Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Texas

Working at a TV station I aided in cleaning out several storage rooms into a on-site dumpster. During my off time I removed several pictures, slides and posters that were part of promotions of shows and movies that aired. Can I sell these items without repercussions? The items do have network logos printed or embossed somewhere on the item.


Asked on 11/02/09, 7:39 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Bruce Burdick Burdick Law Firm

Generally yes you can. You apparently acquired them legally through your own labor after they were abandoned by the prior owner (the TV station), unless you improperly added them to the clean out in order to retrieve them later (in which case you have criminal liability should you retrieve them for later sale), so it is apparently as if you acquired them by purchase. There are some unanswered questions that could change the situation and thus reverse the answer. (How will be obvious from the questions.) Such as, was the dumpster on-site publicly accessible where anyone could have taken these items or was access limited to employees only? Does the TV Station have a policy against employees dumpster-diving in the TV station's dumpsters or do they allow employees to take items from the dumpsters? Does the TV station send the contents of the dumpster in question to a public dump where anyone could take these items or are the contents sent to a private confidential destruction location so these things won't be obtained by the public?

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Answered on 11/16/09, 4:16 pm


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