You are being notified of an allegation against you for copyright infringement of a training course you recently published.  The cease and desist letter indicates you may liable for “possible penalty up to a $500,000 fine and/or five years in prison. For repeat offenders the possible sentence increases to $1,000,000 and/or ten years in prison.”  In addition, should a lawsuit be filed, you could be liable for statutory damages up to $150,000 per infringement, as well as the other side’s attorney fees.
 
As a training professional, if you opened the mail and found this in a letter addressed to you, it would be the beginning of a monster of a day. If you are an independent trainer you potentially have a significant legal liability, and if you are an internal trainer your company is going to be very upset with you.

The solution is to prevent this from happening before it happens.  Do you know the risk you may have concerning copyright infringement?  Is it possible there are copyright infringements in your materials? 

So, the appropriate question may be how do you ensure there are no monsters in your day? Join us for some professional development and learn more about the law and how to ensure you are in compliance?  Our September 16th meeting is on Copyright Law and the T&D profession.

This interactive session will address:
1.      The use of material found on the Internet and the law associated with it to help protect you and your organization from litigation.
2.      How you can protect your intellectual property and training products that you have produced.
3.      The “Fair use” aspect of copyright law.   

The session will include an overview of the law by a copyright lawyer and a group case study to engage us in deeper thinking about practical application of the law in our profession.

Biography

Daniel Thomson is an Ohio Based US Patent attorney who obtained his Juris Doctorate from the Ohio State University College of Law in 1998.

His practice includes U.S. and foreign prosecution of patents, trademarks, and copyrights, and litigation research pertaining to all areas of intellectual property law. Dan's educational background also includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Florida State University in 1993.

He is a member of the State Bar of Ohio, the Akron Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Cleveland Intellectual Property Law Association, National Law Association, Christian Legal Society, and the American Chemical Society, and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Supreme Court of Ohio, the Northern District of Ohio, the District of Colorado, and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.