Intellectual Property Law

Music - now and then

By Anthony Verna, Esq.

I hope it was a good week for everyone else.

Now that Friday is almost ending, I hope everyone has some kind of relaxing weekend plans. Even if that means just letting your brain rest after a long week of work. (I know many of you out there had that.)

Can I share some music with you? I have been listening to and digging Raul Midon a lot lately. Yes, certainly, the classics of my playlist are R.E.M., Paul Simon, Tori Amos, The Clarks, Charlotte Martin, and Marvin Gaye. They still go round and round in my head, but Raul Midon has been taking up more and more space. Besides his being an amazing guitarist, I love the ups and downs that his songs record. It is always a personal journey through his lyrics, and his music mixes pop, rock, jazz, r&b, and latin beats.

Check him out. I know you will love it.

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Speaking of music, there is a ticking time bomb in copyright law - that is the ability for musicians and composers to recapture their copyrights in music they make.

Music has always been treated as an exception to the Work-for-Hire provisions of copyright law.

This means that musicians are going to be recapturing their copyrights in about 2013. So, bands will be taking their music and selling their music directly. Yes, for all the musicians out there reading this who are not signed to a major label, you are already doing this. In fact, is this not what all businesses do? We sell our goods and services ourselves.

But, in exchange for keeping only a percentage, the major labels have better reach in sales and publicity than just the musician would.

So now those recording labels will have. . . a lot less music to sell.

Will the law change? Will record labels survive without these big back catalogues from the 1970s? It looks like they will have to churn out more current content that consumers can buy.

Do you have a copyright question? Call us at 212-201-5473.

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Two years ago, ICANN (the international organization) started to test the ability to have Internet domain names be in alphabets outside of the usual Roman characters.

ICANN will begin to take applications for domain names to be in other languages and alphabets starting on November 16th. The first domains will appear live next year.

What does this mean from a trademark perspective?

It means a lot more websites to protect from trademark infringement and trademark dilution.

Let me give you an example. Your company has a website. Your company probably has several different forms of the website (for example, http://coca-cola.com and http://coke.com lead to the same place). If it does not, it should.

What happens if Chinese characters sound similar to "Coca-Cola"? Will the company want to buy all those domain names? Will the company want to police all those domain names for cybersquatting issues.

Can your company afford not to? http://nyctrademarks.com
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If you are new to the list, do not forget to hit "reply" in your inbox and ask about your free copy of our Intellectual Property Self Survey, it is a $600 value which we will give to readers at no charge. Start a dialogue with us about your trademarks and copyrights.

Do not forget to read up on our Intellectual Property Security System. We can speak to you about it.

Do you have a question about copyrights or trademarks? Call us! 212-201-5473

The Trademark, Copyright, and Entertainment Law Forum is written by Anthony Verna. Please note that it is for the discussion of recent developments in these areas of law. The forum is not a space for legal advice. Please seek the help and counsel of an attorney for your legal needs. Visit the Law Firm of Anthony Verna - www.nyctrademarks.com.

Full post as published by Trademark, Copyright and Entertainment Law Forum on November 13, 2009 (boomark / email).