Chapter 7 Flashcards
4 types of intellectual property
trade secrets, patents, copyrights, trademarks
intellectual property
patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. Federal and state laws protect intellectual property rights from misappropriation and infringement. Describes property that is developed through an intellectual and creative process. Falls into a category of property known as intangible rights.
Trade Secrets
Product formula, pattern design, compilation of data, customer list, or other business secret.
Uniform Trade Secrets Act
Gives statutory protection to trade secrets. For the lawsuit to be actionable, defendant must have acquired a trade secret through unlawful means. Owner is obliged to take all reasonable precautions to prevent that secret from being discovered by others.
Precautions of Trade Secrets
Fencing in buildings, placing locks on doors, hiring security guards, and the like.
Reverse Engineering
Used by competitors to lawfully discover a trade secret. Taking apart and examining a rival’s product or re-creating a secret recipe.
Misappropriation of a trade secret
Performed by unlawful means can lead to a civil lawsuit by the owner under state law. Successful plaintiff in the lawsuit can: recover the profits made by the offender from the use of the trade secret, recover for damages, obtain an injunction prohibiting the offender from divulging or using the trade secret.
Economic Espionage Act (EEA)
Makes it a crime for any person to convert a trade secret for his or her own or another’s benefit. Knowing or intending to cause injury to the owners of the trade secret. Enacted to address the ease of stealing trade secrets through computer espionage and use of the internet. Provides severe criminal penalties. Imposes prison terms on individuals of up to 15 years per criminal violation.
Patent
Grant by the federal government to the inventor of an invention for the exclusive right to use, sell, or license the invention for a limited amount of time. NO STATE PATENT LAWS
Federal Patent Statute
Establishes the requirements for obtaining a patent and protects patented inventions from infringement,
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Special federal appeals court that hears appeals from the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences and federal court concerning patent issues. Create to promote uniformity in patent law.
Patent Application
Filed with PTO in Washington, DC. Contains a written description of the invention. Inventor should hire a patent attorney to assist in obtaining a patent for an invention. Patent number: assigned if patent has been granted.
Provisional applicationI
Inventor may file with the PTO to obtain 12 months to prepare a final patent application
Patents are _____ patents.
utility
Utility Patent
Protects the functionality of an invention
Innovation that can be patented
machines, processes, compositions of matter, improvements to existing machines, processes, or compositions of matter, designs for an article of manufacture, asexually reproduced plants, living mater invented by person
To be patented, an invention must be
novel - new invention which has not been invented and used in the past. useful - invention with some practical purpose. nonobvious - invention is nonobvious.
Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA)
Passed by Congress in 2011. Stipulates a first-to-file rule for determining the priority of a patent. Utility patents for inventions are valid for 20 years.
Completion results in entrance of the invention or design into the __________.
public domain
Patent Infringement
Unauthorized use of another’s patent. Patent holder may recover damages and other remedies against a patent infringer.
Successful plaintiff in a patent infringement can recover
Money damages equal to a reasonable royalty rate on the sale of the infringed articles. Other damages caused by the infringement. Order requiring the destruction of the infringing article. Injunction preventing the infringer from such action in the future.
Design patent
May be obtained for the ornamental nonfunctional design of an item. Valid for 14 years.
Copyright
Legal right that gives the author of qualifying subject matter, fulfilling other requirements established by copyright law. Exclusive right to publish, produce, sell, license, and distribute the work. Sold or licensed to others, whose rights are then protected by copyright law.
Copyright Revision Act
Establishes the requirements for obtaining a copyright. Protects copyrighted works from infringement.
Tangible Writing
Writings that can be physically seen. Subject to copyright registration and protection.
Registration
Work must be the original work of the author to be protected under federal copyright law.
Copyright Term Extension Act
Individuals are granted copyright protection for their lifetime plus 70 years. Copyrights owned by businesses are protected for the shorter of either: 120 years from the year of creation, 95 years from the year of first, publication
Copyright Infringement
Occurs when a party copies a substantial part of the plaintiff’s copyrighted work without permission. Copyright holder may recover damages and other remedies against the infringer. Successful plaintiff in a civil action can recover profit made by the defendant from the copyright infringment.
Fair use doctrine
Permits certain limited use of a copyright by someone other than the copyright holder without the permission of the copyrighted holder.
Protected uses of copyright
Quotation of the copyrighted work. Use in a parody or satire. Brief quotation in a news report.
Copyright violations
Reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of the work to illustrate a lesson.
No Electronic Theft (NET) Act
Federal statute tat makes it a crime for a person to willfully infringe on a copyright. Makes it a federal crime to reproduce, share, or distribute copyrighted electronic works: movies, songs, software programs, and video games. Criminal penalties for violation include imprisonment for up to five years and fines of up to $250k. Permits copyright holders to sue violators in a civil lawsuit and recover monetary damages of up to $150k per work infringed.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Prohibits unauthorized access to copyrighted digital works by: Circumventing encryption technology, manufacture and distribution of technologies designed for the purpose of circumventing encryption protection
Mark
Trade name, symbol, word, logo, design, or device used to identify and distinguish goods of a manufacturer or seller or services of a provider.
Lanham (Trademark) Act
Establishes requirements for obtaining a federal mark and protects marks from infringement.
Trademark
Protects the owner’s investment and goodwill in a mark. Prevents consumers from being confused about the origin of goods and services.
Registration of a Mark
Registrant must file an application with the PTO wherein the registrant designates the name, symbol, slogan, or logo to be registered. PTO registers a mark if it determines that: mark does not infringe any existing marks, applicant has paid the registration fee, other requirements for registering the mark have been met. Application pending with the PTO, registrant cannot use the symbol ®. Symbol that is used to designate marks that have been registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
TM
Symbol that designates an owner’s legal claim to an unregistered mark that is associated with a product.
SM
Symbol that designates an owner’s legal claim to an unregistered mark that is associated with a service.
Registrant can use the symbol TM for goods or SM for services during the ________.
application period
Trademark
Distinctive mark, symbol, name, word, motto, or device that identifies the goods of a particular business.
Service mark
Distinguishes the service of the holder from those of its competitors.
Certification mark
Certifies that a seller of a product or service has met: geographical location requirements, quality stands, material standards, mode of manufacturing standards established by the owner of the mark.
Collective membership mark
Indicates that a person has met the standards set by an organization and is a member of that organization.
Features of a mark to qualify for federal protection
Distinctive: being unique and fabricated. Secondary meaning: brand name that has evolved from an ordinary term.
Trademark Infringement
Unauthorized use of another’s mark (holder may recover damages and other remedies).
To win a case of trademark infringement, the owner must prove that…
defendant infringed the plaintiff’s mark by using it in an unauthorized manner. Such use is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception of the public as to the origin.
Generic name
Term for a mark that has become a common term for a product line or type of service and therefore has lost its trademark protection. (If a word, name, or slogan is too generic, it cannot be registered as a trademark.
Dilution
Lessening of the capacity of a famous mark to identify and distinguish its holder’s goods and services.
Blurring
Weakening the unique significance of the famous mark.
Tarnishment
Linking a famous mark to products of inferior quality or is portrayed in an unflattering, immoral, or reprehensible context.
Federal Trademark Dilution Act (FTDA)
Protects famous marks from dilution, erosion, blurring, or tarnishing.
Trademark Dilution Revision Act
States that a plaintiff must only show that there is a likelihood of dilution to prevail in a dilution lawsuit against a defendant.
