Rule of Law

When naming your business a name search should be done so that you can avoid copyright infringement. “A trademark is any combination of words and symbols that a business uses to identify its products or services and distinguish them from others.” Beatty, J. (2012). According to the lawyer “In short, the answer is yes, this is a problem of trademark infringement. There are typically four issues to consider in trademark issues: whether the two companies are in the same industry, whether they overlap geographically, who was using the name first, and who registered the trademark first. Here, you and the competitor are clearly in the same industry and, as you described the other party as “established…in the US”, it is likely that your geographic markets will overlap. Your best bet is to select a different name for your production company and be sure to do your due diligence in ensuring it is original and available for your production company to use.” 

                Copyrights seemed to be a common theme in my questions. “It is illegal to delete copyright information, such as the name of the author or the title of the article. It is also illegal to distribute false copyright information." Beatty, J. (2012) It is illegal to take the work of another and remove their name and use it as your own. “It is illegal to circumvent encryption or scrambling devices that protect copyrighted works” Beatty, J. (2012) This means that you cannot say, remove the encryption from things like dvds because they are copyrighted. This is a good thing to remember as I begin to make my films.There is also protection for films and works that are shown overseas.”The Berne Convention requires member countries to provide automatic copyright protection to any works created in another member country. The protection expires 50 years after the death of the author.” Beatty, J. (2012) This will be useful information for me to know as the church begins to grow and expand. 
It is really easy to find used cds at garage sales and this is perfectly legal. “Under the first sale doctrine, you have the legal right to sell that CD. The first sale doctrine permits a person who owns a lawfully made copy of a copyrighted work to sell or otherwise dispose of that copy.” Beatty, J. (2012) I often wondered about this. 

“Also under the fair use doctrine, faculty members are permitted to photocopy and distribute copyrighted materials to students, so long as the materials are brief and the teacher's action is spontaneous.” Beatty, J. (2012)

“Under common law, the first person to use a mark in trade owns it. Registration under the federal Lanham Act is not necessary. However, registration has several advantages:

• Even if a mark has been used in only one or two states, registration makes it valid nationally.

• Registration notifies the public that a mark is in use, which is helpful because anyone who applies for registration first searches the Public Register to ensure that no one else has rights to the mark.

• The holder of a registered trademark generally has the right to use it as an Internet domain name.” Beatty, J. (2012)