Hello - good question. You are on the right track and it is important to make sure you have the legal rights to use this content before you incorporate it into your app. Emailing the content owner is a good start and you don't have to provide anything more than a summary of your app along with your request. This will help reduce the risk of them "copying" your idea.
Patents are a different thing altogether and would not protect your "idea". Once you have developed your app, copyright laws will provide you with a measure of protection.
If the content is important to include in your app you will need to ensure you obtain appropriate rights to use it. A lawyer can assist you with your initial request and can help make sure you have broad rights to use the content if the owner agrees to license it to you. Good luck!
Australia's Trade Marks Office is part of a Commonwealth Government organisation calledIP Australia. There is some helpful information on the IP Australia website at http://ipaustralia.gov.au/get-the-right-ip/trade-marks/about the procedures for applying to register a trade mark and the applicable government charges. Trade mark registration works on a country by country basis, so an Australian trade mark registration will not coverany other territory. You will have to apply separately in each other country, buthere is a mechanism for filing multiple applicationsfor other countries simultaneously. The IP Australia website also has information about this (seehttp://ipaustralia.gov.au/get-the-right-ip/trade-marks/international-trade-marks/).
A trade marks lawyer or a trade mark attorney can assist in a number of ways. One important service they can provide is to conductsearches and other advicebefore your application is filed to see if there are any prior conflicting trade marks or other issuesthat might cause problems for your application or for your use of your name and logo. They can also advise you on the details of your application to make sure that it covers the goods and services that your business issupplying or that you intend the business to supply in the future. Surprise, surprise, I think it's a good idea to consult a professional before you start using your intended name and/or logo! That advice will cost a bit, butmightsave you more money (and enable you toavoid time-consumingproblems)down the track.
By law contracts some types of contracts must be in writing(for example,wills and contracts for sale of land). Apart from that, an enforceable contract can be: (i) entirely verbal; (ii) partly verbal and partly in writing; (iii) in writing but spread across more than one document; or (iv) entirely in writing.
No matter howthe contract isput together, the key requirements for it to be legally enforceableare that: (i) the identity of the parties is clear; (ii) it must be clear what each party haspromised the other todo, or refrain from doing(this is called consideration and commonly consists of a promise by one partyto pay money in return for a promise by the other part to provide goods and/or services), and that each party has accepted the other party's offer (leaving somethingimportant "to be agreed" can be a contract killer); and (iii) it must be clear that the parties intended to enter into a legallyenforceable relationship. As long as those features are present the nature of the actual language used and the appearance of the document or documentsshouldn't matter.
The advantage of a written contract that is in one document that issigned by each partyis that (if it's clearly expressed) there should be better evidence of what was agreedand, hopefully, less room for disputes, than otherwise.
Hello
You can form a contract with a child but the real question is whether you willbe able to enforce it. The answer to that depends to some extenton the State in Australia where the contract is formed. For example, in some States (and again this depends on the circumstances)the child might have the choice of eitherwithdrawing from the contract without penaltyafter signing it,or enforcing the contractagainst the other party. The other party does not have the same flexibility. If this question is important to your business or to the financial or other wellbeing of the child, it would be a good idea to get legal advice before entering into the contract, as the rules vary considerably from State to State.
Lilian Dikmans
agreed with
Paul Noonan
's answer on
If I own the .com domain URL, am I entitled to the .au address?
Hello there and thanks for your question. The answer is no - your agreement with the registrar for the .com domain name doesn't give you any rights over the corresponding .au domain name. If the .au domain name is available, you can register it separately.