Kansas City Intellectual Property Blog

An important day for the Kansas City area is almost here. On Monday, Nov. 12, a major weeklong conference begins — dedicated to supporting and celebrating innovative people who launch startup businesses — Global Entrepreneurship Week. As a regional law firm dedicated to protecting the intellectual property — inventions, brands, trade secrets, processes and creative works — of our entrepreneur and inventor clients, we at Hovey Williams LLP in Overland Park, Kansas, embrace this opportunity. 

With more than 170 events, the conference is free of charge and open to the public. You can register online and build your own itinerary at the event website, which also includes free materials relevant to entrepreneurial endeavors.

Starting a new company with a great new idea can be exciting, but there needs to be some clear boundaries if the founder is jumping from a job as an employee in the same field. While the idea may be a good one with lots of promise, many employees sign Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreements. This could mean that an idea created or developed while working for someone else is owned by that employer, even if the employee created the idea during off hours at home.

Some employers do allow employees to work on side projects without claiming ownership, but the aspiring entrepreneur needs to be careful about their current obligations.

Led Zeppelin famously made rock music that was heavier, louder and more lucrative. The band did this while pillaging Norse mythology and J.R.R. Tolkien (among others) for its lyrics. Musically, it borrowed from a long line of musicians that included folk songwriters, fellow rock bands well as first generation bluesmen like Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. To be fair, band sometimes did cite a source for a songwriting credit.

However, the question of original province for “Stairway to Heaven” is going back to court. The guitar figure that opens this all-time classic song sounds similar to a minor instrumental song “Taurus,” which was recorded by the ‘60s-era San Francisco band Spirit and written by band guitarist Randy Wolfe, who is deceased. A federal court jury in Los Angeles ruled in 2016 that the band did not steal the famous riff.

Think about how many times music is played in a restaurant, independently owned coffee shop, local clothing store or other small business. Chances are that it is personally purchased by an employee or streamed from an internet source like Spotify or Apple Music, which likely means that there is no commercial license for playing the music in public.

This means that musicians, composers and owners of the song’s copyright are losing out. According to Forbes, $2.65 billion globally is lost annually because of recorded music played in the background without proper licensing. Here in the U.S., the total is $888 million annually. Not surprisingly, 71 percent of small business owners believe incorrectly that they can use privately purchased music in a store or business without a commercial license. Those who wish to legally stream or play music in their hair salon or other business would need to sign up for a Business-to-Business service with the proper license.