Los Angeles Entertainment Lawyers
High Profile Trademark Attorneys in California
Intellectual property infringement and theft can affect almost everyone in Los Angeles, from struggling actors to successful businesspeople and famous film stars. Any unauthorized commercial use of your image, voice, or likeness constitutes a violation of your intellectual property rights. Any unauthorized commercial use of your creative works—such as movie scripts, novels, visual art, and film clips—constitutes copyright infringement and creates grounds for intellectual property litigation to protect your ownership rights.
California Right of Publicity Law
In California, illegitimate commercial use of your name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness can be grounds for a civil suit against the unauthorized user. Los Angeles entertainment attorneys have their hands full protecting many of their better-known clients against this sort of infringement. While the law makes exceptions for news media and original works of art, in general courts can punish unauthorized commercial publicity with damages equivalent to the profit the unauthorized user makes off your image, attorney fees, court costs, and occasionally punitive damages.
Copyrighting and protecting original works
Artists of all sorts count on earning a living from the sale and reproduction of their original works of art, whether that work is a movie script, a TV pilot, a tell-all novel,, or a stand-up comedy routine. When others steal your work, by downloading it for free off the Internet, plagiarizing your writing, or appropriating other creations, they infringe on your copyright, which is where a Los Angeles trademark lawyer can assist.
It is best to work with Los Angeles entertainment lawyers to copyright your work formally, but lack of a federal copyright will not prevent you from protecting your original works in court.
Responding to trademark infringement
You can trademark almost any image or phrase that creates a unique identification for your business, including slogans, color schemes, images, and sounds as well as your business name and logo. When another enterprise makes use of confusingly similar colors, images, or slogans, you should work with a highly experienced San Francisco IP lawyer like Gary Fergus to protect yourself from trademark infringement and defend the brand image you worked so hard to build up.
A San Francisco entertainment lawyer serving Los Angeles and all of California
Fergus, A Law Office is located in San Francisco and provides intellectual property services to entertainment industry clients in the Los Angeles area and throughout California. With over 30 years of experience helping actors, writers, and filmmakers defend their intellectual property rights, Gary Fergus combines the experience and knowledge of a big-firm IP attorney with all the attention and dedication of a solo practitioner. If you face any right of publicity violations, or copyright or trademark infringement issues, please contact Gary right away to discuss your case and protect your rights. He invites you to contact him through his website, by phone at 415-537-9030, or by visiting his conveniently located San Francisco offices to discuss your case.
