Title: Class Outline 10
Course: KVCC BUS118 > Section: Class Outlines

1.      Trade Secrets - Protect formula, Process, methods, and information that give a business a competitive edge.

a.      To be protected

i.           Must have value

ii.           Be unknown

iii.           Be unascertainable

iv.           Be protected

b.      Indefinite protection

1.      Trade Marks -– Protections of words, logos, and symbols that align with the company’s products or services.

a.      Trademarks

b.      Servicemarks

c.      Federal and State Registration

d.      Lanham Act – gives federal government powers and defines protections.

e.      Advantages to federal registration

i.           Notice of date of first use

ii.           Right to sue in Federal court

iii.           Limited in ways to challenge

iv.           Right to use federal registration symbol

f.       Requirements

i.           Use in commerce

ii.           Distinctive

1.      Principle register

2.      Supplemental Register

g.      Registration through USPTO mostly through electronic means

i.           Required

1.      Name and Contact info

2.      Trademark Drawing

3.      Listing of product or services represented

4.      Filing Fee

h.      Two types of cases

i.           Similar trademark

ii.           Trademark dilution

Copyright is an IP right established in the Constitution.

First law Established in 1790 with the most recent being 1976.

Holder of the copyright has exclusive property rights.

These rights include the ability to reproduce, perform, or sell the work, and keep others from using it.

Almost anything can be copyrighted.

Materials are often marked with the © but this is not required.

Copyrights protects works which can be any creative endeavor. These works include:

i.Literary works

ii.Musical works

iii.Dramatic works

iv.Pantomimes and choreographic works

v.Pictorial, graphic, and sculpted works

vi.Motion Picture and audio visual works

vii.Sound recordings

viii.Architectural Works

Federal law “an original work of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.”

A work becomes original if it is not copied from another source.

Key is an original expression of an idea.

Public domain – works that are free for public use.

Copy rights start as soon as the original work is created. No registration is necessary.

Owners can provide others access through license. The license gives the following rights:

1.      To reproduce

2.      Prepare derivative works based on copyrights

3.      Distribute copies or phonorecords to public

4.      Publically perform copyrighted work

5.      Publically display the copyrighted work.

Work for hire – establishes that work was commission for business and they are the ones to have rights to it.

Common works for hire:

6.      Contribution to collective work.

7.      Motion Picture or audio visual work

8.      Translation

9.      Supplementary work

10.  Compilation

11.  Instructional Text

12.  Test and answer material

13.  Atlas

Copyright law change on January 1 1978

Length of Authors life plus 70 years

If 2 or more others then times starts after last living member passes.

WFH – 95 years from publication or 120 years depending on topic.

Registering a copyright – As stated you do not need to register a copyright. However if you want to enforce it by suing then it needs to be registered. Registration is done at the US copyright office which is a unit of the library of congress.

Other benefits to register:

14.  Public registration

15.  After 5 years creates presumption of ownership and has to be proven invalid.

To register you need:

16.  The application.

17.  Description of what is being copyrighted.

18.  The Fees

Berne Convention for international protections.

Just as in the other areas copyright owners have to sue infringers with the government not getting involved.

Strict liability also applies here.

Things to prove in infringement cases:

19.  Copyright ownership

20.  Show infringement

21.  Demonstrate party had access to copyright

22.  Must show they are substantially similar

Tests “whether a lay observer would consider the works as a whole substantially similar to one another.”

Fair use – this usage does not violate the copyright protections. Fair use usually has some connection to the freedom of speech.

Examples:

23.  Criticism

24.  Comments

25.  News Reporting

26.  Teaching

27.  Scholarship

28.  Research

Factors:

29.  Purposes and character of the use – nonprofit and educational

30.  Nature of the copyrighted work – more facts less creative

31.  The amount and substantiality of the work used – small amount

32.  The effect of the use upon the potential market – little or no effect

DMCA – Digital Millennium Copyright Act – this was established to protect copyrights in the digital age.

5 Titles

Title I – Sets up 2 World Intellectual Property Organization treaties. Technological Measures to protect electronic copyrights.

Members have to try to stop the bypassing of copyright restrictions.

DRM – digital rights management

Individuals can bypass their owned protections due to fair use.

Exceptions pg 305.

Title II – Online copyright Infringement Liability Limitation act. Limits liability of online service providers for copyright infringement of their users.

Limits the online service provider’s liability.

Safe harbor – if criteria is met then the OSP is safe from the liability of its user’s actions.

Must terminate repeat offenders

DMCA Takedown Notices

Title III – Computer Maintenance Competition Assurances Act – Computer techs make a copy of a program for maintenance and repair. The software has to have already been on the computer and needs to be deleted when the work is complete.

Title IV – Miscellaneous Provisions.

Title V – Vessel hull design protection act starts a new form of protection for vessel hulls.

Attached Files: | - KVCC BUS118_LegalAspectsBusInfoSys_Class Outlline 10(1).pdf