Intellectual Property Law Overview

The legal protection of an individual's creative ideas, inventions, and innovations once they're in a tangible form.

The legal right to use, sell, and transfer a piece of property, including intellectual property.

A legal right granted by the government to an inventor for an invention, providing exclusive rights to make, use, and sell the invention.

A symbol, design, or phrase that identifies and distinguishes one company's products or services from another.

A type of intellectual property that protects authors' original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works.

A law passed in 1998 to update copyright laws for the digital age, making it illegal to circumvent technology that protects copyrighted works.

The exclusive right granted by the government to an inventor to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the invention in the United States.

A patent that protects the functionality of an invention or process.

A patent that protects the appearance of a new, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.

A patent that protects the invention of a new and distinct variety of plant.

A patent must be new, useful and non-obvious to be granted.

A patent is considered valid for 20 years from the date it was granted.

When someone makes, uses, offers to sell, sells, or imports an invention that is protected by a patent without the patent holder's permission.

Legal remedies for patent infringement include injunctions (stopping the infringement) and damages (compensation for the infringement).

The duration of copyright protection, which is typically the author's lifetime plus 70 years.

The legal rights given to copyright holders, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, and make derivative works of their copyrighted materials.

Confidential information that gives a business a competitive advantage.

Information must have value, be unknown, unascertainable, and be protected.

A business should use confidentiality and non-disclosure contracts when sharing information with others.

Same as a trademark, but identifies and distinguishes a service rather than a product.

Unauthorized use of a trademark, violating a person’s trademark rights.

A violation of a person's trademark rights.

Legal remedies available for unauthorized use of trademarks.

The legal process of using copyrighted material without permission, violating the copyright holder's exclusive rights.

A defense against copyright infringement where limited use of copyrighted material is allowed for specific purposes like criticism, news reporting, teaching, or research.

The purpose for which copyrighted material is used, which affects whether a use is considered fair (e.g., for academic research vs. profit).

Legal actions that copyright holders can take to stop infringement and recover damages. These include injunctions (stopping the infringing activity) and monetary compensation.

This act updates copyright laws for the digital age, making it illegal to bypass technological protections meant for copyrighted works.

Factors considered when determining if a use is fair include: the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used, the purpose and character of the use, and the effect of the use upon the potential market.

A commercial online service provider can be held liable for copyright infringement if it fails to remove infringing content after receiving notice.

A digital collection of books that is accessible to participating libraries and researchers. It aims to preserve and make accessible a vast corpus of digitized books.

This law aims to provide protection and redress for copyright infringement in the digital age by clarifying and strengthening copyright law.