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| Aceldamor:
How legit would that claim be then in the following example: I sell product "A" for 4 years with bogus licensing from company "B". I recently get into industry news because of some other situation, which is either noticed or brought to the attention of company "B". Company "B" then discovers that I am using their software. Company "B" then sues me. now, I know that ignorance is typically does not have any legal leg to stand on, however I would think that in this case, given the terms of the licensing owned by company "B" they could do something... another question/example: My friend has owned a business for over 10 years, and he used the imperial eagle symbol on his business cards with permission from one of the reps from Games Workshop, he recently got a cease and desist order from GW to stop using the symbol, now that is 10 years and they still had the right to do so, wouldn't that situation still apply here? I only ask because I am by no means a lawyer, or know much about this type of law, but am getting interested as I will soon be selling my wares as a digital artist and want to protect my works as well. |
| RayB:
"willfull" vs "innocent" infringement can carry different weights. Same on the owner's side. If you didn't know someone was using your IP, then you didn't know, and that won't take away your rights, but if you did know and ignored it, you could be seen as having silently accepted the infringement. But you don't LOSE your copyright. That would be silly. Trademarks are a different story. Its pretty well known that if you dont defend it, you can lose your claim to it, since the purpose of trademarks is for active use in commerce, and they don't want companies tying up any and every trademark they feel like (it's not like registering domain names). Back to copyright, you could do all the due diligence and keep a paper trail proving you could not find a copyright's owner despite thorough searching, and then proceed with its use, and then later if sued, damages could be negated (as "innocent" infringement rather than "willful" infringement). Even if you are not penalized with fines, you'd still have to settle with the claimant for their fair value licensing costs, and if you didn't put money aside for that, it could still hurt. I was already under the assumption that Ultracade's use of Universal games was under just that premise, since nobody seemed to have any idea what happened to Universal games. I guess now we know who owns them. :D |
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