Law
US Intellectual Property
US intellectual property refers to the legal rights that protect creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, and images used in commerce. It encompasses patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, providing creators and innovators with exclusive rights to their work and incentivizing innovation and creativity.
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eBook - PDFThe Guide to Entrepreneurship
How to Create Wealth for Your Company and Stakeholders
- Ph.D Szycher(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Productivity Press(Publisher)
203 Chapter 10 Intellectual Property 10.1 Introduction Intellectu al prop erty ( IP ) is a legal concept that refers to creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized. 1 In its broadest sense, intel-lectual property means the legal rights that result for intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary, and artistic fields, and protection against unfair competition. 2 On July 31, 1790, Samuel Hopkins was issued the first patent for a pro-cess of utilizing potash, an ingredient used in fertilizer, for soap making. The patent was signed by President George Washington, by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, as well as the Secretary of War and the Attorney General. Hopkins was born in Vermont, but was living in Philadelphia, PA, when the patent was granted and issued as shown in Figure 10.1. Under the international intellectual property law concept, owners are granted certain exclusive time-limited rights (20 years from the filing date) to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; technical discoveries and inventions; plus words, phrases, expressions, sym-bols, designs, commercial names, and designations. It is your bank account of ideas. Familiarity with the concept of intellectual property can give you an edge in today’s competitive environment. Legally recognized intellectual property comes in several forms, as summarized in Table 10.1. A patent grants an inventor exclusive rights to make, use, sell, and import an invention for a limited period of time (on June 8, 1995, the new 204 ◾ The Guide to Entrepreneurship: How to Create Wealth for Your Company term took effect in the U.S.), in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention and its practical application. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem, which may be a product or a process.
- William Sims Bainbridge, William S. Bainbridge(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
240 W hereas traditional property rights give owner-ship in land and tangible goods, intellectual property rights protect creations of the human mind. The ideas and information that qualify for legal pro-tection, ranging from inventions and scientific discoveries to artistic works and designs, are protected through the governmental grant of exclusive rights in intangible assets representing the intellectual property. These exclusive rights allow intellectual property owners the ability to con-trol certain uses of their intellectual creations by others, typically for a limited period of time. Intellectual property law broadly serves both to protect rights in intellectual goods and services and to provide a legal mechanism to promote fair trade and a regulated dissemination of knowl-edge created back to society for further innovation. To give an overview of the various types of intellectual property rights, reference to intellectual property law in the United States will be used. In the United States, the power to grant intellectual property rights derives from Article I, section 8, of the Constitution, which grants Congress the power “to promote the Progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” From a combination of this Constitutional grant and other state laws, four general categories of intellectual property rights have developed: patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. This chapter will discuss each of these areas and will conclude by identifying certain intellectual property-based impediments to innovation and by discussing strategic responses to those challenges. Patents Patent law protects inventive activity in a wide range of tech-nological fields and is most closely associated with scientific and technological innovation.
eBook - PDF- Aram Sinnreich(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Yale University Press(Publisher)
Our focus will be primarily on American and western Euro-pean approaches to IP, for reasons that will become clear, although we will also spend some time on its role in international relations. By the time you finish the book, you won’t know everything about IP, but you’ll know enough to participate in the debate and to inter-pret and apply the laws according to your own point of view, and you’ll know where to look next to continue your education. But before we do any of that, we need to answer the question we started with: What is intellectual property? At the most basic level, IP is a set of legal rights, rooted in legislation, interpreted by the courts, and used for better and for worse by a range of different Introduction 4 stakeholders, from individual authors to international conglomer-ates. In the remainder of this introduction we will explore specific varieties of IP, from copyrights to trade secrets, and consider briefly “how the sausage is made”—that is, where these laws come from and how they’re used in practice. Copyright Copyright is perhaps the most contentious and visible form of IP, and it plays the greatest role in enabling, constraining, and regulat-ing our media and cultural spheres. It gives the author or creator of a work a temporary monopoly over certain uses of that work. Specifically, only the owner of a copyright can reproduce a work, prepare derivative works (such as translations and dramatizations) based on it, distribute or sell copies of it, and perform or display the work publicly. The owner can also grant third parties the right to do those things as well, in exchange for money or other considera-tions, or for reasons of generosity, altruism, or self-promotion. When copyright was first developed in the U.S., the law covered only books, maps, and charts.
eBook - PDFIntellectual Properties and the Protection of Fictional Characters
Copyright, Trademark, or Unfair Competition?
