Essentials Of Business Law Chapter 25 Intellectual Property McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Essentials of Business LawChapter 25-2 Trade Secrets Specialized knowledge associated with a particular business  Information about manufacturing processes, practices, devices, and customers  Sharing of information with a competitor would place the firm at a serious disadvantage

Essentials of Business LawChapter 25-3 Protection Of Trade Secrets Restrictive covenants  Agreement in which the employee agrees not to work in similar employment Agreements not to compete  Used when an established business is sold  Seller agrees not to begin or operate a similar business Within a certain geographic area Within a specified period of time

Essentials of Business LawChapter 25-4 Trademarks Any word, name, symbol, or device used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify goods Ownership may be designated by  The use of the word registered  The symbol   The symbol  Registrations are renewable periods of ten years Trademarks prevent others from:  Using the trademark in connection with competing goods  Using the trademark in the same or in a similar line of business  Using marks or names so similar to those registered that reasonable people might confuse them

Essentials of Business LawChapter 25-5 Trademarks Service marks  Symbols used to identify services Trade characters  Fictional character Pillsbury Doughboy Marlboro Man Trade names  The name under which a firm does its business Microsoft General Motors Brand names  The registered names for products Windows Cadillac

Essentials of Business LawChapter 25-6 Protecting Trademarks Never use a trademark without the generic name of the product Never use a trademark in the possessive form Never use a trademark in the plural Always identify trademarks Continuously monitor the way others use your trademarks

Essentials of Business LawChapter 25-7 Trademarks in Cyberspace Domain name  Unique identifier that serves as an address for a web page Cybersquatting  Registering or using another person’s or company’s domain name in bad faith for the purpose of earning a profit Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act  Prevents someone from buying up domain names and then reselling these back to the companies who own the trademark  Firm would need to demonstrate to the court that: there was bad faith on the part of the cybersquatter the company owns the trademark the trademark is distinctive the domain name being used by the cybersquatter is identical to the trademarked name owned by the complaining party

Essentials of Business LawChapter 25-8 Copyrights Government-granted protection given to creators of literary, creative, or artistic works  Books, magazines, music, maps, works of art, motion pictures, computer programs, and videos Protected for the lifetime of the creator plus 70 years Copyrighted material is often noted by the symbol © Infringement  Copying without permission

Essentials of Business LawChapter 25-9 Copyrights Fair use  Applies to criticism, news reporting, research, education, or parody Substantial similarity test  Used to determine two works that the work being questioned was copied from the other  Applies the judgment of the ordinary reasonable person

Essentials of Business LawChapter Patents Government-granted protection awarded to inventors Patent-holder has the exclusive right to manufacture, use, and sell the invention Granted for 20 years Cannot be renewed Design patent  Protects distinctive patterns, figures, and shapes, and to prevent unauthorized copying Soft-drink bottles, wine decanters, silverware patterns  Granted for periods of less than 20 years

Essentials of Business LawChapter Requirements For Patents The invention must be a device  May include a design or process The invention must be useful The invention must be novel The invention must be non-obvious