INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Patents, Trademarks, & Copyrights

Government Information & Access Services SLIS 5660 Yvonne J. Chandler, Assistant Professor

University of North Texas School of Library & Information Sciences

Written and Presented by Yvonne J. Chandler Assistant Professor Copyright 1999 All Rights Reserved

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
PATENTS - relate to inventions TRADEMARKS - relate to product names or symbols COPYRIGHT - relate to literary or creative works

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Patents & Copyrights grant exclusive rights for a limited time after which the work or invention enters the public domain

Patents are granted by the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office of the Department of Commerce (USPTO) The USPTO grants patents, issues trademarks, and administers patent and trademark laws USPTO accessible on the WWW
http://www.uspto.gov/ http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/to pics/pattrade.html

PATENTS

Information on Patents
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/ general/

PATENTS
Patent holders receive exclusive rights to make, use, or sell an invention, design, or plant. The patentee must file a detailed description of the invention which is published by the government. Public disclosure provides a reservoir of technical information. Some companies prefer to protect their inventions called Trade Secrets kept private to maintain a companys competitive advantage.

TYPES OF PATENTS GRANTED TO INVENTORS

Patent laws provide for granting of patents in three categories:

Utility Patents - new, useful, or improved

processes, machines, apparatuses, articles of manufacture, or compositions of matter

Design Patents - new, original, and ornamental

designs for an article of manufacture

Plant Patents - inventions, discoveries, or

asexually reproduced distinct and new varieties of plants; including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, newly found seedlings, and living organisms

LENGTH OF PATENTS
PATENTS ARE GRANTED TO THE TRUE INVENTOR FOR:

UTILITY & PLANT PATENTS FOR 20 YEARS DESIGN PATENTS FOR 14 YEARS

PATENT PROTECTION
A United States Patent only protects the invention in this country Patent applications must be filed in each country to receive patent protection in foreign countries Half of US patents are granted to foreign nationals to protect their inventions in this country

PATENT APPLICATION
NONPROVISIONAL - begins the
examination process that may lead to a patent and includes a specification (description of the invention), drawing, & oath or declaration

PROVISIONAL - establishes a filing date

but does not begin the examination process for one year. Provisional application includes a cover sheet, name of the inventor, bibliographic data, a partial type of specification or description, and a drawing

GOVERNMENT PATENTS
Federal agencies patent inventions from health related, agriculture, scientific, and agriculture agencies. NTIS licenses businesses to use government inventions, cooperating government agencies notify NTIS of new inventions which are then included in the NTIS database. NTIS is the central source of information on government patents and pending patents except for the Departments of Energy and Defense and NASA who handle their own patent licensing NTIS indicates patents by the NTIS accession number and (PAT OR PAAT-APPL in front followed by the patent or application number

PARTS OF THE PATENT Typical patent includes:

Drawings Brief Abstract or Summary Patent Specification Detailed Description of How To Make or Use the Invention

PARTS OF THE PATENT

Typical patent includes:
INID Codes: international system that allows elements on the patent cover page to be identified in all languages Claims - phrases that precisely define the invention and outline the boundaries of the claimed invention (prevents infringement)

U.S. PATENT CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

Patents are organized into:
Classes - Broad Technological Categories Subclasses - Specific Technological Categories

Patents may be assigned to more than one subclass

U.S. PATENT CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

USPC has more than 400 classes and 137,000 subclasses Design patent classification has 37 classes and 3800 subclasses Plant patents classified under 89 subclasses

PATENT NUMBERS
Patent Number One was issued in 1836 Each number is assigned in numerical order Different numbered series for each type of patent Design Patents preceded by letter D or Des

OFFICIAL GAZETTE
Patents can be searched manually, WEB, online, or CDROM Patent summary is published in the Official Gazette in numerical sequence each week Official Gazette is sent to all depository libraries and is sold by the GPO

PATENT SEARCHING
Full patent can be examined at: Purchased from the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Patent & Trademark Depository Libraries
PTDLs on WWW http://www.uspto.gov/go/ptdl

PATENT & TRADEMARK DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES (PTDLs) List of PTDLs Is Published in the Official Gazette 80 PTDLs Maintain Collections of
Current and Earlier Issued Patents Since 1790 Complete Patent Specifications Trademarks Reference Materials (CASSIS)

AUTOMATED PATENT SYSTEM

APS is the Automated Patent System used by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and its examiners for patent search and retrieval. APS Text database has the full text of every patent since 1971 APS Image database has a complete image of every U.S. patent since 1790.

