INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INTRODUCTION

What is the primary purpose of copyright protection?

Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution empowers 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."

Intellectual Property

  • First U.S. I.P. laws in 1790 for very limited types of printed works; substantial updates in 1909, 1976, 1995, 2002
  • Products of human intellect
  • Work that is the result of creativity
  • Gives the owner a monopoly on the work for a period of time
  • By giving creators rights and ownership, the idea is to encourage the making of new and substantial work

Copyright

  • Control and implementation of policies and laws from U.S. Copyright Office (Federal)
  • "Works of original authorship...that can be perceived, either directly or with the help of a machine."
  • An idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, mere listing of ingredients or contents, or discovery is not copyrightable.
  • Profit typically comes from selling the object itself, or licensing the use/reproduction of it
  • Duration is usually the life of the author plus 70 years (more on that later...)

Patent

  • "Inventions that are new, useful, and not obvious to someone versed in the field."
  • Patents are controlled (applied, awarded, refereed) by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
  • Gives the inventor sole use and commercial exploitation of the invention
  • May possibly include an idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery
  • Initial length is 20 years from the application date

Trade Secret

  • "Information not generally known to others...
    ...that provides its owner with economic benefit...
    ...and is the subject of reasonable effort to maintain its secrecy."
  • The secrecy, itself- not just the information- must be the justification for protection.
  • Examples: Marketing plan, formula, process, technical design, customer list
  • State laws and non-disclosure agreements protect owner from disclosure of the secret by employees, competitors, industrial spies

Copyright: What Counts?

  • Must be in a tangible form

  • Must be original on some level

  • Must be substantial enough to be 'a work'

  • No registration or notice is required (but there are good reasons to do them)

  • Copyright applies to "The Work", not just one particular form of it.

Copyright: What Doesn't Count?

  • An idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, mere listing of ingredients or contents, or discovery

  • ...But certain expressions of those things can be copyrightable

  • Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring (but may be eligible for trademark protection)

  • Things in the public domain: Ideas, words, phrases, facts, government works, expired copyrighted works

What Can Be Copyrighted?

  1. You come up with a chord progression, write it down, and add a copyright symbol at the bottom. Is this eligible for copyright protection? Why/why not?

What Can Be Copyrighted?

1.  You come up with a chord progression, write it down, and add a copyright symbol at the bottom. Is this eligible for copyright protection? Why/why not?

2.  If I teach this class as a completely verbal presentation is it  eligible for copyright protection? Why/why not?

What Can Be Copyrighted?

1.  You come up with a chord progression, write it down, and add a copyright symbol at the bottom. Is this eligible for copyright protection? Why/why not?

2.  I teach this class as a completely verbal presentation. Is this eligible for copyright protection? Why/why not?

3.  You play a killer bass trombone solo in your ska band at the Medina Ballroom. The lead sheet for the song calls for the solo, but it is intended to be improvised over the written chord changes and so isn't written note-for-note. The bandleader, who wrote the song, is the singer but this song was an instrumental, so she didn't perform in it. An archival recording was made from the sound board. Who owns the copyright on the bass trombone solo?

The Idea/Expression Divide

 (accounting system, music/sound theory book)

Selden

  • Accounting system book (not terribly original)

  • Short intro, mostly blank forms (~20 pgs, 650 words)

  • Not commercially successful

Baker

  • Similar book to Selden (original intro + forms); not identical

  • Commercially successful

Selden's wife sued Baker for selling the instructions to the system, and for damages for those who bought Baker's book to use the system. In other words, for selling Selden's idea for an accounting system.

The Idea/Expression Divide

  • Court ruled Baker did not infringe on Selden by selling similar (not identical) forms to practice accounting.
  • Copyright was designed to protect the fixed expression of an idea, rather than the fundamental idea itself.
  • An exclusive right to the actual "useful art" itself (if the work qualifies) is the domain of a patent (but Selden was denied a patent).
  • A copyright on a book describing a system for doing bookkeeping covers the specific writing but not the system itself.
  • A book did not give an author the right to exclude others from practicing what was described in the book.

A Work of Original Authorship

(phone book, chord progression, music anthology)

Rural Telephone

  • Small Kansas phone co. providing local subscribers with phone book (required by law)

  • Included some phony entries as 'copy protection' (!)

Feist Publications

  • Created compilations of phone books for larger areas

  • Request to license Rural's directory for their compilation was denied, but used it anyway

Rural sued Feist for infringement on their copyrighted phone book.

A Work of Original Authorship

  • Court ruled Rural's book was not a copyrightable work, so Feist did not infringe.
  • Information cannot be copyrighted, but the creative portion of collections of information can be...
  • As long as there is at least minimal non-obvious originality

Sweat of the Brow

Investment in a work (effort, money, etc.) does not entitle copyright protection.

The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors, but '[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.'...It is the means by which copyright advances the progress of science and art.

 –Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Feist Publications vs. Rural Telephone Service, 499 U.S. 340, 349 (1991)

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INTRODUCTION

By Brian

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INTRODUCTION

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