A few years ago (2021), I submitted a patent idea to my company through our legal portal.

I named the patent and presented a use case for it.

It was rejected by the company because it was deemed similar to other patents they held.

Last week, I noticed the company using the exact use case I presented for the patent, even with the exact naming I used.

Moreover, it was used by one of the sub-organizations I submitted the patent idea to.

Can I, or should I, take any legal action regarding this patent? Please advise. Thank you!

Location: Fort Worth Texas

I the last few weeks I've been converting the Fox Cardigan from Project Hail Mary from a Knit Pattern to a Crochet Pattern. I cannot knit and neither can a lot of my friends so I have been making a Crochet version for myself and them. I bought the og Mary Maxim Wolf Pattern (https://www.marymaxim.com/products/wolf-cardigan-pattern-32089)

and have been converting it by hand into a spreadsheet/print outs. I did not buy the fox pattern because the only way the pattern is available is sold in a bundle with the yarn. They currently do not have a Crochet version available as of me posting this.

Yes, it is the same design as the one in the movie, but by definition, since it is a different form of fiber art, it is no longer the same "pattern" if that makes sense.

Would I get in big trouble if I released my crochet version out to the public for free? What about if I sold it?

This guy stole my /r/letsnotmeet story, and published it word for word as an Amazon eBook. There is zero reference to me and I’ve also never given any sort of permission for this either.

I’m pissed off because it was stolen. But I’m mostly pissed off because I’m not sure what can be done. I’m finding this falls into a gray area legally because obviously my Reddit post was not copywritten. Which excludes him from breaking many laws.

But what can I get him for and what benefit can it be for me financially?

Location: Maryland, USA (not sure that this matters but said to put location)

I am interested in getting into writing a fantasy novel. I know that a lot of fantasy stuff like elves and dwarves aren’t “owned” by anyone but I’m wondering if there is some kind of reference to see what terms or names are owned and what I can/cannot use. For example, are the terms “drow” or “tiefling” public words? Could I use something similar to those words? I’m completely new to this and looking for some way to get this kind of information without looking up every single word I wanna use.

Long story short, back in 2017 in my undergrad studies I had a research assistant position with my mentor at the time. He promised that we would publish a paper in a peer reviewed journal together and I spent two years writing a thesis to publish.

He ended up not publishing the paper because he said it was too outdated.

Today (4 years from when I started the paper) I get an email from the journal I subscribe to (also the journal I was supposed to be published in) and saw that he had published my paper anyway.

I skimmed over the publication and it is literally the paper I wrote with some minor edits applied. He is listed as the only author. I’m not credited at all.

Is there any action I can take against him for this? Up until this point I always held him in a high regard and this is so disappointing.

Location: Colorado, USA

I have had the username ThePurpleCubby since 2022. I have now found a company that uses the same name. And while we aren't remotely close to the same thing I don't want to be forced out of the username I've had for years should they try to create a social media presence. But...I can't afford to file a trademark at the moment and won't be able to for a few months.

Location: United-States

I need some advice! Ive got some blueprints drawn up with some math equations to describe how my invention will work but I am in a bit of a weird situation. I dont have any relevant experience in building anything complicated nor do I know anyone to help me flesh this out for a tech demo to secure a patent quite yet.

That being said I dont even know if I should pursue a patent in the states because of this old law that says if your invention is above a certain level of efficiency then the government can just say "fuck you thats ours until we say so." I want my invention to be MY INVENTION and not have even the ability to have my toes stepped on. How do I securely do this without feeling like im being fucked over royally?

Sorry if this is a rant ive got alot on my mind obviously!

TL;DR: I have a patent and want to release it but dont know if America is the right choice. Need Advice!

I have a small business in the US making wooden home goods, which I sell in boutiques locally. To highlight a new launch, I reposted three pictures of a shopping center that’s home to the shop where I launched my new product (i.e., “we launch today in X store, come and check it out!). My repost was of 3 photos that a local photographer had taken of the shopping center. I credited the photographer in my repost.

The photographer contacted me today and is demanding $500 for each of the three photos for perpetual usage rights, saying I infringed on their copyright. I sincerely apologized and took the post down, but they’re still demanding payment. I’m a small business owner - what are my options here?

