The Questions: Explain why these are of interest to you. What specific concepts and terms were involved – in other words, what are the legal issues?

My intention was to get a hold of an Intellectual Property attorney who deals with Copyright and Patent law. Unfortunately I was not able to but to my surprise, the attorney I finally discussed with, who practices bankruptcy and real estate law, was very knowledgeable about Copyright law. The first question I had is 'If I copied another artist’s work from a website and configured it to where it wasn’t exact, would I stand in position of a lawsuit and if the roles were reversed, would I be able to sue?' As an artist, you are creative but need inspiration from others and their work. At times, you may be tempted to use someone else’s idea to compliment your work. In some cases, this could be illegal. The author may copyright the work. “The ‘author’ of a work of expression subject to copyright protection is the person who creates the work.” NOLO Patent, Copyright & Trademark: Part 2 - Page 204. “A copyright consists of a bundle of rights held by the author or developer of an original work of authorship.” Patent, Copyright & Trademark: Part 2 – Page 219-221. By duplicating it, you may be committing a tort. “A tort is a wrong that involves a breach of a civil duty owed to someone else.” - Wikipedia. Unless you have been granted a nonexclusive license, you may be prohibited from using someone else’s work. “A nonexclusive license is grant from a copyright owner authorizing another person or institution to exercise one or more rights belonging to the owner under the copyright on a shared basis.” NOLO Patent, Copyright & Trademark: Part 2 - Page 272-273. The second question was, 'As an employee under a non-disclosure contract, am I prohibited from using skills learned from the company for freelance work.' I am curious to know if my surrender to this disclosure will stop me from furthering my income from other sources other than my job. "A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement, is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to by third parties.” These are just some of the important questions and more to come in the next episode.

Week 9: First Amendment & the News

"With respect to the individual down in Florida, let me repeat what I said a couple of days ago. The idea that we would burn the sacred texts of someone else's religion is contrary to what this country stands for," Obama said. "My hope is this individual prays on it and refrains from doing it." Quoted from www.miamiherald.com. I personally Pastor Jones from Gainsville Florida is insane and his plans for burning a holy book (The Quran) are ridiculous. The fact that it in protest of a Masjid (mosque) that’s proposed to be built in New York and not Florida only proves ignorance and misuse of the first amendment right. This would only cause misunderstanding between believers of Muslim faith and Christianity be the Catholics or Protestants all over the world and not only in America. It will create riots and violence amongst believers. American will not be safe because this would create an excuse for Jihads and terrorist bomber to attack America both local and occupations in foreign grounds. The Rev. Terry Jones from the Dove Outreach Center in Florida triggered outrage when he promised to burn the Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Thousands of Afghans are protesting a small American church's plan to burn the Muslim holy book. At least 11 people have been injured. Police in the northern province of Badakhshan say several hundred demonstrators ran toward a NATO compound where four attackers and five police were injured in clashes. Protesters also burned an American flag at a mosque after Friday prayers. Muslims see Quran burning threat as targeting the direct word of God. The Quran is the most sacred object in the daily lives of Muslims and burning it would be considered an offense against God. Islam teaches that the holy book is the direct word of God, received by the Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, and it defines the belief and conduct for followers of the religion. I believe that the people behind Pastor Jones evangelic church have not had the opportunity to read a page of the Quran, and their participation in burning the holy book will be out of ignorance. Such leaders that misuse their role in society by giving wrong guidance and teaching the wrong message should be stripped of their privileges. They act with no consideration of humanity, other people's lives and their followers.

Legal Authority: How I made contact, found this person and why they are a good choice.

Class BUS250H Contracts, Negotiations and Copyrights
Judge or Lawyer’s Name: Ronald S. Sugarman
District or Firm’s Name: Ronald S. Sugarman & Associates

Apparently the attorneys in Nevada are either too rich to care about the next client or are too busy with their schedules. I have tried calling an attorney to create a relationship to answer a few question that am required to blog about in my class and the most I have gotten is their secretary telling me he/she will call me back when they get back from courtroom. I have therefore decided and chosen an attorney in Los Angeles California that I had the pleasure doing business with. His name is Ronald S. Sugarman and the name of his Law firm is Ronald S. Sugarman and Associates. He is an immigration attorney that has been practicing Law for over 30 years. He was a criminal attorney prior to switching over to immigration law. And before that, he was a prosecutor for the city of West Los Angeles. I would have preferred to get a Patents & Copyrights attorney to answer my questions of concern, but since all efforts is in vain at the moment, I strongly feel that Mr. Sugarman will at least answer most of the questions having been practicing law for a long time and has also dealt with different types of law practice. On the other hand, I have used him before as my representative in a case that I prefer not to disclose the details, but all I can say is that I was successful. One of the questions of my concerns is, “What is the average price to keep an attorney on retainer?” I believe he’ll be able to answer such a question because I have personally had him on a retainer before and I believe fees do not differ that much between attorneys. Having previously been a criminal attorney, am sure he’s knowledgeable about citizen rights be it business of legal battles. If I am unable to get all answers from him, am still on the hunt for a Patent & Copyrights attorney or Business attorney.

