Posts Tagged: "James Cameron"

Inspiration vs. Copying: Where’s the Line in Hollywood?

When it comes to television shows, it not always clear what is “copyrightable.” Sometimes, filmmakers and screen writers can get into serious trouble if they don’t follow specific television copyright laws accordingly. Austin-based filmmaker Lex Lybrand watched the June 4th episode of the hit HBO series “Silicon Valley” to shockingly find strong similarities between the episode “The Patent Troll” and his own film “The Trolls.” Jed Wakefield of Fenwick & West recently sat down with IPWatchdog to discuss Lybrand’s case and the impact of copyright infringement when it comes to movie scripts.

Protecting property rights in works of authorship spurs creative innovations

Today, copyright drives innovation in the creative industries and in other industries as well, providing tremendous economic benefits to our economy. The outputs of the creative industries serve as the inputs that spur the creation of many innovative goods and services. Authors collaborate with technology partners not only to distribute their works, but often to create them. Sometimes storytelling itself leads to scientific discoveries and technological innovation. More and more frequently, the presumed distinction between creators and innovators is vanishing as individuals and firms simultaneously generate creative works and innovative technology.

Hollywood Patents: Inventions from 12 Celebrity Inventors

How many Hollywood celebrities were inventors? Below is our list of the most interesting inventions from a number of well known actors and directors… Action figures of movie star icons and heroes have been treasured by kids for decades now. George Lucas isn’t the first filmmaker to improve his wealth through merchandising, but this design patent, issued by the USPTO in April 1982, is just one of more than 20 design patents for toy figures that the filmmaker’s Lucasfilm company has been assigned.