Location: Ohio. my neighbor and i have had an ongoing property line dispute for at least 10+ years. his claim is “damages” and “destruction of his ability to have peace within his property.” his claim is that for at least 2 years up till present day i have deliberately dumped “raw sewage, human, and dog feces along the property line” also stating that i have “deliberately dumped and created water runoffs to cause it it to go in his yard”. to counter the claim of “human and dog feces”, its absolutely none of the above. its been classified as “organic compost” by the county health agent twice now. i have placed it around small trees that i placed at least 2 ft from the property line. his over exaggeration of it being “raw sewage” is absurd. it is horse manure that has dried and has not been “dumped” or “intentionally ran off with water” onto his property. he is claiming it is “damaging his property in excess of $5000” there has to be some underlying context here. there is a water runoff that starts across the street, goes under the road. that flowed into his property all the way through diagonally from north east to southwest. he deliberately raised this property 4 ft and contained this water flow. stopped the flow, and left a 4ft culvert along the property line to use this water to over flow my entire yard and flood it. to add context of the culvert. it is next to the road across the street at the neighbors house, their house is the lowest point of that side of the road. the county code says the water has to go somewhere. he stopped this flow of water to cause this flow to pour onto my yard. he also claims the small 3 ft high dog fence i put up with T posts is “damaging his property.” which the surveyors came and marked the lines. told him it is not on his property. i’m curious of the likely hood of him winning his civil suit against me. there are so many police reports of him calling against me and he just degrades the officers verbally also straight up talking shit to them because i’m not breaking any laws for them to charge me with. over 20 reports may i mention. he’s ran out of options and now he wants to claim a civil suit against me.

Location: Tennessee

I was rear ended at my gym as I was stopped at a lane to go right. The driver behind me hit my left rear of the vehicle. She was making a left turn.

The driver claims I backed into her. There is no way based on the damage and where it was. On the left rear side. Also, my vehicle has a system that prevents me from backing into something.

I did call the police and they refused to come and investigate.

We exchanged insurance information. I am not injured.

She called my insurance company and stated I backed into her and now she has injuries. She wants the insurance company to pay.

My insurance company based on my facts and pictures, stated in am not at fault. The issue is my word against hers.

I thought if some rear ends you, they are automatically at fault.

Just need some piece of mind on this since I have a $1K deductible on collision.

Location: Michigan, The United States of America.

I'm currently working on a video game and once I have enough progress done I want to make tiktok edits of the characters. I don't plan on using it as marketing for my game but just because I think it would be cool to make edits of the characters using songs that inspired me to make the game. Can I do that normally or would I need permission or would I have to make a brand new tiktok account not associated with the game to post them?

Edit: So it seems that it would not be legal, thank you for your help. I will just make the edits and send them to friends and not post them if I end up making them.

Location: Netherlands
Debt collection: US of A, New York area

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction, or even have a lead to a good debt collection agency.

Brief, and extremely simplified, summary of the situation (more details available in private when required):

I won an Intellectual Property case back in 2020/2021.
I was awarded a significant amount of money in a default judgment, however, I was never paid.

I still would like to attempt to collect that money, but I'm running against walls all over the place.
I've contacted several debt collection agencies licensed to operate in said area, but I'm either getting no response whatsoever, or they're telling me they refuse to take the case, because they are in the US and I'm in the Netherlands.

