In addition to this outline I would read all chapter summaries as well as the notes on the sides of the pages This guide has most of the main points main cases and main decisions It is suppose to be a supplement to the book and will help in studying Please email me if you have any questions Chapter 14 Copyright Immaterial Property Law Copyright an area of the law that deals with intangible property property that a person cannot touch or hold or lock away for safekeeping Does not protect ideas Patents The Constitution has given Congress the right to promote the sciences and the useful arts by protecting the rights of inventors Utility Designs Plants Trademarks any word symbol or device or color or combination of the three that differentiates an individual or company s goods and services from the products or services of competitors Stop confusion in the marketplace Collective marks identify and protect members of an organization Trade dress the way a product is packaged A trademark must be renewed after five years Renewal is then required in 10 year intervals Failure to use a name for as little as three years can constitute abandonment The Four Main Functions of Trademarks and service marks 1 To distinguish one sellers goods from another 2 All goods with one mark come from a single source 3 All goods with one mark are of equal quality 4 Prime instrument in advertising and selling goods Leo Stolier claimed the word stealth and tried to claim it in all uses This case was important because it said that trademark law doesn t give someone exclusive rights in words only the right to prevent consumer confusion Experience Hendrix and Authentic Hendrix sued Electric Hendrix Vodka for using one of their trademarks The Federal Trademark Dilution Act gives the owners of trademarks and trade names legal recourse against anyone who uses the same of similar trademarks on even dissimilar products Controversial Elusive concept Does not apply to the use of a registered name or mark in news parody or satire Victoria s Secret sued Victor s little secret because dilution of the distinctive quality of their brand they had to show current harm they showed unflattering shadow on their brand To establish a trademark the applicant must submit a registration application to the Patent and Trademark Office Under the law it is the person who first uses the mark not the person who first registers the mark who holds the rights to the symbol or word or phrase The Postal Service sued for trademark infringement but then gave permission if they promoted the use of the mail Plagiarism Occurs when a writer takes the ideas thoughts or words from another and passes them off as his or her own More common than people think and than the past Editors Fired Resolved outside legal system highly profitable Copyright does not protect ideas but the specific expression of those ideas Trademarks protection is based on marketplace use patents and copyright statutory creations Trademark protections can last forever law limits copyright and patent protection Plagiarism Ethical Copyright Legal Roots of the Law New Technology New strain on copyright law The fostering of creative spirit is the real logic behind copyright law It is unclear with the Internet Under federal statute an online service provider that acts as merely a conduit during the infringement of copyrighted works will not be help liable for the illegal act in most instances What can be copyrighted The right of reproduction of the work The right of preparation of derivative works The right of public distribution of the work The right of public performance of the work The right of public display of the work The right of public digital performance of a sound recording Literary musical dramatic pantomimes choreographic pictorial graphic sculptural motion pictures sound words What cannot be copyrighted Trivial things Ideas Facts Utilitarian Goods Methods Production Contractors Inc Parades are a common idea and cannot be copyrighted Even common and mundane works are copyrightable Raw footage of news events can be protected by copyright Lans sues Audio Video claiming that in selling video clips which were taken from copyrighted raw footage LANS had provided to local tv stations and therefore was infringing on copyright They agreed that creative did go in and the author contributed The sweat of the brow doctrine legal proposition previously recognized by some courts that asserts that even though facts are not copyrightable someone who invests substantial times and energy in amassing these facts deserves a reward for the hard work This was REJECTED as being bogus and unconstitutional Copyright law protects the expression of the story the way it is told the style and manner in which the facts are presented but not the facts in the story Miller wrote Hours Till Dawn about a kidnapping of Mackle Universal made a film of it and Miller sued for infringement of copyright It was ruled that he was just telling a news event and research cannot be copyrightable Dillinger was supposedly shot by government agencies Nash wrote about it and the FBI wanted to keep quiet about it CBS made a series of it and Nash sued The ruling was that he was writing history and didn t portray it as fiction so could not sue Misappropriation Unfair Competition sometimes invoked as an additional legal remedy in suits for copyright infringement What is the likelihood that an appreciable number of ordinarily prudent persons will be misled or simply confused as to the source of the material INS pirated AP AP didn t copyright its material so INS said it was public domain It was ruled that there is no property right in the news The law of appropriation is intended to stop A person from trying to pass off his or her own work as the work of someone else and a person trying to pass off the work of someone else as his or her own All headline republished Associated Press works They improperly used Aps content and agreed to pay damages They are aggregators because they bring together the work of others for their own use Hot news doctrine This doctrine is a cause of action that can be used by news gathers to prevent competitors form free riding on their efforts by redistributing their breaking news A violation of the hot news doctrine is when bans argued thefly was publishing recommendations before their own customers had the chance to consider them The firm s ability to make news by issuing a recommendation that is likely
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