3 ms·

"Any lawyer familiar with copyright and trade mark law can see, however, that printing one’s own birthday cards could, depending on the source and nature of the

by praptak 16y ago

"Any lawyer familiar with copyright and trade mark law can see, however, that printing one’s own birthday cards could, depending on the source and nature of the images used, infringe a number of intellectual property (IP) rights." In many countries private use does not constitute copyright/trademark/patent infringement.

ZeroGravitas 16y ago
Is it still "private" if you give it to someone else as a gift, and they give you, at a later time, a gift of roughly equal value in return? If the answer is yes then just re-arrange all actual business to fit this model.
roel_v 16y ago
Printing your own birthday cards is not private use. 'Private use' in a legal (copyright) context is not just 'I don't directly make money from it'. Industrialized countries who have such legislation are bound by the TRIPs and Berne agreements and 'private use exemptions' are bound by, amongst other, the three-steps-test (not sure if that is the exact term in English). Furthermore there is no such exemption for trademark or patent infringement in any legal system that I'm familiar with, but I'm happy to be proven wrong on that (it's not in my area of expertise either).
- praptak 16y ago
  "Furthermore there is no such exemption for trademark or patent infringement in any legal system that I'm familiar with, but I'm happy to be proven wrong on that" UK Patents Act 1977, Sec. 60 (5) (a): "An act which, apart from this subsection, would constitute an infringement of a patent for an invention shall not do so if - (a) it is done privately and for purposes which are not commercial;" As to trademark infringement I agree that there is no explicit exemption for private use. But on the other hand I think it is not necessary - trademark infringement is putting trademarked goods on the market so it's not private by definition.

3 ms·

"Any lawyer familiar with copyright and trade mark law can see, however, that printing one’s own birthday cards could, depending on the source and nature of the

by praptak 16y ago

ZeroGravitas 16y ago
Is it still "private" if you give it to someone else as a gift, and they give you, at a later time, a gift of roughly equal value in return? If the answer is yes then just re-arrange all actual business to fit this model.
roel_v 16y ago
Printing your own birthday cards is not private use. 'Private use' in a legal (copyright) context is not just 'I don't directly make money from it'. Industrialized countries who have such legislation are bound by the TRIPs and Berne agreements and 'private use exemptions' are bound by, amongst other, the three-steps-test (not sure if that is the exact term in English). Furthermore there is no such exemption for trademark or patent infringement in any legal system that I'm familiar with, but I'm happy to be proven wrong on that (it's not in my area of expertise either).
- praptak 16y ago
  "Furthermore there is no such exemption for trademark or patent infringement in any legal system that I'm familiar with, but I'm happy to be proven wrong on that" UK Patents Act 1977, Sec. 60 (5) (a): "An act which, apart from this subsection, would constitute an infringement of a patent for an invention shall not do so if - (a) it is done privately and for purposes which are not commercial;" As to trademark infringement I agree that there is no explicit exemption for private use. But on the other hand I think it is not necessary - trademark infringement is putting trademarked goods on the market so it's not private by definition.