Although United States copyright laws originally contained no criminal liability provisions, the 1897 revision to the Copyright Act made it a misdemeanor to unlawfully perform dramatic or musical works for profit. In later revisions, additional sections were added for the infringement of other types of copyrightable works. Although leaving unchanged the one-year imprisonment penalty established Read more about Copyright Piracy and The NET Act of 1997[…]
It is often necessary for employers to make confidential information, including trade secrets, accessible to their employees. Employers certainly want to protect trade secrets from leaking to competitors, so they often make employees sign confidentiality agreements as a term of employment. The question is: what happens to trade secret information when an employee is discharged Read more about Dilution of Trademarks[…]
A trademark is a device which can take almost any form, as long as it is capable of identifying and distinguishing specific goods or services. A trademark may be 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 Read more about Using Sound as a Trademark[…]
A patent is a right granted under U.S. law that allows the patent owner to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention and without the inventor’s permission for a fixed term. Generally, this term extends for 14 years for a plant patent; 20 years for other types of Read more about Unenforceable Patents[…]
Article I, § 8 of the United States Constitution authorizes Congress to “promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” Congress has created two sets of laws to implement the object of this provision: copyright laws protect Read more about Requirements for Applying for a Patent[…]