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Posts Tagged ‘Copyright’

Most of the corporate and large corporations have in house legal counsel to support them in different legal requirements. But in case of small business this might not happen because of several reasons like size of business, amount of capital invested etc. Thus, small business turns to law firms when any kind of legal assistance is required. There are many law firms that offer required legal support and advice to small business as and when required.

Things to consider while choosing law firm for small business

At present there are series of law firms who offer their legal support and advise them from time to time. But the question is how to select law firm for small business? Below are few tips provided that can surely help you in selecting law firm that you are looking for your business.

Understand your business field: Before you hire law firm, it is extremely important to understand your business field. Unlike corporate or large corporations the legal requirement of small business is limited to certain specific field. Thus, the first step involves in understanding your business field.

Narrow your search: Based on your business field narrow your search and look for law firms that deal with your field of business like employment, labor law, commercial collections, copyright, trademark etc. Look for firms who offer their legal service and support from small to medium sized business. This is because they can understand your problem better and provide you with accurate legal advice and support.

Check the background: This is the third step that you must consider while choosing your law firm. Check the background of the site by visiting their site. It will also help you in understanding the kind of legal service they provide. Don’t forget to check out the client testimonial helping to give you a clear picture of their position in market. In this connection look for a law firm who hire law graduates from good law schools in the field of business law.

Ask for reference: Another way to find law firm is to ask friends, colleagues and relatives. Especially to those who have experience in seeking legal help from law firms. But make sure that reference they provide match with your field of business.

Cost and affordability: Enquire the cost of the firm and see whether it is fitting to your budget or not. But, most of the time this aspect hardly becomes an issue. Small business lawyers are very much aware of the stiff competitive market and hence they offer efficient service within the stipulated time fitting into your budget.

Thus, choosing a law firm can be daunting task. The secret to select the right law firm for small business is to act sensibly. With these tips also you can expect to get in touch with right law firm. In fact it is always a welcome decision to conduct some research on local law firms. The process will consume time no doubt, but you will surely land to right law firm for small business.

Copyright (c) 2009 Lucille Uttermohlen

If you want to avoid annoying your divorce judge, these tips will help. I can’t guarantee that he / she will be in a good mood if you follow this advice. His / her attitude will depend on a number of factors none of us can control, like whether or not your particular jurist is constipated. These tips will give you a leg up, though, and so they are worth heeding.

1. Make sure you get to court on time. The judge may be late, at lunch, or drinking coffee in his / her office. There may be another hearing in progress when you arrive at the courthouse. Still, you better get there when the hearing is scheduled. If the judge is ready to go, he / she won’t be real happy to find that you aren’t there.

2. Make sure you are dressed for court. It shouldn’t make any difference. What you say shouldn’t be judged by what you happen to be wearing. However, if you show up after slopping your hogs or running a marathon, the judge won’t be too impressed. If you and your clothes are neat and clean, you are showing that you respect the judge, and that you take your own case seriously. If you look or smell funny, it will make your testimony look less credible. Believe me, you want the judge to trust what you are saying.

3. Keep your cool. The judge isn’t personally involved with you and your case. You may think your ex deserves the finger, or a cussing out, and maybe he / she does. However, the judge doesn’t know him / her, and is likely to think you should treat him / her, and anyone else with courtesy and respect.

4. Make sure people who come to court with you realize that they won’t help you by jeering and grumbling at the other side. Yes, it is possible that your ex will lie through his / her teeth. It is even possible for his / her witnesses to give testimony that is more interesting than factual. However, hissing and booing should be saved for sporting events. No judge feels that his / her courtroom is the proper place for the expression of popular opinion, no matter how tempting a choice editorial comment may seem at the time. It just won’t help your case, and can detract from your believability.

5. Answer the questions you are asked. Don’t add information you think may be more interesting to the judge. If your attorney doesn’t ask you something you think is important, he / she may have a good reason for not bringing it up. When you spend enough time in front of a particular judge, you get a pretty good idea what he / she doesn’t like to hear. If you think something important has been omitted, mention it when you get back to your table. If you are really concerned, ask the judge if you can talk to your lawyer before you continue.

Getting a divorce can be traumatic. It may be tempting to think that anyone in his / her right mind will agree with you as to what would be fair in your case. However, a judge will listen to both of you, and decide who is telling the truth after all the evidence is in. Human beings being what they are, it is easy to steer your judge away from what you are trying to prove if he / she finds your attitude rude or obnoxious. This is why you will do well to act as if you are the most dignified and intelligent person the judge has ever heard, rather than the typical angry respondent in a divorce case.

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When an employee or consultant obtains works without a license and they are used within a business (such as photographs or software), they will infringe copyright. In the ordinary course, employers are vicariously liable for the acts of employees during the course of their employment and for the acts of independent contractors. A copyright owner is likely to have several courses of recovery for the infringement against:

the employee or consultant for authorising the infringement by the employer;

the employer on the basis of vicarious liability;

a person responsible for a place of public entertainment, for allowing or permitting to be used for performance of a literary, dramatic or musical work;

a person providing the means by which to reproduce the work.

