1. Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights
Chapter:15
Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights

2. Types of Property Real Personal Easements Intellectual Land
Cars, jewelry, clothing
Easements
Non-corporal interest in real property
Railroads, utilities
Intellectual
Patents, copyrights and trademarks

3. Patents Grant of a property right to the inventor
Issued by the Patent and Trademark Office
Term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States
US patent grants are effective only within the US, US territories, and US possessions.

4. Patents
The right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States
Not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention

5. Patentability (What may be patented?)
Statute says, "any person who invents any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof"

6. Patentability Process: Machine: Manufacture: Composition of Matter
Process, act or method, and primarily includes industrial or technical processes
Machine:
Self explanatory
Manufacture:
Articles which are made, including all manufactured articles
Composition of Matter
chemical compositions and may include mixtures of ingredients as well as new chemical compound

7. Conditions of Patentability
Utility
subject matter has a useful purpose and also includes operativeness
Invention must "work" to be useful
Novelty
Must not be known or used by others in this country
Or patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country

8. Conditions of Patentability
Non-obviousness
The subject matter sought to be patented must be sufficiently different from what has been used or described before that it may be said to be nonobvious to a person having ordinary skill in the area of technology related to the invention
Three leg stool

9. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)
Issue patents on behalf of the Government
Headed by Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks
Part of Department of Commerce
Administers the patent laws as they relate to the granting of patents for inventions
Examines applications for patents

10. PTO
Publishes issued patents and various publications concerning patents
Similar functions are performed with respect to the registration of trademarks
No jurisdiction over questions of infringement and the enforcement of patents
Divided among a number of examining groups, each group having jurisdiction over certain assigned fields of technology

11. Patent Application
Application = written document which comprises a specification (description and claims), and an oath or declaration
Drawing or reduction to practice
Filing fee
Filing date of an application for patent determines priority (first to file wins!!)

12. Provisional Patent Application
Designed to provide a lower cost first patent filing in the United States
Establish an early effective filing date in a patent application
Permits the term “Patent Pending”
Applicant would then have up to twelve months to file a non-provisional application for patent

13. Patentability
Laws of nature, physical phenomena and abstract ideas are not patentable subject matter
Cannot obtained a patent for a mere idea or suggestion
Reduction to Practice of the actual machine or other subject matter for which a patent is sought is required

14. Design Patents
Any new and nonobvious ornamental design for an article of manufacture
Protects only the appearance of an article, not its structural or functional features
Design patent has a term of 14 years from grant
Proceedings relating to granting of design patents are the same as other patents

15. Plant Patents
Any newly discovered and asexually reproduced, distinct and new variety of plant, including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found seedlings, other than a tuber-propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state
same parts as other applications with the addition of a plant color coding sheet

16. Patent Infringement
Unauthorized making, using, offering for sale or selling any patented invention within the United States
Patentee may sue for relief in the appropriate Federal court where remedies include:
injunction to prevent the continuation of the infringement
Money damages because of the infringement
Appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, then US Supreme Court (writ of certiorari)

17. Trademarks / Servicemarks
Word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others
Servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product

18. Trademarks
Used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark
Not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark
May be registered with the Patent and Trademark Office

19. Trademark Registration
Trademark rights established by:
First to use the "mark"
First to file application with PTO
Federal registration not required but has advantages
Registered owner can use mark nationwide
Registration granted for 10 years
renewable for another 10

20. Trademark Registration
PTO is responsible for the federal registration of trademarks
PTO assigns it a serial number and sends the applicant a receipt about two months after filing
Examining attorney at the PTO reviews the application and determines whether the mark may be registered

21. Trademark Registration
Examining attorney will approve the mark for publication in the Official Gazette
PTO sends Notice of Publication to the applicant
Opportunity for public opposition
Certificate of Registration 12 weeks after publication

22. "TM", "SM", "®"
Use of TM (trademark) or SM (service mark) designation with the mark to alert the public to the claim
Prior registration with PTO not required
Registration symbol, ®, may only be used when the mark is registered in the PTO

23. Copyrights
Protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing
Copyrights are registered by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress
Duration is life + 70 years
Title 17 U.S. Code

24. Copyrights
Form of protection provided to the authors of “original works of authorship"
Including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished
Gives author and authorized other exclusive rights

25. Copyright Protection Author and Agent have exclusive rights to:
Reproduce the copyrighted work
Prepare derivative works
Distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work,
Perform the copyrighted work publicly
Includes digital audio transmission (Napster)
Display the copyrighted work publicly

26. Scope of Copyright Protection
Choreography
Motion pictures
Pictorial, graphic, sculptoral works
Sound recordings
Architectural works
Literary works
Musical works
Including lyrics
Dramatic works
Including music
Pantomines
MP-3 Music (Napster)

27. Scope of Copyright Protection
Must be "fixed in a tangible medium of expression" to be protected.
Not protected:
Unrecorded choreography
Slogans, short names, titles, familiar symbols
Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, principles
Information that is "common property"
Calendars, rulers, tape measures, public lists

28. Copyright Registration
Registration not require to secure copyright
Since 1978 Copyright protection is obtained automatically when the work is created, fixed in tangible medium of expression and published (distribution in public domain)
Gives right to defend copyright
Copyright registration has advantages

29. Copyright Registration
Legal formality intended to make a public record of the basic facts of a particular copyright
Not a condition of copyright protection
Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim
Required before an infringement suit may be filed in court (Jurisdictional prerequisite)

30. Copyright Notice Notice of Copyright Example: © 2000 John Doe
Symbol ©
Word "copyright"
Abbreviation "Copr."
Example: © 2000 John Doe
Sound recording require symbol, year first publication and name of owner
Example: (P) 2001 A. B. C. Records Inc.