| Trade Dress Protections |
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| Trade dress is governed by the same set of laws that protect unregistered trademarks. While traditional trademark law protects words or logos, trade dress law protects the total packaging and design of a product. Because trade dress often serves the same function as a trademark or service mark-the identification of goods and services in the marketplace-trade dress can be protected under the federal trademark laws and in some cases registered as a trademark or service mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. More... |
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| Patent Maintenance Fees |
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| Utility patents apply to inventions and processes and are distinguished from design and plant patents. Under current patent law, the term of a new utility patent is 20 years, during which the patent holder has the right to exclude others from using, making, selling, or distributing the invention or process. However, for utility patents based on applications filed on or after December 12, 1980, the 20-year patent term is subject to the payment of maintenance fees. More... |
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| Restoration from Public Domain |
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| A provision for the restoration of foreign works from public domain status in the United States was included in the 1994 Uruguay Round Agreements Act. The provision went into effect on January 1, 1996, and applies to members of the Berne Convention, members of the World Trade Organization, and countries specifically extended protection by presidential proclamations. More... |
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| Right of Priority in Patents in International Context |
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| One of the trickiest aspects of patent applications, particularly in the international context, is establishing the priority of patent rights. Rules applying to priority differ starkly between the United States and many foreign countries. The United States has a "first-to-invent" rule, which means that an inventor that can establish that he or she was the first to conceive of and create an invention will be given priority over another inventor of the same invention even if the second inventor applies for a patent first. In contrast, many foreign countries have a "first-to-file" rule, which means that the first inventor to apply for a patent will be given priority even if another inventor actually conceived of and created the same invention first. Further complicating the issue of priority is the fact that, in the United States, an inventor may publicly disclose an unpatented invention and will have a year to file for a patent. In many foreign countries, any public disclosure of an invention renders it ineligible for a patent. Thus, a U.S. inventor might be able to obtain a U.S. patent but be ineligible for patent protection in other countries even though U.S. patent rules were correctly followed. More... |
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| What is Intellectual Property? |
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| Introduction More... |
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