Introduction

Copyright is a legal device that gives the creator of a work of art, literature, or other creative endeavors the right to control how their work is used. Art refers to any recorded created expression, a novel, movie, video game, a video etc. Rules applied in this class are on a case-by-case basis to make analogies to the referred case. Copyright law is meant to encourage creative expression by giving authors ownership over their works. If there would be no copyright laws, people would be discouraged to create.

Scientific pursuits like vaccines and computers are generally given patents, while artistic creations like novels are covered by copyright law.

The Copyright Act covers the following type of art:

• literary works;

• musical works, including any accompanying words;

• dramatic works, including any accompanying music;

• pantomimes and choreographic works;

• pictorial, graphic and sculptural works;

• motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

• sound recordings;

• architectural works;

The Copyright Act does not cover the following:

• ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles, discoveries

• facts (names in a phone book, name of an animal)

• words, titles and short phrases

• unfixed works (like live performances)

• works in the public domain

• useful articles (like squiggly bike rack)

• works by non-humans (like Nando the monkey who took his own picture)

Together copyright, patents and trademarks are generally referred to as intellectual property. Intellectual property in general is an area of the law that deals with the legal rights to creative works and inventions, things that people create.

The Founders were highly influenced by Locke (Nature Rights Theory) and John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism).

Differences

Trademark

A trademark is a word, symbol or a phrase used to identify a particular manufacturer or seller’s product and distinguish them from the products of another.

The Lanham Act is the primary federal trademark statute of law in the United States. The Act prohibits a number of activities, including trademark infringement, trademark dilution and false advertising. The purpose of trademarks is to make it easier for consumers to identify the source of a product or service. Trademarks are all about consumer protection, protect them from confusion and allow them to differ products and services. Phrases, packaging and other aspects of packaging might quality for trademark protection if it helps consumers distinguish between different products. Trademarks can also identify services that a company provides, it doesn’t have to be a physical good or a brand itself. A service mark is similar to a trademark in that it’s used to distinguish different services not necessarily trader goods. To obtain a trademark, you must be able to show that you use the trademark in commerce. Domain names are also protected under the Lanham Act & Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). A trademark can theoretically last forever; as long as it’s used in commerce and defended by the company that owns it against infringement.

Patents

Patent law is the primary means by which the government promotes investment in new technologies and inventions, it encompasses many different industries and scientific fields, from healthcare, to finance, to semiconductors and even to information technology.

The patent system gives a limited property right to the patent holder, the patent holder has the rights to exclude others from using or making the invention that they have discovered or created. The holder also has positive rights to sell or license that invention. The system encourages inventors to create by giving that person the exclusive rights to their invention.

In contrast to copyright, patent holders can patent a tangible idea and useful inventions and obtain legal protection that stops anyone from using that idea. However that idea must be novel, innovative and it must not be too abstract.

There are 4 main categories of patentable objects:

• Machines

• Objects of manufacture

• Processes

• Composition of chemicals (such as medicines)

Patent disputes are almost exclusively heard in federal courts, patent holders can also file a case with the International Trade Commission which can then prevent the import of infringing products from overseas. Unlike copyrights, patents are not given nearly as long protection as utility patents are granted for 20 years whereas design patents only last for just 14 years.

Copyright

Copyright subsists in the original work of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. Under the Copyright Act, the protection is inherent within the act of creation (it applies as soon as you create a work and put it down in a tangible semi-permanent form). When something is written on a computer, or paper, or painted on a canvas, or recorded with a camera, copyright ownership vests in the author. No government permission is needed nor does the author need to register his work in order to obtain copyright protection in comparison to obtaining trademark protection where the work must be used in commerce and patent can only be granted by the government. Copyrights only protect the actual creative expression, not the underlying ideas themselves.

Although a person can register their copyrighted work with the government, that person does not need to register in order to have legal rights to their work. Copyright protections often last for a very long time, usually the life of the author plus 70 years.