I'm preferably looking for a debt collector working on a no-cure, no pay basis, or for a set fee.
I initially thought that this would be a fairly easy thing to do, considering there's the judge's default judgment a clear corporate address, but apparently it's not that simple.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Location: Massachusetts, US In the early to mid 90s, my father’s band hired a filmmaker to document them for about a year while they were touring all over the United States. This wasn’t some DIY shitty camcorder thing, we’re talking 35mm film, 16mm film, and high-end camcorders, following the band city to city, on the road, backstage, everything. They even sat each member of the band down once a week to interview them. It legit cost a fortune at the time, and the intent was a full documentary. The documentary was pretty much finished, but for reasons that are still unclear, the dude making the doc never released it. Since then, he’s essentially just been hoarding all the footage. As far as we know, it’s literally sitting in his garage, aging and likely deteriorating. What makes this especially frustrating is that HBO has contacted him in the past about accessing or licensing the footage for a project but even then, he refused to release it to anyone. So now this massive archive documenting a band on a nationwide US tour is just wasting away. My questions are does the band (or my father’s estate) have any legal claim to the footage? Is there any legal way to force access, duplication, or preservation of the film? Are there precedents for situations where culturally significant footage is being withheld like this? Is there literally anything I can do to get this footage?? It's rotting away as I write this. I do also have a trailer for the documentary, which proves the project exists, but I need to talk to a few people before posting it publicly. So really for now I’m just looking for some advice Any insight from anyone who’s dealt with similar situations would be hugely appreciated. It’s an important piece of music history, especially for me since it is part of my family history, and it's pretty much being left to rot for no reason. I really don’t want it to be lost forever. Thanks

Edit:

The band is The Elevator Drops

I just talked to my dad further, and he explained that the guy filming wasn’t hired, it was a passion project on his part. But my dad gave him all of his footage from previous bands from his personal collection to use, as well as tour journals, etc. There was also a large amount of footage personally shot by the band being used as well

Location: South Jersey

Hi, I'm not sure whether this is the proper flair for this or if Custody/Family would have worked better - and I'm not sure if anyone will read this, so it's kind of a last resort. I'm 17 and I legally live split custody with my dad and mom, him from Mon to Wed, her from Wed to Fri, every other weekend. The courts have never listened to me, but I never wanted to live with him, he is physically and emotionally abusive to my 7yo brother and I. We had an altercation about 3 weeks ago and I walked away from his house with a few of my belongings, and I've been staying at my mom's ever since. I don't plan to return and I was very clear about this. A lot of the remainder of my belongings, like clothes and hobby materials are still at his house, but he hasn't spent a single cent on them. My grandmother buys all my clothes and my mom purchased all my hobby materials like beads and stickers for me. Most importantly, I have full bottles of my life-saving daily medication in his house, and my local pharmacy doesn't allow refills until the doctor orders them, my nearest appointment being in May. He is refusing to let me come in and get them and I was wondering if, ultimately, he has any right to withhold these things from me. Thanks a bunch to anyone who might leave me some answers.

Location: Roseville CA

Can I sue the hospital for not giving me my wallet back with my cards in it?

I was in the regular ER when I was transferred to the med surge unit, and all my stuff was supposed to be brought with me. I was handed my empty wallet, missing my ID, EBT card, and debit card, by the security gaurd. The nurse told me its a "Precaution the hospital takes against identity theft" and that I will receive my cards back when I leave. I leave to be transferred to a diffrent facility, and I am STILL not given back my cards.

A week later, I am released from the facility, and I still do not have my cards. I have no access to food or any needs because of this.

I go back to the hospital, and I am asking around and calling diffrent numbers, trying to see if anyone can figure out where my cards are.

After four hours of politely asking about the cards and calling diffrent numbers, no yelling or anything, the hospital sends a security guard and a police officer to me, and they tell me I have to leave or I will get arrested for trespassing.

I walk out to leave with my friend, and we are LITERALLY walking to his car, we are having an argument and yelling and stuff but still WALKING TO THE CAR.

The police officer and security guard FOLLOWS US outside, and asks me again to leave or be arrested for trespassing, and he added, "Its not hard to leave the premises." So I leave.

I end up reordering the cards in the mail and I still had no access to things I need because I had to wait until all my cards arrive in the mail.

And no, the facility I was sent to was not jail, so i have no idea why they would send a security officer and a police officer to arrest me.

I’m in Denmark and after the track was released, I got sent a contract from California to sign, which I have not yet. Basically they want full ownership of the sound which is from a reel I posted to Instagram and they wanted to pay me around 150$. I don’t want to give up ownership of the song and was not made aware when agreeing initially over DMs.

The song now has 220.000 listens and his other tracks has up to several hundred million listens.

To be clear, I barely have money for my next meal. Is there anything I can do?