- Dorothy J. Howell(Author)
- 1990(Publication Date)
- Praeger(Publisher)
While the courts stop short of actually condoning plagiarism, in- fringement is the only recognized legal wrong that the courts can act to prevent or halt. STATUTORY PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Constitutional Protection of Intellectual Property In the United States, all analyses of intellectual property rights must start with the highest law in the land, the U.S. Constitution. Section 8 of Article I charges the legislative branch with the regulation of commerce and with the promo- tion of "the Progress of Science and the useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." (It is both proper and highly informative to read "monopoly" in place of "exclu- sive Right.") These exclusive rights take the form of patents, copyrights, and trademarks. 10 Introduction to Intellectual Property Law Patent, Copyright, and Trademark Definitions. 9 A patent is defined as a "grant made by the government to an inventor, conveying to him the exclusive right to make, use and sell his invention for a term of years." Patents will not be discussed here, except as contrasting with copyright or trademarks. Copyright is defined as an "intangible, incorporeal right granted by statute to the author or originator of certain literary or artistic productions, whereby he is invested, for a limited period, with the sole and exclusive privilege of multiplying copies of the same and publishing and selling them." A major part of this book's discussions will center on copyrights.
- Clyde E. Willis(Author)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- Greenwood(Publisher)
5 Intellectual Property: The Copyright Act of 1976 Intellectual property includes products of a person's intellectual efforts, such as books and articles, discoveries and inventions. Fed- eral statutes protect the proprietary or ownership interest of au- thors, inventors, and discoverers in and to these intellectual properties under three basic statutes: copyright, patent, and trade- mark. Copyright is the name for the monopoly right granted by the government to authors, composers, and playwrights for a specified period of time to exclusively publish, produce, sell, or distribute original literary works, musicals, dramas, or artwork. Patent is the name for the right granted to inventors for the exclusive right to make, use, and sell their inventions for a certain period of time. Trademark is the name, symbol, or other device that identifies a seller's product. When trademarks are registered with the appro- priate governmental office, they can be used only by the seller. Laws that secure intellectual property rights might not be typi- cally thought to involve First Amendment issues. After all, intellec- tual property rights are explicitly designed to enhance creative expression, not stifle it. Notwithstanding the goals of intellectual property laws, they do in fact have serious First Amendment reper- cussions. As we will see, laws that grant a monopoly on expression not only limit who can repeat the expression, but they can also restrict discussion of the underlying ideas that generate the ex- pression. Copyright and patent statutes are enacted under the authority contained in Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides in part that "The Congress shall have power to . . .
- Carl Roper(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
The protection of IP is somewhat complex and can fall into various realms, including legal, information technology, and even human resources. The categories of IP for concern, consideration, and protection are patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. PATENTS Patents protect the world of inventions. To qualify for a utility patent, an invention must be • Useful, that is, it is capable of performing its intended purpose. • Novel, that is, it must differ in some way from the publicly known or existing knowledge in the field of the invention. • Non-obvious, that is, persons working in the field of the invention would consider the invention unexpected and surprising. 2 Patents are the grant of a property right to the inventor(s), being issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Patents provide the inventor(s) the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention within the United States or importing the invention into the United States and such products made by that process, referring to the specification for the particulars thereof. Applications for patents must be filed in the USPTO. Any person who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent,” including practically everything that is made by humans and the processes for making the products. “If the invention is a process, of the right to exclude others from using, offering for sale or selling throughout the United States, or importing into the United States, products made by that process, referring to the specification for the particulars thereof,” that can also be patented. There are also “business process” patents that protect certain “ways of doing” that produce material or services.
