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Define Patent. A patent for an invention is the grant of a property rights to the inventor, issued by the U.S Patent and Trademark Office. Generally, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the U.S or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. The right conferred by the patent grant is“the right to exclude others from making, using, ofering for sale, or selling “the invention in the U.S or importing the invention into the U.S. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell of import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention. Once a patent is issued, the patentee must enforce the patent without aid of the USPT
What is an invention? The act or operation of finding out something new; the process of contriving and producing something uot previously known or existing, by the exercise of independent investigation and experiment. Also the article or contrivance or composition so invented..
Requirement for a patent. What does the term “useful’’ means?An invention is patentable only if it meets the following four requirements, which are discussed in more detail below: The invention must be statutory (subject matter eligible):Section 101 of the Patent Act states that processes, machines, articles of manufacture, and compositions of matter are patentable. Section 101, including software inventions and inventions relating to certain types of medical tests and diagnostics. Inventions that do not meet the requirements of Section 101 are considered to fail the “subject matter eligibility” requirement for patent protection, and cannot receive a valid US patent even if they meet the other requirements for namely processes, machines, articles of manufacture, and compositions of matter. If an invention does not fall within one of these four categories, the invention is not patentable. The invention must be new: the invention must be considered to be new or novel. This novelty requirement states that an invention cannot be patented if certain public disclosures of the invention have been made. The most important rule, however, is that an invention will not normally be patentable if:
the invention was known to the public before the applicant filed for patent protection;
the invention was described in a printed publication before the applicant filed for patent protection; or
the invention was described in a published patent application or issued patent that was filed before the applicant filed for patent protection. The invention must be useful:The patent law specifies that the subject matter must be “useful.” This means that the invention must have a useful purpose. In most cases, the usefulness requirement is easily met in the context of computer and electronic technologies. The requirement is more important when attempting to patent a pharmaceutical or chemical compound, as it is necessary to specify a practical or specific utility for the new compound. The invention must be non-obvious:If an invention is not exactly the same as prior products or processes (which are referred to as the “prior art”), then it is considered novel. However, in order for an invention to be patentable, the patent statute also requires that the invention be a non-obvious improvement over the prior art (35 U.S.C. Section 103). This determination is made by deciding whether the invention sought to be patented would have been obvious “to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains.” In other words, the invention is compared to the prior art and a determination is made whether the differences in the new invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the type of technology used in the invention. The statute requires that the invention be obvious at a time before the application was filed.
Types and duration of patents. UTILITY PATENTS: may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. DESIGN PATENTS: may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture. (term of 14 years). PLANT PATENTS: may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety f plant (term of 20 years). What must an inventor file? An inventor must file a non-provisional application. It is a written document which compromises a specification and an oath . Must the assignment be recorded? When? Where? The assignment may transfer the entire interest in the patent. The assignee becomes the owner of the patent and has the same rights that the original patentee has. What is the effect of the registration? A patent owner has the right to decide who may or may not use the patented invention for the period in which the invention is protected. Patent protection means that the invention can not be commercially made, used, distributed, imported or sold by others in the US without the patent owner’s consent. Define infringement. Infringement of patent consists of the unauthorized making, using, offering for sale or selling any patented invention within the United States or U.S territories, or importing into the United States any patented invention during the term of the patent.
Define copyright. Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of ‘’original works of authorship’’. It gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work publicly, or to display the copyrighted work publicly. What does it protect? Literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. The copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing.
Mention the copyrightable material. Literary Works; b)Musical Works, including any accompanying words; c)Dramatic works, including any accompanying music d)Pantomimes and choreographic works e)Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works f)Motion pictures and other audiovisual worksg)Sound recordings h)Architectural works
Works that are not “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression” are not subject to copyright. Copyright protection does not extend to ideas, procedures, processes, systems, etc. Facts may not be copyrighted. “Useful articles” may not be copyrighted.
What is the notice of the copyright? It informs the public that the work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner, and shows the year of first publication. Furthermore, in the event that a work is infringed, if a proper note of copyright appears on the published copy or copies to which a defendant in a copyright infringement suit had access, then no weight shall be given to such a defendant’s interposition of a defense based on innocent infringement in mitigation of actual or statutory damages. The use of the copyright notice is the responsibility of the copyright owner and does not require advance permission from, or registration with, the Copyright Office.
