighted materials, like movies through peer-to-peer file-sharing software. Nonetheless, the copyright holders don’t get aware of the users’ names, and SaskTel wouldn’t provide that information to anyone unless a court orders it to do so.
Fraser then said that Hollywood studios have sued around thousands of individuals in Canada for piracy. While representing Canadian residents against whom the lawsuits for copyright infringement have been filed by the studios, Mr. Fraser revealed that these lawsuits often fall within the range of $5,000.
Companies usually provide individuals with several notices before deciding to sue them for copyright infringement. If you receive one or two notices, then there’re possibilities that you could be sued in case you continue doing the same thing as you were doing it before. Moreover, once you get sued, you will be sued again and again. You cannot ignore it, as if you do so, then the studio gets a default judgment against you, said Fraser.

A default judgment takes place when a defendant fails to respond to summons or unable to appear in court. SaskTel said it received one court application asking for information about copyright infringement, but the data wasn’t available because the Crown stores the information only for six months. Pirating copyrighted material is in infringement of the Crown agency’s Internet use policy.
According to this policy, customers should not upload, transmit, publish, or reproduce literary work, software, or other material, which is protected by any Intellectual Property (IP) right without obtaining the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

SaskTel, at last, said getting a copyright infringement notice doesn’t affect the customers’ internet access, but the continuation in piracy-related activities can result in the suspension of service. 

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