Intellectual Property Law Overview and Information
Intellectual property is a property right that can be protected under federal and state law, including copyrightable works, ideas, discoveries, and inventions. The term intellectual property relates to intangible property such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, and tradesecrets. A patent is the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention throughout the United States of America. It prohibits others from making, selling, or using the patented invention without the authorization of the patent owner. A patent then, is granted by the government for the term period of the patent. After the patent expires, anyone may make, use or sell the invention. The federal U.S. Patent and Trademark Office administers the standards and regulations goverinng the issuance of patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
Trademarks identify the source of goods as being from a particular manufacturer Trademarks protect a company's reputation from being harmed by the inferior products of another manufacturer. Trademarks include words, names, symbols and logos. The intent of trademark law is to prevent consumer confusion about the origin of a product. In the United States trademarks may be protected by both Federal statute under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1051 - 1127, and states' statutory and/or common laws.
The U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101 - 810, is federal legislation enacted by Congress under its Constitutional grant of authority to protect the writings of authors. Evolving technology has led to an ever expanding understanding of the word "writings". The Copyright Act now covers architectural design, software, the graphic arts, motion pictures, and sound recordings. Because federal legislation prevails over inconsistent state law, the copyright field is almost exclusively a federal one.
A copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, or license his work. The owner also receives the exclusive right to produce or license derivatives of his or her work. Limited exceptions to this exclusivity exist for types of "fair use", such as book reviews. Under current law, works are covered whether or not a copyright notice is attached and whether or not the work is registered. The federal agency charged with administering the act is the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.
Attorneys who practice in the area of intellectual property provide services such as patent registration, trademark registration, copyright registration, prosecution and licensing services. Attorneys in this practice area also typically assist clients in the protection and enforcement of trade secrets, confidentiality agreements and unfair competition concerns and other related issues.