Which are the rights granted by copyright? It gives the owner the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following: – To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords – To prepare derivative works based upon the work – To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease or lending – To perform the work publicly, in case of literary, musical, dramatic and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and audiovisual works. – To display the work publicly, in case of literary, musical, dramatic and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works. – To perform sound recordings publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.What is a trademark? A trademark includes any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods. In short, a trademark is a brand name. What is the difference between: trade name; service mark; certification mark; collective mark? While trade name is used to identify and distinguish goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods, service mark is used to identify and distinguish the services of one provider from services provided by others, and to indicate the source of the services. In the case of certification mark, it is used, with the owner’s permission by someone other than its owner, to certify regional or other geographic origin, material, mode of manufacture, quality, accuracy, or other characteristics of someone’s goods or services, or that the work or labor on the goods or services was performed by members of a union or other organization. A collective mark, is a trademark or service used, or intended to be used, in commerce, by the members of a cooperative, an association, or other collective group or organization, including a mark which indicates membership in a union, an association, or other organization.
Which are the marks subject to registration/not subject to registration?
A word or a combination of words, letters, and numerals can perfectly constitute a trademark. But trademarks may also consist of drawings, symbols, three-dimensional features such as the shape and packaging of goods, non-visible signs such as sounds or fragrances, or color shades used as distinguishing features – the possibilities are almost limitless.
Define Agency A relation, created either by express or implied contract or by law, whereby one party (called the principal or constituent) delegates the transaction of some lawful business or the authority to do certain acts for him or in relation to his rights or property, with more or less discretionary power, to another person.
What is an agent?One who represents and acts for another under the contract or relation of agency. Agents are either general or special. A general agent is one employed in his capacity as a professional man or master of an art or trade, or one to whom the principal confides his whole business or all transactions or functions of a designated class; or he is a person who is authorized by his principal to execute all deeds, sign all contracts, or purchase all goods, required in a particular trade, business, or employment.
Kinds of agency. Explain
ACTUAL AGENCY: agency in which the agent is in fact authorized to act on behalf of the principal. AGENCY BY STOPPEL: an agency created by operation of law when a person´s action have led a 3rd party to believe that another actor was actually the person´s agent. Also known as APPARENT AGENCY OR OSTENSIBLE AGENCY. – AGENCY BY NECESSITY: confers the authority to act for the benefit of another in an emergency without having obtained the latter´s express consent . Also known as AGENCY FROM NECESSITY OR AGENCY OF NECESSITY.- AGENCY BY OPERATION OF LAW: agency that arises under circumstances specified by law without mutual consent between the principal and the agent having been manifested. –AGENCY COUPLED WITH AN INTEREST: a relationship in which one party holds an irrevocable power to take action on behalf of another to protect a legal or equitable title or to secure performance of a duty apart from any duty owed to the holder by the grantor of the power.- AGENCY IN FACT: an agency created voluntarily, as by a contract. –COMMON-LAW AGENCY: a fiduciary relationship of agency created by express or implied mutual consent manifested by the principal and the agent, in which the agent is subject, in some degree, to the principal´s control. –EXCLUSIVE AGENCY: the right to represent a principal, especially to sell principal´s products or to act as the seller´s real estate agent, within a particular market free from competition.
–EXPRESS AGENCY: an actual agency arising from the principal´s written or oral authorization of a person to act as the principal´s agent. –FINANCING AGENCY: a bank, finance company or other entity that in the ordinary course of business: 1- makes advances against goods or documents of title or 2- by arrangement with either the seller or buyer intervenes to make or collect payment due or claimed under a contract of sale, etc. –GENERAL AGENY: a principal´s delegation to an agent, without restriction, to take any action connected with a particular trade, business or employment. Also known as UNIVERSAAL AGENCY. –IMPLIED AGENCY: an actual agency arising from conduct by the principal that implies an intention to create an agency relationship. –SPECIAL AGENT: an agency in which the agent us authorized only to conduct a single transaction or a series of transactions not involving continuous service. –UNDISCLOSED AGENCY: an agency relationship in which an agent deals with a 3rd party who has no knowledge that the agent is acting on a principal´s behalf