Weekly IP Buzz for the Week Ending March 18, 2022
In this week's post, we have a parody article that asks the question "Have you ever wanted to make thousands of dollars from taking hobby photographs?" and gives a step-by-step guide on how to be a copyright troll.
Also, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and the proposed rules by the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) pose significant risks to private equity companies, their founders, and potentially associated professionals. The CTA was the culmination of a multi-year effort by Congress, the Department of Treasury (Treasury), other national security agencies, law enforcement, and other stakeholders to bolster the US corporate transparency framework.
Copyright Troll Step-By-Step Guide: How to Make Thousands as a Hobbyist Photographer
This article is a parody of copyright trolls who send demand letters and sue for copyright infringement based on third parties’ use of photographs. A future article will provide steps to combat these kinds of copyright infringement troll cases to minimize liability and defense costs.
Remember that the key to this is converting a hobby (digital photography) into an income stream paid by yet unknown third parties that are going to use your photograph in the future. With this goal in mind, it is generally best to take photographs of generic scenes of common interest. Examples include famous building and landmarks, highways and other roads, city images, etc. You will want to select something that is generic enough to appear in an Internet search for images and that third parties would want to include in their websites without realizing they are potentially violating your copyrights. That’s how you can monetize the images.
Read the full article here.
What Private Equity Needs to Know About the Corporate Transparency Act
While U.S. private equity and venture capital investments in U.S. based companies below Hart Scott Rodino thresholds typically do not require any governmental filings and the amount of investment and information about the fund and its individual owners is typically not required to be filed. Moreover, information on the control structure and individual ownership of these funds also is generally not required to be filed by the fund’s portfolio companies.
This is the case no longer. The enactment of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and the proposed rules by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) will now require private equity and venture capital firms to consider whether they or their portfolio companies are required to file reports with FinCen under the CTA.
Find the full article here.
Click to read the previous Weekly IP Buzz on Thriving Attorney: Joint defense agreements in patent cases. Corporate transparency and start-ups. WDTX new standing orders for patent cases.
For more posts, see our Ideate blog for the latest news and insights into law, business, and culture.
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In addition to publishing Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas. Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer. For more on the latest developments in IP law, see the blogs Ideate and IP Questions Answered.