BCOR 320 1nd Edition Lecture 16 Intellectual property Unlike other types of property intellectual property has little economic value unless it is used by many The problem lies in the fact that intellectual property is typically expensive to produce but cheap to transmit giving more profit to those who do less work The government protects producers of intellectual property through patents and copyrights Patents A grant by the government that permits the inventor exclusive use of an invention for 20 years Not available solely for an idea but ONLY tangible application Types of patents Utility Patent protects inventions and significant improvements on inventions including Mechanical invention Electrical invention Chemical invention Process Machine Composition of matter Design Patent protects the appearance but not the function of an item Plant Patent protects a newly created plant provided that the inventor can reproduce it asexually through grafting for example Requirements To obtain a patent the new invention must be Novel not known or used in this country and not published anywhere Nonobvious cannot be an obvious way to do something Useful must have some application even if not commercially practical Application Priority Between Two Inventors generally the person first to invent and use the product is given the patent even over an earlier filer Prior Sale must apply for a patent within one year of selling the product International Patent Treaties The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property requires each member country to grant citizens of other member countries the same rights under patent laws that its own citizens enjoy The Patent Law Treaty requires that countries use the same standards for the form and content of patent applications Duration These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute 20 years from the date of filing the application Infringement A patent holder has exclusive rights to use the invention during the term of the patent Copy rights The holder of a copyright owns the particular tangible expression of an idea but not the underlying idea or method of option A work is automatically copyrighted once it is in tangible form Copyright Act The Copyright Act protects literature music drama choreography pictures sculpture movies recordings and architectural works Currently copyrights are valid until 70 years after the death of the work s only or last living author In the case of works owned by a corporation the copyright lasts 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation Infringement To prove a violation the plaintiff must present evidence that the work was original and that either The infringer actually copied the work or That the infringer had access to the original and the two works are substantially similar First Sale Doctrine You have the right to sell a lawfully made copy the original of a work if you decide you no longer want to own it You may NOT make a copy to keep then sell the original
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