Blog #14 – How does copyright differ from patent & trademark law? (Ch. 5: Ethical & Legal Issues)

Digital Property

One of the main purposes behind the employment of law is it assists in clarifying the specifics of ownership over various types of property – more specific to the chapter, intellectual property. Applying the law consistently has been complicated by the rise and takeover of the digital age. The section dedicated to “digital property” within the chapter attempts to clear up the aforementioned up rise in confusion.

Under intellectual property, there are three different categories that the law attempts to protect: patents, copyrights, and trademarks.

1) “Patent law is centered upon inventions and the ability to reproduce or manufacture an inventor’s product” (101).

2) “Copyright addresses the realm of expressions – specifically, the right to publish or duplicate expressions of ideas” (101).

3) “Trademark is concerned with words or images used to identify products in the market” (101).

By obtaining acquiring the necessary protection for these forms of intellectual property through the laws that have been established people can be certain that neither they are nor their dedication to their work is taken advantage of – which has become especially important considering the degree of accessibility the internet can provide. The amount and type of coverage over these three components depends on what exactly has been created or thought up. All three are meant to legally safeguard businesses and owners from infringement or the wrongful use of creative works. The table below was copied from the textbook: Business Law: Text and Cases by Clarkson, Miller, Jentz and Cross, 11^th Edition (required text for Business and International Law, BLAW 370).

Forms of Intellectual Property	Definition	How Acquired	Duration
Patent	A grant from the government that gives an inventor exclusive rights to an invention.	By filing a patent application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office & receiving its approval.	Twenty years from the date of application; for design patents, fourteen years.
Copyright	The right of an author or originator of a literary or artistic work, or other production that falls within a specified category, to have the exclusive use of that work for a given period of time.	Automatic (once the work or creation is put in tangible form). Only the expression of an idea (& NOT the idea itself) can be protected by copyright.	For authors: the life of the author plus 70 years. For publishers: 95 years after the date of the publication or 120 years after creation (whichever comes first).
Trademark (Service Mark & Trade Dress)	Any distinctive word, name, symbol, or device (image or appearance), or combination thereof, that an entity uses to distinguish its goods or services from those of others. The owner has exclusive right to use that mark or trade dress.	1. At common law, ownership created by use of the mark. 2. Registration with the appropriate federal or state office gives notice & is permitted if the mark is currently in use or will be within the next six months.	Unlimited, as long as it is in use. To continue notice by registration, the owner must renew by filing between the fifth & sixth years, & thereafter, every ten years.
Trade Secret	Any information that a business possesses & that gives the business an advantage over competitors (including formulas, lists, patterns, plans, processes, & programs).	Through the originality & development of the information & processes that constitute the business secret & are unknown to others.	Unlimited, so long as NOT revealed to others. Once revealed to others, it is NO longer a trade secret.

Copyrights

The lines between these different types of intellectual property can be difficult to pinpoint because many times they can seem to overlap or have loopholes. Copyrights are meant to protect “expression of ideas” (202). In the physical world, this can refer to publications of text, sound, and video – more commonly known as “books, recordings, and film” (102). Instances of use may be permitted if the nature of such use is for educational or news-related purposes – specified by the doctrine of fair use – resulting in public benefit. Authored works are protected from others attempting to gain profit through the “reproduction or distribution” of publications without first receiving an author’s permission. On the other hand, the doctrine of first sale states the copyright owner of some product is not necessarily entitled to part of the proceeds that may occur should the product be sold again in the future (103). This way buyers, sellers, and owners are each protected from being potentially subjected to any unfair practices.

Patents

“An area of current internet focus centers on the use of business patents that describe such activities as marketing approaches and methods for conducting commerce.” This means the laws have been extended to cover the many strategies created for those business operations occurring over the internet. For example, online retailers often pay fees in order to use pay pal or include social media applications on their websites. Encrypting data is essential when trying to keep information online safe from misuse. Because of the web’s ever-changing nature, a there must be a constant upkeep of security and maintenance. As long as there are patent, copyright, and trademark laws there will too be those trying to beat the system.

Trademarks

Companies use trademarks to help consumers identify their products or services by linking them to a distinctive name, symbol, or other defining feature. “Under the federal Lanham Act, trademarks may be registered with the government. Registered or not, however, they may still be protected under the Act” (104). Whether the trademark is protected or not depends on level of distinction the mark employs. Since the adoption of the internet’s use as an online marketplace, trademarks protection has been extended to the “internet-naming system” or “domains” used by organizations (104). For example, imitation of a firm’s Web site or e-mail address is directly prohibited under trademark law.

Copyrights v. Patents and Trademarks

The laws dedicated to these three forms of intellectual property basically boil down to this: copyrights protect creative expressions of ideas – like novels, patents protect inventions – like never before seen products, and trademarks protect the words and symbols that differentiate goods or services provided by a firm – like logos or icons.