AUTOMATED PATENT SYSTEM

Comprised of automated information systems that automate aspects of the PTOs operations and are available at PTDLs U. S. Patent Full Text and Patent Imaging Data European and Japanese Abstracts U. S. Current Classification Data Classified Search and Image Retrieval(CSIR) Classification and Search Support System (CASSIS)

U.S. PATENT & TRADEMARK OFFICE DATABASES - Full-Text Database and Bibliographic Database
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html

US Patent Bibliographic Database (a

freely searchable database of front page information from US patents issued from 1/1/76 to 6/30/98 )

http://patents.uspto.gov/access/searchbool.html

AIDS Patent Database (No longer

maintained)

SEARCHING FOR PATENTS

Manual of Classification
Fundamental element of searching for patents involves identifying the class and subclass for the claims of the invention. Every application is assigned a class and subclass There are more than 300 classes and 200,000 subclasses used in the subject classification The Index to the U. S. Patent Classification is the subject index to the Manual. Assists with the unique nomenclature of Patents

Classification and Search Support System (CASSIS) CASSIS is the CD-ROM indexes to US patents & trademarks CASSIS/BIB CD-ROM CASSIS/ CLASS CD-ROM CASSIS/ASSIGN

FOREIGN PATENTS
Patents provide protection in their country of issue. Must have patent for each country. Paris Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty provide reciprocal protection and filing rights in member countries. UN - World Intellectual Property Organization administers the Paris Convention

WHAT IS A TRADEMARK
TRADEMARK - Either a word, name, phrase, color, smell, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols, or designs that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods or services of one party - appears on the product or on its packaging (TM - trademark) TRADENAME - virtually the same as trademark SERVICE MARK - Identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product appears in advertising for the services (SM service mark)

TRADEMARKS
Trademarks are renewable indefinitely as long as the mark is being used

TRADEMARK PROTECTION
United States registration provides protection only in the U. S. and its territories. The owner of a trademark must protect the mark in other countries under that countries relevant laws

APPLICATIONS FOR TRADEMARK

USE APPLICATIONS - An applicant who has already commenced using a mark in commerce INTENT-TO-USE- An applicant who has not yet used the mark may apply based on a bonafide intention to use the mark in commerce in the ordinary course of trade and not to reserve a right in a mark FOREIGN APPLICATION - Under international agreements, an applicant from outside of the US may file based on an application or registration in another country

RIGHTS IN A MARK
Rights arise from either:
RIGHT TO USE - actual use of a mark in commerce RIGHT TO REGISTER - or the filing of an application to register a mark in the PTO stating that the applicant has a bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce. The registration symbol is used when the mark is registered and signifies ownership and all the commercial and legal benefits that may derive by virtue of ownership.

GENERICIDE TRADEMARK GRAVEYARD

ASPIRIN CELLOPHANE CELLULOID CORN FLAKES CUBE STEAK DRY ICE ESCALATOR LANOLIN MALTED MILK MILK OF MAGNESIA MIMEOGRAPH MINERAL OIL POCKET BOOK SHREDDED WHEAT THERMOS TRAMPOLINE YO-YO

OFFICIAL GAZETTE
Official Gazette of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Trademarks lists trademarks and has index of registrants Index of Trademarks - annual index to the Gazette

Trademark Web Sources

Trademark Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/d oc/gsmanual/

Trademark Database on the Web from the USPTO - full bibliographic text of pending and registered trademarks as of July 1, 1998
http://www.uspto.gov/tmdb/index.html

PTDL Databases
X-Search - Trademark Automated Search System TRAM - Trademark Reporting and Monitoring Available at Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries

TRADEMARK SOURCES
TRADEMARKSCAN - database of all active
registered trademarks or services marks, and applications for registrations - avail. on Dialog

CASSIS Trademark CD-ROMs - at PTDLs CDTrademark Registrations - the text of all active registered marks from 1884 Trademarks Pending - the text of trademark applications that have been filed Trademark Assignments - bibliographic information from trademark assignment deeds recorded at the PTO since 1955

COPYRIGHT
Copyright Law protects authors, artists, & others from theft of their intellectual property

COPYRIGHT
Copyright protects intellectual property including; books music plays choreography photographs game boards & rules art motion pictures sound recordings computer programs architectural blueprints advertisements labels maps

The Copyright Law is published on the WWW at the Library of Congress Web Site COPYRIGHT LAW OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/title17/

COPYRIGHT
Copyright protection is granted for the length of the author s life plus 50 years. Joint works are copyrighted for the lifetime of the last surviving author plus 50 years

COPYRIGHTABLE WORKS
WORKS OF FACT - news stories,
telephone directories, photographs, new footage WORKS OF FUNCTION - computer programs (operating systems) or computer programs (applications) WORKS OF ART - scripts, film, sculpture
Overlapping Protection - some works are eligible for both copyright and patent protection

COPYRIGHT
US and other nations enjoy reciprocal copyright protection as members of the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Member nations honor each other s copyrights and allow infringement suits to cross national borders

Copyrights are registered by the Register of Copyrights within the Library of Congress http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/ The Copyright Office records dating from 1978 to the present including registration information and recorded documents are available via LOCIS (Library of Congress Information System)
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/rb.html

OFFICIAL COPYRIGHT PUBLICATIONS

The Copyright Office within the Library of Congress issues information Circulars for each type of copyrightable item that includes; application forms, registration information, Copyright Office services, licensing, and mandatory deposit procedures
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/circs/

Intellectual Property Judicial Information Sources U. S. Patents Quarterly published by BNA Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal - published by BNA