ON AIR

Metaverse Legal Group - Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress - Virtual Groping In this exciting episode of Litigation Whiteboard® Attorney Steve® discusses the metaverse and "sexual assaults" that have allegedly occurred in the virtual reality zone.  One question I pose is whether or not it is legal (meaning, is there any law prohibiting such digital conduct)?  One legal angle I explore is the tort of outrage (aka Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress).  Is this type of digital activity tortious?  Of course it will violate the community standards of gaming platforms such as Quivr and Horizon Worlds and others, but will a lawsuit be viable against either the platform (not able to provide adequate protections), or against the anonymous users (screenshots may help you locate them)?  These are new questions for a new digital age. Take a listen! Click here to watch my video on Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress:  If you like this podcast of Vondran Legal Hour feel free to share it on your social media networks.            

Attorney Steve® Domain Dispute Essentials - Bad Faith Abuse of UDRP Proceedings can lead to RDNH allegations in federal court. In this important IP law podcast, Attorney Steve® discusses domain disputes with WIPO and the National Arbitration Forum.  Basically, these are what's known as "UDRP domain name disputes" and arises where a Plaintiff claims to have valid trademark rights that pre-date those of another party, and that the other party is thus, in essence, infringing its trademark.   A UDRP action is a low cost arbitration and the domain name holder is required to submit to the proceeding (and yes, pay fees), so that the dispute can be heard.  While this is generally known as a quick and inexpensive way to protect a valid trademark, there is tremendous opportunity for abuse by Trademark Bully's seeking to over-reach and at times to file a UDRP complaint for no good reason other than to harass, bully, and try to strip away a domain name they often times wish they had purchased themselves (but lacked any real business acumen in this area). This can force desperate people to do desperate things and if requested, the UDRP domain arbitration panel (one to three panel members) can be asked to declare that the complaint has engaged in "Reverse Domain Name Hijacking."  Once this hapens, it potentially opens doors in federal court to sue for RDNH and to seek recourse up to $100,000 per domain name, and costs and attorney fees.  There may also be other state law legal theories to tag on as part of supplemental jurisdiction.  Click to listen to this IP podcast and learn more than most people know.  If you need help with a trademark lawsuit, declaratory judgment, UDRP domain dispute, cease and desist letter, or ACPA RDNH lawsuit, call us at (877) 276-5084 for more information.      

Attorney Steve® Digital Asset Essentials - NFT and Smart Contracts on Etherium and Copyright Ownership A lot of people are talking about NFT's being the next BIG THING technology-wise.  This may be true as we have seen some people generate some whopping sales prices (Twitter owners first tweet was minted and sold for 2.4 million) using cryptocurrency to purchase digital assets such as digital characters, artwork, landscape photos, .eth domains, land in the metaverse (ex. Superworld, Decentraland and the Sandbox) and much more.  But, many people do not know what "rights of ownership" you actually get.  By making a purchase on a web marketplace like OpenSea.io does one become the new owner of the digital art?  Generally speaking, they do not.  Instead, they are buying a "non-fungible token" (thus the term NFT), which is really just a way of saying you have purchased a unique, potentially rare, work of art represented as a token with the sale recorded on the blockchain (such as etherium). If you want the rights to reproduct the digital art offline, or to make merchadise bearing the art, or even the right to make "derivatives" of the copyrighted work, you should consider having a SEPARATE CONTRACT with the creator that spells out exactly what you are getting when you make the purchase.  If not, the smart contract will control, and what you are typically purchasing is the right to list and resell the token (usually with the original creator having a right to a percentage of that sale). This is a nuance some are aware of, but many I have talked to are not.  Heck, most people just look at me like I am crazy when I say NFT's are awesome. At any rate, I hope you like this podcast, and if you a separe copyright assignment or transfer agreement, deed of license, or other IP legal assistance you know where to find us.  

Attorney Steve® - Digital Currency Law Essentials - SEC vs. Ripple (XRP) lawsuit over alleged unregistered securities Here is a general legal overview (not legal or investment advice) of the SEC lawsuit filed in December of 2020 against Ripple Labs (now XRP).  This lawsuit alleges that Ripple is selling unregistered securities to "investors."  Will the lawsuit hold up or will the price skyrocket to the moon?  I think we will have the answer this year (2022).   Make sure to check out Vondran Legal® video channel for a video overview of the complaint.

Attorney Steve® TV Signal Piracy Updates 2021 - What you need to know when you receive a lettter from Joe Hand alleging illegal interception and boradcast of boxing events or combat sports. Joe Hand has not shown much sign of letting up on infringers of their UFC fights.  The reason for this makes sense as they are contractually obligated to enforce their intellectual property rights so that the PAYING commercial customers do not throw up their hands and say "why should I buy your fights if the guy down the street is allowed to show it for free." Thus, they pursue these claims often for significant monetary damages and companies like G&G Closed Circuit may call your business and demand as much as $50,000 to settle the case or they may threaten to file a civil court lawsuit.  G&G is one of the worst in this area.  Joe Hand, however, is much more civilized in my opinion, and setttlements are much more reasonable.  If you received a letter from a lawfirm such as Jekielek & Janis or other firm, contact us for a free initial discussion at (877) 276-5084.  You can find us at our corporate homepage at VondranLegal.com. We have helped many clients resolve this cases both in and out of court.

