The laws surrounding intellectual property can be difficult to navigate and understand for anyone, including artists. It may not be evident that artists of all mediums here in New York need to protect their creative work to reduce the chance that some other person or company will attempt to profit from it. For those who don’t know exactly what intellectual property entails, here is an overview of the subject.
Through intellectual property law, creators protect their work and ensure that they benefit from it, both financially and professionally. The law protects different kinds of intellectual property, including copyrights, patents, trade secrets and trademarks, with artists mostly being concerned with the first category. Even if another person or company violates intellectual property unintentionally, the law still applies.
There are common violations of intellectual property that typically concern artists. If someone copies a music recording without receiving proper permission and then sells it, that is against the law. Another way is by using a product, a product name or even a logo for which someone else has already retained the copyright. There are several other ways to infringe on intellectual property that concern creators in other, non-artistic industries. That typically involves the patent of a product.
If an artist finds that his or her intellectual property has been unfairly used or stolen, civil litigation may be the answer. A New York attorney with knowledge of the different aspects of copyright law can help artists who want to protect their creative work or who want to pursue legal action. A civil claim may result in monetary damages compensatory to the financial loss the artist sustained.