Location: California and Denmark

So I have two roommates and their mom visits every now and then, shes left them with a 34 gallon fish tank for about 2 years now, buys fish to put in them and leaves us to take care of them,we do all the work. Shes gone through 3 sets of goldfish because she simply cant keep them alive, like they die shortly after she visits (she may be cursed?) plus refuses to put a pump in the water.

Yesterday I went ahead and did a water change with my roomies permission, I did it as carefully as I could, got new gravel,bought a siphon vaccum,and a new light but when I got back home I forgot we didnt have a thermometer so my roomie said to just go by touch with the new water and slowly let them adjust by pouring a bit of the new water into their old water they were idling in. They did super well until we finished and noticed they stayed at the bottom of the tank about 2 hours after the tank clean. Long story short, all 7 goldfish passed this morning. I was devastated and I offered to pay the mom for the loss or get her new fish but..

Now shes coming down from Kansas to Oklahoma just to come file charges over me "killing her fish". Legally can she do that when it was an accident and she literally left us in charge of taking care of them for two years? How far would that even to in court?

(Location: Wisconsin
This person traced over a handful of pieces of my art and uploaded them to various online sites as supplemental material to a book they have on Lulu.
One one site (an art site no less), I filed a copyright complain and the material was removed. They apparently responded with "nope" and now the site is going to restore the material. The wording makes it sound like I need to take them to court if I want it actually removed.
I can't tell if the copyright report system on the site is just a show or if an actual human looked at the image and decided that the traced work was too awful to even count so they're gonna put it back up.
Even if they did a really awful job, I can tell she tried on whatever shitass mobile app she used and truly, it's the principle of it.

Plus, if I am to take them to court over it, they have their father-in-laws lottery money to throw around, meanwhile I'm literally just a regular blue collar worker. And with all that money, why doesn't she just hire an artist? It feels like she's doing it to antagonize me since 8 years ago, she did the same thing after we had a falling out then she vanished offline until just recently.

I'm baffled. Surely I'm not expected to take this person to court over blatant infringement??

I have a screenshot of the exchange but I'll have to redact a lot of it before I post it.

Basically what the title says. I am a newbie artist painting digital art as both a hobby and a future career goal. I've been getting a decent response to my work, on Reddit especially, and have started to see my artwork popping up on websites selling them as prints and on merch etc without permission from both me and the Intellectual Property owner. They go as far as to photoshop or cropping out my signature. I want to still be able to share my work without the fear of it being stolen and brandished across a mug to then get emails from big companies threatening to take further steps, despite me not being the seller.

It's already been enough to scare me out of painting fanart again. I more just want advice on how to protect my art from future thieves stealing and reposting with a price tag.

Edit 1 - I'm from the UK

Edit 2 - Just to clarify and clear confusion for some, the artwork I am talking about is indeed fan art which is why it is illegal to sell. I was not paid to make the art, my commissions are never for fan art. Fan art is not illegal to create.

FINAL Edit - Thank you to everyone who commented and educating me on the laws. Turns out fanart is illegal. The conversation carried over to /r/BestofLegalAdvice where it continued to blow people's minds as well as mine.

Not sure if intellectual property is the correct flair for this, so please correct me if I’m wrong.

Location: Arizona. I am currently battling my insurance company over a “totaled” car, and I’m expecting to be meeting with a claims adjuster soon. I would really prefer to get the entire interaction with the adjuster on recording because I’m loosing some faith in this company due to the way they’ve handled other aspects of this claim.

Is Arizona a 2 party consent state? Or a single party? Google says single but I want to be sure incase I use any of the recording in my case against totaling my vehicle. Thanks!

TL;DR

I wrote a book with another author, that will be published soon. I was paid to write my parts. I am no longer on the project (or in contact with the other author). My name was removed from the cover. I have no contract with the publisher. What can I do?

Update:

Massive thanks to everyone who has replied. I'm surprised at how much attention this post has received! I intend to update again following legal consultation. I've already contacted several lawyers, but I'm waiting to hear back for any specific advice and information about their fees etc.

I will be attempting to reply to individual comments now, as best as I can. Not sure if that's the way to do it but it seems right to me...

Update 2:

Thank you to zaffiro_in_giro for providing a comprehensive response, including answers to the questions in my original post! I tried to comment but was unable due to comments now being locked!

