Facts About Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property is the group of legal rights in things that people create or invent. Intellectual property rights include patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret rights.

Trademarks - A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark.

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Although trademark registration with the PTO is not required to establish trademark rights, registration is advantageous in the case of conflict. Unlike patent and copyright protection, trademark rights can potentially be of unlimited duration, lasting as long as the mark is in use by its owner.

Copyrights - A trademark is a word, phrase, logo or other symbol, used to identify a product, the source of a product and the manufacturer or merchant. You can register a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Patent - A legal grant issued by a government permitting an inventor to exclude others from making, using, or selling a claimed invention during the patent's term. The TRIPS Agreement mandates that the term for patent applications filed after June 7, 1995, runs 20 years from the filing date.

Federal Law on Intellectual Property

US CODE TITLE 17, CHAPTER 5  Sec. 501. - Infringement of Copyright -Sec B

(b) The legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive right under a copyright is entitled, subject to the requirements of section 411, to institute an action for any infringement of that particular right committed while he or she is the owner of it. The court may require such owner to serve written notice of the action with a copy of the complaint upon any person shown, by the records of the Copyright Office or otherwise, to have or claim an interest in the copyright, and shall require that such notice be served upon any person whose interest is likely to be affected by a decision in the case. The court may require the joinder, and shall permit the intervention, of any person having or claiming an interest in the copyright

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Updated: HB