Intellectual Property
to reproduce in copies or phonorecords
to make derivative works
to distribute copies
to perform the works publicly >> but only for literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic works, pantomimes, pictorial works, graphical works, sculptural works, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works
to display the works publicly >> but only for literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic works, pantomimes, pictorial works (including individual images of a motion picture), graphical works, sculptural works
for sound recordings: to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission
roughly about 100 years
95 years after publication or 120 years after creation, whichever is earlier, for corporate, anonymous, or pseudononymous works
life plus 70 years after the death of the last co-author
Congress has continuously extended terms, and may do so again
Works first published in the U.S. in 1922 or before
Works first published in the U.S. in 1963 or before, if the copyright was not renewed
Works first published in the U.S. in 1977 or before, if published without a proper copyright notice
Works first published in the U.S. in February 1989 or before, if published without a proper copyright notice, and if the deficiency in notice was not cured in the time alotted
Works of the U.S. government
Public domain status of foreign works is complex
Since March 1, 1989, when the U.S. implementation legislation for the Berne Treaty took effect, proper notice is not required (although it is helpful in some ways)
Registration is not required to accrue a cause of action
Registration before accrual of cause of action, or within 3 mos. of publication, is required for statutory damages and attorneys fees
Registration is required before filing suit
any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof
ISSUE: improvements and blocking patents
(a) the invention was known or used by others in this country, or patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, before the invention thereof by the applicant for patent,
(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of the application for patent in the United States
(c) he has abandoned the invention
(d) the invention was first patented or caused to be patented, or was the subject of an inventor's certificate, by the applicant or his legal representatives or assigns in a foreign country prior to the date of the application for patent in this country on an application for patent or inventor's certificate filed more than twelve months before the filing of the application in the United States
+ - (e) the invention was described in -
(1) an application for patent, published under section 122(b), by another filed in the United States before the invention by the applicant for patent or
(2) a patent granted on an application for patent by another filed in the United States before the invention by the applicant for patent, except that an international application filed under the treaty defined in section 351(a) shall have the effects for the purposes of this subsection of an application filed in the United States only if the international application designated the United States and was published under Article 21(2) of such treaty in the English language
(f) he did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be patented
(g)(1) during the course of an interference conducted under section 135 or section 291, another inventor involved therein establishes, to the extent permitted in section 104, that before such person's invention thereof the invention was made by such other inventor and not abandoned, suppressed, or concealed
(g)(2) before such person's invention thereof, the invention was made in this country by another inventor who had not abandoned, suppressed, or concealed it. In determining priority of invention under this subsection, there shall be considered not only the respective dates of conception and reduction to practice of the invention, but also the reasonable diligence of one who was first to conceive and last to reduce to practice, from a time prior to conception by the other
A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention. ...