Attorney Steve® - Software Audit Essentials - End of year deals on your radar?  Close out your licensing disputes for a clean slate in 2022. Our law firm has helped hundreds of companies resolve software licensing disputes with companies like Microsoft (Business Software Alliance), Adobe, Vero, Siemens, VB Conversion, SIIA, Software Compliance Group, Ansys, Autodesk and Solidworks over the years.  We have helped both large and small companies from accounting firms to medical copmanies, law firm, architects, designers, cabinet companies, manufacturers, engineering companies and others. This is the time of year in my opinion to get your outstanding cases settled.  If you received a letter from a company like Harness & Dickey, Donahue Fitzgerald, Townsend Kirpatrick, Kutak Rock or other copyright law firms, call us for a free review of your case.  We can be reached at (877) 276-5084.   Many companies, while fairly firm on their negotiations most of the year, will agree to reduced deals if you can get your case closed out by December 31, 2021.  This is to "close out the books" for the year and move on to new cases in 2022 which promises to be aonther busy year interpreting audits, running computer scans, analyzing the use of credential sharing or over-installation or the use of "cracked software." Before just making the decision to "hold this over until 2022" think about the potential business advantages of resolving your software compliance matters now. Make sure to check out our popular legal video channel (over 32k subscribers) where I have posted many great software-related videos.  

Attorney Steve® Technology Law - Crypto, NFT's and now Digitial Real Estate ("collectibles").   In this interesting episode of Vondran Legal Hour, Attorney Steve® intellectual property attorney discusses the new phenomena of investing in digital real estate in the "metaverse" on sites such as Superworld, The Sandbox, or Decentraland.  Is this a passign fad or something your company should realistically look into?  In short, you can buy or sell properties (ex. NIke has a virtual store) and many others have scooped up digitial space on these platforms.  Before you say "this is crazy, learn more." If you have an entertainment, IP or technology legal issue, contact us at VondranLegal.com

Attorney Steve® IPTV Defense - Understanding Dish-Nagrastar Settlement Terms - The "Cooperation Clause" Dish/Nagrastar are going over illegal "resellers" of their copyright protected content and sending demand letters for people charged, in many cases, of being part of a "criminal organization."  They have a anti-piracy team set up to investigate and pursue violators and seek penalties, fines and fees.  In these cases, it is critical to seek legal representation especially since they can be alleging that you committed a CRIME.  This is no laughin matter and there was a new streaming piracy law that came out last year making this a crime, so you should NOT talk to anyong execpt a lawyer as your own statements, emails and text messages can be used aginst you in a Court of law.   This podcast discusses various settlement concepts and the all-important "cooperation clause."  If you received a cease and desist letter, or monetary demand letter or notice of a lawsuit, call us at (877) 276-5084.  We handle piracy cases including Dish-Nagrastar, IPTV cases, Strike 3 Holdings BitTorrent Defense and similar matters.   Our website is VondranLegal.com

Attorney Steve® Social Media Essential - Community Guidelines for Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and other platforms In this episode of Vondran Legal Hour, I discuss the importance of following community guidelines for social media platforms and what happens when your account is suspended.  Mainly, you can lose hard-earned follower base, and be forced to submit an appeal that may or may not succeed. Follow our YouTube channel here (over 32k subs) Thanks for listening and feel free to share this content! Steve Vondran, Esq.

Attorney Steve® Copyright Law Essentials - Photo Infringement - Fair use with low-resolution thumbnail? In this exciting episode of Vondran Legal Hour, Steve Vondran, Esq., discusses a 9th circuit "photo infringement" case where a photographer's copyrighted image was used as a "thumbnail" in low-resolution.  The photographer considered this to be copyright infringement and sued.  Defendant raised the affirmative defense of "fair use."  Who should win?   If you received a legal demand letter from PicRights, ImageRights, Higbee and Associates, Reuters, Agence-France-Presse, AP, or other rights holders demanding settlement fees for copyright infringement, call us to get an evaluation of your case.  There is a low fee to review but call for more details at (877) 276-5084. Our firm is a leader in the area of copyright infringement defense.  We represent individuals and corporations accused of copyright infringement of movies, photos, images, videos, music, jewelry, computer fonts, architectural plans, and other creative works that are subject to copyright infringement. We are a leader in the area of software audits (ex. Vero, Solidworks, Microsoft, Autodesk, and others).  Also, we represent more California residences facing Federal Court litigation in Strike 3 Holdings, LLC cases (adult movie file-sharing) than any other firm in California.  Make sure to check out our exciting YouTube law channel (now over 32,700 subscribers and over 3.5. million video views), by going to AttorneySteveVideos.com.  Make sure to SUBSCRIBE!!!