You are viewing a plain text version of this content. The canonical link for it is here.
Posted to legal-discuss@apache.org by Wes Wannemacher <we...@wantii.com> on 2009/04/03 06:30:49 UTC

OT - Law Firm engagement

Hello,

I own and operate a small c-corp with myself as the sole programmer / 
engineer. I am applying for Professional Information Technology Liability 
insurance and on the application it asks whether or not I have ever sought 
legal counsel regarding intellectual property matters. I have posted questions 
to this list (regarding the open source projects I work on), but I don't know 
if that counts. Anyhow, it also asks the name of the law firm I work with 
regarding such matters. 

For the sake of doing my homework, is there any attorneys or representatives 
of law firms (hopefully specializing in IP law) willing to consider listing my 
company as a client? I am not facing any litigation, nor will any upcoming 
project present any foreseeable risk. I work with another attorney for more 
regular matters, but they do not specialize in IP, so I'd like to make sure 
that I have a contact when it comes to IP. So this is a solicitation for a 
small amount (or no) work. Just enough to make me feel better that if it comes 
up in the future, I have someone in my corner who knows what they are doing.

My contracts are work-for-hire, so I do not retain copyright on the code I 
write. I will have the liability policy in place in case it is needed. I am 
not sure if this is the best place to solicit, but I'd rather know that I have 
someone that actually knows IP, than just asking a local law firm in suburban 
Ohio. 

If this is not the right place to ask, I apologize in advance, but if no one 
volunteers, I'll follow up any suggestions anyone can give. Thanks!
-- 

Wes Wannemacher
Author - Struts 2 In Practice 
Includes coverage of Struts 2.1, Spring, JPA, JQuery, Sitemesh and more
http://www.manning.com/wannemacher


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: legal-discuss-unsubscribe@apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: legal-discuss-help@apache.org


Re: OT - Law Firm engagement

Posted by Paul Libbrecht <pa...@activemath.org>.
Le 03-avr.-09 à 16:59, Wes Wannemacher a écrit :
> Don't get me wrong, I have an attorney... I use him to review
> contracts, advise me on my rights when someone doesn't want to pay,
> etc. To me, that's routine stuff that most local attorneys can take
> care of. But, if someone read some of my code and accused me of
> copyright infringement, then my attorney would be completely *lost*. I
> was sort of hoping there would be a IAAL on this list that would say -
> "sure, Wes, if you ever have a problem, you can call my firm." Then, I
> can fill them in on my insurance app, as well as know who I will call
> should the need arise.

Depending on the country you are in, you may have a chance looking at  
the archives of this list where some wise souls advise and, I believe,  
must have a legal practice and background.

In germany, I would suggest IFROSS:
    http://www.ifross.de/
which is a kind of institute for lawyers and open-source.

Basically, from names there you should look for firms. That's how I  
see things and I guess you could have the same search on this mailing- 
list.

I don't think it's been a practice of the Apache software foundation  
to show the company names anything beyond the contribution of  
individual persons and that is probably quite sane.

paul

Re: OT - Law Firm engagement

Posted by Wes Wannemacher <we...@wantii.com>.
On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 9:28 AM, Henri Yandell <hy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 5:30 AM, Wes Wannemacher <we...@wantii.com> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I own and operate a small c-corp with myself as the sole programmer /
>> engineer. I am applying for Professional Information Technology Liability
>> insurance and on the application it asks whether or not I have ever sought
>> legal counsel regarding intellectual property matters. I have posted questions
>> to this list (regarding the open source projects I work on), but I don't know
>> if that counts.
>
> Definitely doesn't :) Thus all the:
>
> "IANAL", "Talk to your own lawyer" and "This is not Legal advice"
> clauses that people have to include in their emails.
>
> Hen
>

Don't get me wrong, I have an attorney... I use him to review
contracts, advise me on my rights when someone doesn't want to pay,
etc. To me, that's routine stuff that most local attorneys can take
care of. But, if someone read some of my code and accused me of
copyright infringement, then my attorney would be completely *lost*. I
was sort of hoping there would be a IAAL on this list that would say -
"sure, Wes, if you ever have a problem, you can call my firm." Then, I
can fill them in on my insurance app, as well as know who I will call
should the need arise.

-- 
Wes Wannemacher
Author - Struts 2 In Practice
Includes coverage of Struts 2.1, Spring, JPA, JQuery, Sitemesh and more
http://www.manning.com/wannemacher

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: legal-discuss-unsubscribe@apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: legal-discuss-help@apache.org


Re: OT - Law Firm engagement

Posted by Henri Yandell <hy...@gmail.com>.
On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 5:30 AM, Wes Wannemacher <we...@wantii.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I own and operate a small c-corp with myself as the sole programmer /
> engineer. I am applying for Professional Information Technology Liability
> insurance and on the application it asks whether or not I have ever sought
> legal counsel regarding intellectual property matters. I have posted questions
> to this list (regarding the open source projects I work on), but I don't know
> if that counts.

Definitely doesn't :) Thus all the:

"IANAL", "Talk to your own lawyer" and "This is not Legal advice"
clauses that people have to include in their emails.

Hen

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: legal-discuss-unsubscribe@apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: legal-discuss-help@apache.org