IP Flashcards
Copyright law protects
expression (not ideas)
defense: fair use factors (4)
Term for copyright
Extended existing copyrights to 95 years from date of publication or 120 years from date of creation.
New copyrights will be life of the author plus 70 years.
USC Article I Section 8
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.
Two elements of copyright infringement
- ownership of valid copyright
- copying of the constituent elements of the work that are original
Feist v Rural Telephone Services
- No valid copyright of facts universally understood.
- Rural concedes that facts and discoveries are not themselves subject to copyright protection. Compilations of facts are within the subject matter of copyright.
- Copyright law assures authors the right to their original expression but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by the work.
- Names towns and phone numbers copied were not original to Rural and therefore were not protected by the copyright in Rurals combined white and yellow pages directory.
Fair Use Factors
1) the purpose and character of the use; (2) the nature of the
copyrighted work; (3) the substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted
work as a whole; (4) the effect on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted
work
Harper and Row v Nation Enterprises
Use of President Fords manuscript was not fair use even though they were related to public concern, because it was the substance of the copyrighted work and affected the potential market value.
Patent Law 35 USC 271
.whoever without authority makes,
uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within the United States or imports into the United States any patented invention infringes on the patent
How invention can be protected by patent law
- Patentable subject matter,
a. Any process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.
b. Abstract concepts such as math algorithms, scientific principles, and physical phenomena cannot be patented. - Useful, 35 USC § 101
- Novelty (new), 35 USC § 102
- Nonobvious (inventive), 35 USC § 103
If differences between invention and prior art would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the area, PTO will deny application. - Enablement (written description), in such detail to enable any person skill in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same
Patent owner has the right to
exclude, transfer, or destroy by allowing patent to lapse.
Diamond v Chakrabarty (human made microorganism)
- New bacterium was not natures handiwork, but his own, accordingly it is patentable.
Elements for valid trademark
- Distinctiveness
- Non-functionality: Does not protect product feature if its functional because this area is governed by patent law.
a. Feature is functional if its vital for the use or purpose of the product or if it affects the cost or quality of a product. - First use in trade: first person to use a mark for a good or service in a particular geographic market.
Trademarking colors (Qualitex v Jacobson)
- Sometimes a color will meet ordinary legal trademark requirements, and when it does no special legal rule prevents color alone from being trademarked.
- Ps color met requirements because it developed secondary meaning to customers.
Lanham Act (federal trademark statute)
describes that trademarks “include any word,
name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof.”
Trade Secrets (Pepsico v Redmond)
Facts: PepsiCo sought to prevent Quaker Oats from hiring Redmond for fear that Redmond would divulge
trade secrets obtained through working at PepsiCo
Holding: Pepsico demonstrated likelihood of success based on trade secret misappropriation and inevitable disclosure doctrine. ( D would be making decisions for quaker based on PepsiCo knowledge)