eBook - PDF- M. H. Fulekar(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
In any case, the first step in determining if IP protection is right for your company is to secure the services of specialized legal counsel. It is important to note that in addition to obtaining patent protection, you should also protect your trade secrets through appropriate confidentiality provisions in employment, licensing, marketing, financing, distribution, and joint venture agreements. The majority of countries in the world have a system of intellectual property protection and enforcement because it encourages innovation 556 Environmental Biotechnology and creativity, which in turn leads to economic prosperity of the nation. The first intellectual property law was passed in Venice in the year 1474. This law protected the investor’s interest against copying of their creation. England soon followed suit and in the year 1624 passed the Statute of Monopolies, which granted intellectual property rights to the inventor for a limited period. However, the intellectual property system as we know today, commenced with the birth of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1883. The Paris Convention made it easier for individuals in one nation to obtain protection globally. This convention was followed by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Broadly, intellectual property is divided into two categories: industrial property and copyright. Industrial property includes patents, trademarks, industrial designs and geographic indications while copyright includes creative works like novels, poems, plays, films, musical works, computer software and artistic works. 20.4.1 Intellectual Property Protection (Fretz and Mackenzie 2002, Lesser 2002) 20.4.1.1 Copyrights Copyrights provide to the creators of certain kinds of material to control the various ways in which their material may be exploited, including copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to the public; performing in public and broadcasting.
Available until 23 Dec |Learn more- David Pressman, Richard Stim(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- NOLO(Publisher)
• One or more earlier patents or other publications (prior-art references) are uncovered that show that the invention wasn’t new or wasn’t different enough to qualify for patent rights (see Chapter 4). • The patent owner engages in certain defined types of illegal conduct, that is, commits antitrust or other violations connected with the patent (see Chapter 8). • The patent applicant committed “fraud on the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)” by failing to disclose material information, such as relevant prior-art references, to the PTO during the period when the patent application was pending (see Chapter 8). In short, the patent monopoly, while powerful, may be defeated and is limited in scope and time. CHAPTER 1 | PATENTS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW | 9 Intellectual Property—The Big Picture Intellectual property refers to any product of the human mind or intellect, such as an idea, invention, artistic expression, unique name, business method, industrial process, or chemical formula. Intellectual property (IP) law determines when and how a person can capitalize on a creation. Intellectual property law has several subcategories, based on the type of “property” involved: • Patent law deals with the protection of inventions. • Trademark law deals with the protection of a brand name, design, slogan, sound, smell, or any other symbol used to identify and market goods or services. Examples of trademarks are the words “Ivory,” “Coke,” and “Nolo,” as well as the Tesla (“T”) logo, and the Mister Softee musical jingle. • Copyright law deals with the protection of books, movies, music, visual works and other forms of personal expression, giving the creator the right to prevent others from copying or using their works without permission and to recover damages from those who do so. • Trade secret law protects confidential business information that gives a business an advantage over its competitors—for example, manufacturing processes, magic tricks, and drink formulae.
eBook - PDF- William J. Chambliss(Author)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
Such environments are found, for example, in photo-sharing Websites, where photographers disclaim exclusive rights to posted images. In these and other public-domain spaces, the expression of Intellectual Property Rights 143 creativity and new knowledges are shared, and increase in ways unfettered by the assertion of exclusive rights and legal claims based on IP ownership. Between Commerce and Creativity Viewed in historical context, the current debates around music downloading, digital rights management (DRM), patented pharmaceutical drugs, and other hot topics within IP circles, are intimately connected to the long-standing ten-sion between guarding trade and commerce on the one hand, and promoting artistic expression and the production of scientific knowledge on the other. Building on centuries of developed English law, the Patent and Copyright Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides only a limited term of years for the protection of writings and discoveries, a limit that is intended to offer an incentive for production and prevent exclusive rights from inhibiting the pro-duction of knowledge over time; however, the term of years for both patents (inventions) and copyrights (such as books and music) has been increased many times since the signing of the Constitution, thereby expanding the scope of protection—and decreasing the size of the public domain. The tension between trade and creativity is not absolute, because one important rationale for patent and copyright monopolies is to offer eco-nomic incentives for creativity. Even so, IP rights—and in particular the expanding criminalization of IP and IP-related offenses—sometimes chills the open exchange of information, expressive content, and technological innovation. Balance between these competing interests have been attempted and achieved by different methods, practices, and legal devices throughout the history of IP. The balancing has led to a standardized typology of IP rights that are codified in U.S.
