MP week 9
Goal: The two major types of intellectual property that we deal with in the music industry are trademarks and copyrights. Since the music industry has a history of others claiming authorship of songs they haven’t written (e.g. Morris Levy/Frankie Lymon), or artists losing or selling their publishing rights to others (e.g. Michael Jackson and the Beatles), it is valuable for you to know 1) how to use the resources available to you to research copyrights and trademarks and 2) who owns the valuable intellectual property that you have come to respect in the industry.
Procedure: First, pick two (2) copyrights for contemporary works that have incorporated material in the public domain, two (2) copyrights for contemporary music works that are derivative works, and one (1) copyright for an original commercial/jingle, and look them up on the Internet to see who has a copyright interest and/or owns the publishing rights. Write up a memo identifying the works chosen, how it satisfies the particular category of the assignment, and who you identified as holding a copyright interest in the works. Attach links for your results for all five (5) registrations so I can see you found who owns the intellectual property you selected. (Test that the link clear shows the information for your registration…I should not have to navigate around a website to find the information.) Music copyrights can be found at the searchable databases for the Copyright Office (www.copyright.gov) or through the various PRO websites (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC) or through the Harry Fox Agency, a company that licenses uses on behalf of music publishing companies. You may have to check more than one site to obtain all of the necessary information.