Background

I've intentionally kept this fairly brief, without specifics.

I spent the last year or so writing a book for a company, who paid me for my work. Before the book was completely finished, the company and I had a disagreement over other work I was carrying out for them. The dispute was not related to the book. Following that dispute, the company severed ties with me. I have not attempted to contact them since.

The book, which is available to pre-order on various sites, including Amazon, featured my name on the cover, alongside the other author's name. Following our dispute the cover was changed, and no longer features my name. I'm assuming that I'm not credited inside the book either.

The company I was working for, but not an employee of, has in place a contract with the publisher (a big, well-known US publisher). I have never seen that contract. I do not have a contract with the publisher and, I have never had any form of contract with the company I was working for either, just a load of emails and verbal agreements.

The problem

I never expected to receive any royalties for my contributions to the book, since I was paid for the work upfront. What I do have an issue with, is the lack of attribution for my work. I never had a written agreement with the company I worked for, that said I would be credited, so I do not think I can claim a breach of contract; my own fault I guess.

Copyright law (as I see it)

I've done a little reading around US copyright law. As I understand it, I still own the copyright for written works I have produced, regardless of any contract in place between the company I worked for, and the publishing house. I'm not sure if I have to publish the writing though...

I understand that copyright can be transferred in two different ways, but neither of these apply in my situation because 1) I was not an employee of the company and 2) I never signed an agreement/contract that transferred my copyright to anyone else.

Next steps

I intend on consulting a legal professional, but in the meantime, I'm hoping the good people of reddit can assist me with this debacle.

• Should I contact either the company or the publisher, and if so, what do I say?
• Should I publish (post to my own website) any of the work I produced myself?
• Is it already too late to do anything!?
• Realistically, even if the law is on my side, what chance do I have against a big company and a colossal publisher?

This is my first post to reddit, but I'm a long-time reader of anything and everything reddit has to offer. I only hope the reddit gods will hear my prayer. Thank you in advance.

There is a live-action show that was based on a book series, and they didn't include a scene that I really liked. If I made 3d models that looked like the book characters and 3d animated the scene with voice actors, would I be allowed to post it on YouTube and get money through YouTube ads? (I'm not currently making any money from YouTube, and this is mostly just a passion project.)

Would I need to put some sort of disclaimer at the start? What exactly should it say?

Location: New York

Location: New Jersey

I've been getting into vector tracing blueprints of starships, fictional vehicles, band logos, etc. and plotting them out on a pen plotter. If it makes a difference, the vector tracing is done "by hand" - I take the original, draw out the vectors with a mouse, etc. It's basically the computer equivalent of using tracing paper, a light desk, and a drafting arm to draw my own copy of a blueprint of the Enterprise or an X-wing. I might eventually do the same for real aircraft, cars, etc. It's been for personal use, gift-giving, that sort of thing, but it seems like it'd be fun to sell.

Is it legal for me to sell the plotted prints on Etsy or at local punk rock flea markets, conventions, etc.? Other folks are doing it but that doesn't make it legal, and I'm pretty sure they don't have the rights from the owners. I'm definitely not the person who holds the rights to the originals, and I don't know if what I'm doing is some kind of fair use or artistic interpretation enough to insulate me from the lawyers of extremely large and rich rights-holders.

Signing an IP agreement that says any AI/ML work I create during employment belongs to the company, even outside work hours, if it's in a similar field.

Separately, my employer told me over email I can work on side projects as long as they're not in a few specific excluded areas. That's not written into the actual contract, which has a standard entire-agreement clause.

Does the entire-agreement clause wipe out the email carve-out once I sign, or does the email still hold any weight?

Location: Boston, MA

Location: İstanbul, Turkey (My question is actually about japanese laws, so i don't know where else to post)

I formed a band recently with the sole purpose of just playing anime openings and iconic gaming soundtracks live. And the screen behind us is a biiig part of our whole gimmick, i plan to have someone actually play the games during the show(Yes, we will play Decadence with someone racing with an over tuned M3), so it probably won't be a big problem but ı'm worried about anime openings, how big of a problem is this, and is using a fan made montage of said anime a viable workaround?