eBook - PDFProfit From Your Idea
How to Make Smart Licensing Deals
- Richard Stim(Author)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- NOLO(Publisher)
Each type of intellectual property gives you certain rights. For example, if a U.S. patent is issued for your invention, you have the exclusive right to make, use, and sell the invention within the United States. If the name of your invention qualifies as a trademark, you have the exclusive right to use the name on certain products. It is these rights that are the subject of a license. Because legal protection can enhance the value of your invention, we suggest you evaluate every aspect of your creation in order to acquire the broadest possible protection. SKIP AHEAD If you already own a patent for your invention or if you understand the type of intellectual property that you own in your invention, you can skip this chapter and go to Chapter 3, which discusses owner- ship rights. General Rules for Legal Protection of Inventions A basic rule of intellectual property law is that various features of the same invention may be protected by different types of intellectual property. In general: • The functional features of your invention (how it works and what it does) may be protectable under: ■ utility patent laws, and ■ trade secret laws. • The nonfunctional features (the decorative appearance, artistic expression, or packaging) may be protectable under: ■ trademark laws ■ design patent laws, and ■ copyright laws. The Public Domain When an invention, an artwork, or a symbol used on a product isn’t protected by intellectual property law, it’s considered to be in the public domain. A creation that is in the public domain is free for all to use and may be copied. Inventions that aren’t protected by intellectual property laws are in the public domain. 48 | PROFIT FROM YOUR IDEA Functional vs. Nonfunctional Intellectual property rights are often divided between functional elements (protected by utility patents and trade secrets) and nonfunctional elements (protected by trademarks, copyrights, and design patents).
eBook - PDF- Duncan Spiers(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- EUP(Publisher)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 23 2 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS Incorporeal moveable property is perhaps the most important of all the rights in moveable property as the values which are expressed and recognised by the law express important social or more commonly economic interests. Examples of this include: bank deposits and accounts (where the receipt or bank book showing the amount of the deposit is a certificate of title to the deposit); stocks and shares in a company (where the owner has rights to shares or periodic payments in the company provided for in the articles of association of the company and evidenced by certificates issued by the company’s registrars); negotiable instruments (where the document is a personal obligation to pay money payable to the bona fide holder a title to demand payment – for example, bearer bonds). Among the most important of these incorporeal moveable rights are the varioUS Intellectual Property (IP) rights which we now summarise. COPYRIGHT Copyright is the legal right to prevent others from copying or reproducing an individual’s creative work in such a way as to take advantage of the creator’s right to exploit the work economically. Copyright, as with all IP rights, is mainly about protecting an owner’s commercial interests in creative work. To understand copyright, we have to understand the kinds of work which are protected. First, it is not the idea itself which is protected but rather it is the expression of a creative idea that is protected. It is only when an idea has been rendered in a fixed form, such as being committed to paper or being recorded on tape or disk or on film or otherwise, that it can be protected. The fixed form which is protected varies from one type of work to another. The ideas themselves, rather than the expression of the idea, are not protected and anyone can acquire and use knowledge which they have obtained from a copyright work.
eBook - PDFFreedom of Artistic Expression
Essays on Culture and Legal Censure
- Paul Kearns(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Hart Publishing(Publisher)
The Intellectual Property Rights of Artists 135 III THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF ARTISTS A Copyright Law in England, France and the USA Copyright comprises the exclusive right to produce copies of, and to control, an original work, which is granted by law for a specified number of years. 33 The copyright law of the United Kingdom is to be found in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended. 34 This Act came into force largely on 1 August 1989; some minor provisions came into force later, in 1990 and 1991. Various amendments have been made to the original statute, the majority as a result of European Union directives. 35 Artistic works are amongst the works eligible for copyright protection and such protection is automatic, but, sig-nificantly, only when the relevant artistic ideas are put in material form. Before 1 January 1996, the relevant copyright term in the United Kingdom was the life of the author and 50 years. An extension to 70 years was introduced by the Copyright and Rights in Performances Regulations of 1995. These new Regulations implemented a European Council Directive, 36 the objective of which was to make the copyright duration uniform throughout the European Union. 37 In the United Kingdom, it is assumed that the author of the work is the first owner of its copyright. However, if the created work is made by an author in the course of his/her employment, then the author’s employer is the first to possess the contingent copyright. The copyright period does not alter according to who owns the copyright, unlike in the USA. In the USA, copyright protection was once granted under both federal and state laws. In 1979, Congress abolished most state copyrights in favour of an overarching federal copyright statute.
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