1. Intellectual Property
Patents, Copyrights,Trademarks and Trade Secrets

2. Four Forms of Intellectual Property
Copyrights © - creative works of art
Writings, lyrics, poems, music
Trademarks ™ ®
Logos like IBM’s
Trade Secrets
Knowledge that is kept secret by a company
Formula for Coca Cola
Patents
Inventions or things and processes
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3. Copyrights and Patents
Congress shall have the power ...
To promote the progress of science and the useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries.
Copyright applies to writings
Patent applies to inventions
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4. Copyright - AGOF Chapter 5
Extensive discussion - also see AGOF lecture notes
Originally for 14 years
Renewable for 14 years if author living
Copyright Act of 1976:
Retroactively extended to up to 75 years
Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act 1998
Extended yet another 20 years
Currently author’s life + 70 years
“Works for hire” - shorter of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation (MM)
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5. Patents - Topics What is a patent? How to get a patent? Why patent?

6. What is a Patent?
A description of a new idea that would not be obvious to a person of “ordinary skill in the art”
Must pass an originality test with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
A piece of property, granted for a finite number of years as a monopoly to the patent holder
Can be licensed to others (usually for a fee, but not always)
Can be inherited
Acquired when a company is bought by another
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7. Patent Ownership Inventor
Most employment agreements assign patent to the employer
Sometimes the employer assigns the patent to company paying for development
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8. Design Patent Last for 14 years Protects the look/shape of an object
The shape of a car
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9. Utility Patent Machine Manufactured item
Process (computer algorithm, chemical process, way to make a drug)
Business method
Amazon vs Barnes & Noble on one-click shopping
Composition of matter (a drug)
Any new and useful improvement of any of the above
20 years from date of application
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10. Plant Patent
Distinct and new varieties of plants that have been invented or discovered and asexually reproduced
20 years from date of application
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11. Can Not Patent if Is not new, ie, is not an invention
Fails the utility test - is it good for something
Was known to the public more than a year prior to filing date
Obvious variation on a known technology
Obvious to “one skilled in the arts”
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12.
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13. Obligations of the Inventor
Disclose everything about the invention in the patent application to the USPTO
If patent is granted, it is published by USPTO
Two years after filing if not yet granted
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14. Patent has four parts Front Page Drawings
Specification aka Description
Claims
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15. Front Page Date Granted Inventor(s) Owner(s) Date Filed
Patent Examiner
has looked at
these patents
Illustrative
figure

16. Drawing Number with each portion of the figure called out
in text. All numbers
for Fig 7 begin with 7.

17. Specification
Line number
Column number

18. Specification Is of the preferred embodiment
There must be an instantiation of the patent
Used to be submitted to USPTO as a working model
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19. Claims Claims are not limited to the preferred embodiment
An independent claim
A claim element
Another claim element
A dependent claim
Claims are not limited to the preferred embodiment

20. Legal Issues about Patents
Validity of a Patent - Did USPTO make a bad decision?
Is it really an invention?
Was there prior art?
Would it have been obvious to someone skilled in the art at the time?
Infringement - is someone’s product practicing the invention?
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21. Patent Validity Issued patent is presumed valid
Burden of proof is on party alleging invalidity
Typically happens when someone sued for infringement
Each claim stands alone
A claim being invalid does not affect other claims
Dependent claim can be valid even if claim on which it depends is invalid
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22. Patent Invalidity -Anticipation
A claim is anticipated iff
Each element of the claim
exists in a single
publicly available publication
or product
at least one year prior to publication of the document or sale of the product
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23. Patent Invalidity - Obviousness
Each element exists in some publicly available document or product at least one year….
AND the invention would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art
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24. Patent Infringement At least one claim must be infringed
Literal Infringement
Compare claim with the accused product
Determine whether each element of claim is present
If so, then accused product infringes that claim
Infringement Under Doctrine Of Equivalents
If the differences between the product and the claim element would be considered insubstantial by a person of ordinary skill in the field at the time of the alleged infringement, then…
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25. First to Invent, First to File
First to Invent - US
First to file - most other countries
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26. Provisional Patent A short-term and inexpensive place-holder
Good for a year
Then must file real patent application
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27. How to Get a Patent Do it yourself :-( Pay a lawyer
~$10,000 plus maintenance fees after 3, 7 , and 11 years on utility patents
Takes typically two years
Often have several iterations with patent examiner (read $$)
Success rate about 2 out of 3
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28. Why Patent To protect an idea To build a wall around your product
To limit a competitor’s options
For cross-licensing
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29. Avoiding Infringement
Really hard to do
If are patenting the new idea, then patent search and application will come close
But if not doing a patent, then may not know
Willful infringement vs Non-willful infringement
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