Intellectual Property - Key Terms Flashcards
An agreement of the World Trade Organization that requires member governments to ensure that intellectual property rights can be enforced under their laws and that penalties for infringement are tough enough to deter further violations.
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
The exclusive right to distribute, display, perform, or reproduce an original work in copies or to prepare derivative works based on the work; granted to creators of original works of authorship.
Copyright
A violation of the rights secured by the owner of a copyright; occurs when someone copies a substantial and material part of another’s copyrighted work without permission.
Copyright infringement
A person or company that registers domain names for famous trademarks or company names to which they have no connection, with the hope that the trademark’s owner will buy the domain name for a large sum of money.
Cybersquatter
An act passed in 2016 that amended the Economic Espionage Act to create a federal civil remedy for trade secret misappropriation.
Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016
A type of patent that permits its owner to exclude others from making, using, or selling the design in question.
Design patent
An act passed in 1996 to help law enforcement agencies pursue economic espionage. It imposes penalties of up to $10 million and 15 years in prison for the theft of trade secrets.
Economic Espionage Act (EEA) of 1996
A legal doctrine that allows portions of copyrighted materials to be used without permission under certain circumstances. Title 17, section 107, of the U.S. Code established the following four factors that courts should consider when deciding whether a particular use of copyrighted property is fair and can be allowed without penalty: (1) the purpose and character of the use (such as commercial use or nonprofit, educational purposes), (2) the nature of the copyrighted work, (3) the portion of the copyrighted work used in relation to the work as a whole, and (4) the effect of the use on the value of the copyrighted work.
Fair use doctrine
The use of illegal means to obtain business information not available to the general public.
Industrial espionage
Works of the mind—such as art, books, films, formulas, inventions, music, and processes—that are distinct and owned or created by a single person or group. It’s protected through copyright, patent, trade secret, and trademark laws.
Intellectual property
An act that changed the U.S. patent system so that the first person to file with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will receive the patent, not necessarily the person who actually invented the item first.
Leahy-Smith America Invents Act
Terms of an employment contract that prohibit an employee from working for any competitors for a specified period of time, often one to two years.
Noncompete agreement
Terms of an employment contract that prohibit an employee from revealing secrets.
Nondisclosure clauses
Any program whose source code is made available for use or modification, as users or other developers see fit.
Open source code
A grant of a property right issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to an inventor; permits its owner to exclude the public from making, using, or selling a protected invention, and allows for legal action against violators.
Patent