EOC WEEK 8: Legal Questions

1. If I lose inspiration and go online and use someone else’s design, more than I intended to. Will I be safe from a lawsuit if I changed it enough so it isn’t exactly the same? What recourse do I have if the roles are reversed, if my work is the work being stolen?
2. If I’m asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Can I use the skills that I developed in the company to earn money through free lance work?
3. As a designer working for an employer. Can part of a design from that company be considered a trade secret that I’m prohibited from using any work that was not solicited from within the firm?
4. If I come up with an original idea during employment with a company, who owns the rights to it, myself or the company? Is there any way I can make it my own to sell to others?
5. How much do you charge to read a contract and advise/interpret it for me?
6. If a company give you a design and didn’t know it was inspired by another company and you didn’t know anything about it, can you still be sued?
7. If there’s an ownership of idea in a contract, what types of word or clause to look for?
8. What is the best response to a non compete disclosure contract? (what’s the best way to handle it)
9. What rights do I retain when using company software?
10. In a series, do you copyright individually or as a series?
11. What is the average price to keep an attorney on retainer?

Week 7 EOC: What Legal Issues Concern You Most

‘What legal issues concern me?” Quite an interesting question. I have quite a number of legal concerns about certain issues. One of the first on the least is Immigration Law. Being naturalized citizen of the United States, I am very bitter about this whole situation with the new immigration law being proposed in my neighboring state of Arizona. I personally think it’s ridiculous to chase hardworking residents from a country they’ve been residing for numerous years, due to old age American citizen that don’t even work and are just feeding off social security, complaining about them and fighting for their tax dollars and election fundraising monies to be used to eradicate these immigrants. I can understand the fact that someone could be an illegal, but here should be a better solution to getting this person legalized and giving them the same opportunity to exercise their right as a human being and not treated like an intruding wild animal. Many of these working illegal’s are punctual tax payers because of not wanting to be interfered with my uncle sum and the government who spend their money and resources hunting them. This country was built on a raw deal given to the original inhabitant the Indians and therefore should be welcoming to foreigners because I believe it was illegally stolen. I am also concerned with the law on legalizing marijuana. I personally believe this I just going to create confusion with the dos and don’ts once the law is passed. The discussion has been the drug being state legal and federal illegal. Federal always rules over state law. The drug dealers and traffickers are going to infiltrate with the system and corrupt the government officials with drug money to keep drugs illegal and particular jurisdictions or turf that they control with drug distribution. Those are just a few of my concerns for now till next time.

Week 6: Illicit? What Do You Think?

I think we are living in a huge world of counterfeit, illegalities, fakes, corruption and disgustingly no regard for human life. The video I just watched from National Geographic Movie production titled “Illicit: The Dark Trade” is astonishingly surprising with full videotaped evidence these illegalities. In countries like China, where most of the goods sold around the world are produced, there is mass production and resale of these counterfeit goods on a large scale out in the fashion districts in the slums. These illegal productions and sales are fueled by millions of dollars from tourist all over the world from countries like United State, Europe, and continents like Africa. The tourist even has a choice of picking their dream item from a catalogue that was published by the counterfeiters. The pharmaceutical traffickers are taking advantage of the medical business due to the high demand of drugs like Viagra and are mass producing for online companies that don’t even require prescriptions to sale these products to their online customers. There a millions of these multimillion dollar companies on the web that utilize the border of many countries across the world to traffic drugs. These fake drugs, of which some are poisonous, may end up being mixed in with the real effective drugs at international boarders and could be consumed at your neighborhood pharmacy. With the rise of criminal networks across the globe and large dollars amounts of illegal money floating across continents, guns are and raw materials for terrorist acts are on the rise as well. To my surprise, slavery still exists internationally. Human traffickers are being hired being mafia organizations to shipped workers across borders for cheap labor and the solicitation of their counterfeits. Many of these slaves have no choice but to hustle for a plate of food on the table and wiring monies to their families abroad. In conclusion, we are consumers should be ashamed and should play our part to stop these acts. I personally would be afraid of consuming Tylenol from my neighborhood pharmacy.

EOC WEEK 4 TEN OF MOST MEANINGFUL PATENT TERMS

PATENT AGENT
PATENT EXAMINERS
ISSUE FEES
OFFICE ACTION
PATENT TROLL
USPTO
PRIOR ART
PRICE FIXING
SUBMARINE PATENT
UTILITY PATENTS