| Generic Names as Trademark Subject Matter |
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| A generic name is the common descriptive name of the product a trademark identifies. Generic names may not be protected under trademark laws. The intended trademark cannot be registered and the owner has no right to stop others from using a similar mark. Unlike descriptive marks, generic devices will not become a trademark even if they are advertised so heavily that secondary meaning can be proven in the mind of consumers. The rationale for creating the category of generic marks is that no manufacturer or service provider should be given exclusive right to use words that generically identify a product. Therefore, if a company attempts to use the name of the goods themselves, such as "Lemonade" for a lemonade drink or "Bicycle" for a bicycle, that name will not be protected because it is generic. More... |
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| Jurisdiction and Procedure in Patent Disputes |
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| A patent gives the patent owner an exclusive right in the subject matter of the patent. If another person or company makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, or imports the subject matter of the patent, that other person or company is said to be infringing on the patent rights of the patent owner. The patent owner in such a situation may wish to have the infringing conduct stop or may be entitled to monetary compensation for the infringing conduct. Because the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has no jurisdiction over a patent once it issues it nor has any enforcement powers with regard to patent rights, the ordinary course of action to take against an act of patent infringement is to bring a lawsuit in court. In addition, a non-patent owner who believes that a patent issued by the USPTO is not valid may bring a lawsuit to challenge the validity of that patent. More... |
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| Patents |
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| A patent is a federal statutory right that allows an inventor to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention without the inventor's permission for the limited period specified by the patent statute. If a person or other entity makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, or imports the invention covered by the patent, they have infringed the patent, and the patent owner may bring a lawsuit to seek relief. There are several defenses to allegations of patent infringement available to someone who is sued for patent infringement. Two of the available patent defenses are that the allegedly infringing activity is not an infringement of the patent and that the patent is not valid and cannot be enforced.
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| Works of Authorship under the Copyright Act |
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| The Copyright Act uses the phrase "works of authorship" to describe the types of works that are protected by copyright law. This phrase is purposefully broad to avoid the need to rewrite the Copyright Act every time a new "medium" was discovered. Congress included a list of eight works of authorship in the Copyright Act as follows: More... |
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| Patents |
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| A patent is a right granted by the federal government to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the subject of the patent for a limited period of time, whether it be an invention, process, composition of material, or other patentable article, without the permission of the patent owner. Conduct that interferes with the right of exclusion is called infringement.
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