Intellectual Property

After 17 years, can the product patented be copied by others without being sued for infringement ?

One of the advertisers on your site is DH Gate from China. Is it legal to buy merchandise from China? Many people say that Chinese merchandise is a knockoff or pirated copy. For example, there are companies on DH Gate offering wholesale lots of Disney movies. Are any of these companies licensed to make Disney movies (DVDs), and what if they are unlicensed and just making a really good copy. Would someone get into trouble with the law if they bought a wholesale lot of movies from China and tried to sell them individually in the USA? What category crime (if any) would this be?

Hello. I have a friend who is a supervisor for a company that makes computer games for a Christian bookstore (Let___s call it Company C). This morning, he was served with a lawsuit from another company ( let___s just call it company N), who says that the game Company C has just put on the market (game X) is only a knock-off version of one of Company N___s most popular games/books (game/book Y). Company N wants Company C to immediately pull all the games X from the shelves and send the profits already made to Company N or they will prepare a lawsuit against Company C. The fella (Henry C) who wrote the game X says that it was a depiction of his life story. The Napster case is mentioned also, by Company N, where the Game X of Company C players can go online and share prayers, sheet music for hymns, and Christian music CDs in MP3 format.My Questions: In order to make sure my friend puts together the best case and does what___s best for the company___s interest___.1.What things does he need to find out from Henry C, who supposedly didn___t copy Game Y.Can you please send your response to cherece_mckinney@yahoo.com

Question 1: If one gets permission from the copyright owner of a book to republish that book in another language, and faces the challenge of not being able to secure affordable rights to publish the pictures/illustrations found in the book from the same sources as indicated in the original book, can that person use similar pictures from the public domain or other sources that indicate their material can be used without restriction (e.g. it is from a government source, like the National Archives)Question 2: There are many books that are in the public domain. Can one use pictures from such books to include in another book which will be sold for a profit? For example, as in Question 1, in the possession of the necessary license permisson an English title will be translated into Polish and published in Poland. Can the publisher of the Polish version scan pictures from some old books now in the public domain to be included in the new translated version, assuming there is also no royalty on those pictures as those book are in the PD? (Even though some of those pictures and paintings dont seem to be available for free from other sources today)

My sisters widower (of 8 years) is still receiving 50% of royalties from Sony Music and Capitol/EMI. He has completely estranged himself from our family and has remarried. Is he still entitaled to this money???