Transcript
Chapter 14 Intellectual Property
Figure 14-1: A federal trademark lasts for ten years and may be renewed for additional ten-year periods.
Reviewing What You Learned
1. Intellectual property describes the fields of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.
2. To be patented, an item must be novel and not be obvious to a person with ordinary skill in that particular field.
3. When the seventeen-year period expires, the invention loses its protection and becomes part of the public domain.
4. Federal courts have the power to enjoin anyone from infringing on another's patent. It is usually done by the court's issuance of an injunction.
5. To copyright a work, it is necessary to fill out a government form and send it with the proper fee and a copy of the work to the U.S. Copyright Office in Washington, DC.
6. Under the fair use doctrine, the fair use of a copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research is not a copyright infringement.
7. A trademark may be obtained by: (a) usage under the common law, (b) following state trademark laws, and (c) registering with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
8. A trademark may be reserved by filing an application to register the trademark six months before the mark is used in commerce.
9. A trademark registration becomes effective when the mark is actually used in the ordinary course of trade.
10. A federal trademark provides protection for ten years and may be renewed for additional ten-year periods.
11. Trademarks can be lost by nonuse or by the mark becoming a generic term by a large segment of the public for a long period of time.
12. Examples of trade secrets are customer lists, chemical formulas, food recipes, manufacturing processes, marketing techniques, and pricing methods.
13. Businesses often protect trade secrets by having employees sign agreements agreeing to refrain from disclosing trade secrets to others.
14. Businesses protect trade secrets by having employees sign agreements agreeing to refrain from disclosing trade secrets to others. Even without such agreements, courts prohibit employees from disclosing their employer's trade secrets both while they are employed and after they leave the employment.
Understanding Legal Concepts
1. F, seventeen years 4. T 8. F, registering with the U.S.U.S.
2. F, Federal 5. T Patent and Trademark Office
3. F, the life of the 6.F, Servicemark 9. F, ten
author plus 70 years 7. T 10.T
Checking Terminology
1. e 4. n 7. g 10. j 13. h 16. b
2. i 5. c 8. q 11. o 14. r 17. f
3. p 6. l 9. a, k 12. d 15. m
Using Legal Language
Millin, an inventor, obtained patents on two products she had invented, giving her the exclusive right to make, use, and sell them for seventeen years. Since she had obtained one of them more than seventeen years ago, it was now in the public domain. The other type of intellectual property (original work fixed in a tangible medium of expression) was much newer and was copied by a competitor, causing Millin to bring a(n) patent infringement suit for the unauthorized making of the product. Millin won the case, and the court enjoined the competitor by issuing a(n) injunction ordering it to refrain from making Millin's product. When Millin began to sell the product, she obtained a(n) trademark for it to identify it and to distinguish it from products made by others. She did not obtain a(n) servicemark because the product was a good rather than a service. To prevent the product from becoming a(n) generic term, Millin used the word "brand" in all product advertisements. For further protection, Millin required all of her employees to sign nondisclosure agreements, also called confidentiality agreements, agreeing to refrain from disclosing trade secrets to others. The product turned out to be so successful that she wrote a book about her success. A(n) copyright gave her the exclusive right to publish the book except for a limited amount of copying that could be done by others under a rule known as the fair-use doctrine.
Puzzling Over What You Learned
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Caveat: Allow squares for spaces between words and punctuation (apostrophes, hyphens, etc.) when filling in crossword.
Across
The right of a buyer, after breach by a seller, to purchase similar goods from someone
else.
Anything that is the subject of ownership other than real property.
A person who gives a gift.
The passing of title from the seller to the buyer for a price.
Ownership.
Personal property attached to real property.
Correct.
Goods such as grain or oil, of which any unit is the same as any like unit.
Written evidence of the transfer of personalty from one person to another.
A transfer in bulk of the majority of a merchant's inventory.
Down
Evidence of the right to property but not the property itself.
Anything that is the subject of ownership other than real property.
Anything that is movable.
Person who sells goods of the kind sold in the ordinary course of business.
Another name for personal property.
Personal property attached to real property necessary for business.
Contract under which title to goods is passed at a future time.
Owner of personal property that has been temporarily transferred to a bailee.
Goods that are not yet in existence or under
anyone's control.
15. A person who receives a gift.