Obviously, the employer is the most likely target for a claim to damages, as they are seen to be 1. a stable enterprise with a vested interest in avoiding litigation followed by a damages payment; and 2. the employee is more than likely not going to be in a position to satisfy a judgment and the legal fees incurred in the conduct of a claim.

The Measure of Compensation

Damages are said to be at large in copyright cases, as they are not fixed to any particular measure. Damage caused by infringement of copyright is quantified by the value by which the copyright is diminished as a chose in action.

The measure of pecuniary damage likely to be ordered in an action for copyright infringement is that of its commercial value. The commercial value of a work in the circumstances of infringement is reached by one of two methods. Firstly, where the infringing works are sold (by the defendant), the commercial value is represented by the loss of profit to the owner, as the owner has been deprived of the opportunity to sell licenses for the work. The alternate means applies where the work is simply used by the defendant, and not resold by them.

Sales of Goods and Diversion of Customers

When a copyright work is copied and sold, the owner of copyright is entitled to recover their loss of profit caused by the diversion of trade to the defendant. Thus, in a case where the claimant was in the business of producing Christmas cards and offering them for sale to the public, the claimant was awarded the profits that the claimant was deprived by the actions of the defendant.

This is not to say that the claimant would be entitled to recover for all of the sales made by the defendants, as the claimant may not have sold as many as the infringer; whether the claimant will be entitled to recover for all of the infringing sales of the defendant depends on the circumstances of the case at hand. In the events that the particular copyright work is sold at reduced prices serves aggravate the damage suffered by the claimant.

The owner is also entitled to recover for the loss to the reputation of the original copyright work. A loss of reputation will take place where the works are sold at a reduced price, at a reduced quality or in a vulgar or distasteful fashion, such the claimants’ own sales in the future would be prejudiced.

Reproductions without Sale

Where the defendant does not trade in the goods copied, such as using photographs on a website, or uses infringing software, the method of calculation described above (which accounts for loss of profits for diversion of trade) is not the appropriate measure for calculating damages. The proper measure in these circumstances is a reasonable license fee that the copyright owner would reasonably charge for a license to use the photographs in the particular circumstances. The award of damages will be that of a willing copyright owner and a person in the position of the notional licensee, being the defendant.

Conclusion

Simply because a copyright owner seeks to recover from business, does not prevent the business seeking recovery from the employee or consultant who was responsible for, that is, authorized the infringement by obtaining the copyright work unlawfully and making it available to the business for use.

Despite frequent claims of excessive damage by owners, they are not in a position to enforce a claim for a sum of compensation greater than the loss that they are able to prove with reasonable certainty. This process takes in a process of ascertaining on the particular facts what the copyright owner would in fact be entitled to recover at law.

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Copyright (c) 2010 Lucille Uttermohlen

If you are waiting for your divorce to be final, it can be agony. After all, not knowing what property you will have to work with after the divorce makes it hard to plan. Debts that you will be responsible to pay can also effect your future budget. Most annoying and downright scary is what the judge will do with your kids if you and your spouse were fighting over custody.

Unfortunately, the remedy to get the judge to move things along isn’t very satisfactory. He is under an obligation to render a decision as soon as he can. Many states give a certain time limit for a judge to make his final decision. If he doesn’t enter an order by that time, your attorney can ask the he be removed from your case.

In my 27 year practice, I have invoked the “lazy judge” rule once. I had filed to modify custody for one of my clients. From the moment we entered the courtroom, I knew I was in for a long, frustrating day. Every question I asked, and many I started were interrupted by my colleague’s monotone “objection”, and the judge’s “sustained”. It was clear that my client wasn’t going to get a fair hearing, and I was reduced to asking opposing counsel not to interrupt me before I even got my question out so I could at least make my record for appeal

I think the judge must have known an easy way out when he saw it. I would have advised my client to appeal, for the obvious reason that she had not been allowed to present a case. The judge never let it get that far. He just didn’t make a decision at all. Finally, I was free to file a “lazy judge” motion.

The “lazy judge” motion takes the case away from the judge automatically. All you have to show is that the hearing occurred on a certain date, and the judge didn’t render an order by the time the legislature says he had to. In this particular case, I was happy to get the case away from that court.

Most of the time, a “lazy judge” motion isn’t a good choice. It does cause the case to be assigned to a new judge, which in some cases, like the one I described, can be a good thing. However, the only recourse you have once a new judge is appointed is to try the case again. This is all right from the stand point that you can introduce evidence that may have been missed the first time around. However, it also means you have to pay an attorney to prepare the whole case for you again, and most people simply can’t afford to do that.

The best thing to do in most cases is to have your lawyer nudge your judge into ruling. Some of my colleagues are hesitant to do this, and you may have to light a fire under them to get them to cooperate. We have to live with our judges, and getting a reputation as a nag is not something any attorney gains happily. However, I find that a call to the judge’s secretary can usually get the folder in question placed on the judge’s desk, and tactfully brought to his attention.

Judges are very busy in this country. The only way to lighten their load is to raise taxes and hire more of them. We attorneys might like that idea, but most of the tax paying public would prefer to avoid the additional expense. For this reason, many of us are forced to wait for answers to our most pressing legal issues. However, there is a point where even a busy judge needs to get his work done, and when that point has arrived and passed, litigants may do well to take their problems to another forum.