Intellectual property law (patents, trademarks, and copyrights)

Author: Miller (USA), Davis (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: In the field of American legal education and legal practice, "Essentials of American Law" is a distinctive series of books. The most prominent feature of this series is its simplicity, clarity, and accessibility. Many law students use this series as supplementary materials for extracurricular study, thereby grasping the essence of major areas of American law. Practicing lawyers also frequently rely on this series to quickly familiarize themselves with unfamiliar areas of law or review courses they have previously studied. It is believed that this series will also win the favor of domestic readers. Whether you are an undergraduate or graduate student in law, a practicing lawyer, or other individuals, you can gain a wealth of knowledge about American law from this series, which will be beneficial to your studies and work.
The term "intellectual property" refers to a group of rights. Traditionally, this group includes patent rights, trademark rights, and copyright. The protection of these three rights constitutes the basic content of modern intellectual property systems. Intellectual property textbooks and courses typically cover these three rights as well. In common law countries like the United States, in addition to protecting intellectual property through statutes, intellectual property is also protected through case law.
The book "Intellectual Property Law: Patents, Trademarks, and Copyright" systematically and accessibly discusses the basic content of the American intellectual property system from the perspective of fundamental principles, statutory provisions, and case law rules. It can serve as a basic reading for Chinese readers to understand the American intellectual property system. The book is divided into three parts: patents, trademarks, and copyright.
The patent section includes the following basic content:
- The foundation of patent protection, which covers the origin and development of U.S. patent law, basic principles of patent protection, and patent protection theory.
- The objects of patent protection, which discusses ideas and applications, statutory scope, method inventions, distinctions among three types of product inventions, patents related to computers, plant patents, and design patents.
- Patentability—Novelty and Legal Barriers, which covers foreign prior patents or publications, domestic prior patents or public knowledge, disclosure and limited disclosure, and priority.
- Patentability—Utility, which includes substantial utility and presumed utility.
- Patentability—Non-obviousness, which includes invention and non-obviousness, negative rules for inventions, statutory examination, and non-obviousness versus novelty.
- The process of obtaining a patent, which discusses patentees, co-inventors, specifications and claims, duties of good faith, and judicial review.
- Infringement of patent rights, which covers estoppel (prohibition of retrial), interpretation of claims, patent rights, direct, indirect, and joint infringement, repair and rework, and defenses against infringement—abuse of rights and prior user defenses.
- Remedies, which include injunctive relief, damages, and attorney fees.
- Intersection of patent law and state and federal regulations.
The trademark section includes the following basic content:
- The foundation of trademark protection, which covers the origin and development of trademark law, trademarks at common law, and federal registration.
- Distinctiveness, which discusses different markets, prior use, secondary meaning and descriptiveness, and prohibitions on surnames, geographical indications, and immoral trademarks.
- Dilution and expansion of trademark principles, which covers trademarks and reputation, possibilities of expansion, protected interests, state anti-dilution laws, and federal anti-dilution laws.
- Loss and partial protection of trademark rights, which covers partial rights, concurrent registration, abandonment, and uncontestability.
- Trademark practice, which involves first use in commerce and rights to sue.
- Objects of trademark protection, which includes certification marks, collective marks, and service marks.
- Infringement of trademark rights, which covers similarity of trademarks, similarity of goods or services, market characteristics and similarity, defenses—reasonable and indirect use, and gray market goods.
- Remedies, which include injunctive relief, damages, and attorney fees.
The copyright section includes the following basic content:
- The foundation of copyright protection, which covers the origin and development of copyright law, copyright statutes, the distinction between common law and statutory copyright, and basic principles of copyright protection.
- Objects of copyright, which includes originality, copyrightable works, creation and fixation, computer programs, semiconductor chip protection law, and copyright protection procedures—registration and notice.
- Exclusive rights, which covers reproduction, derivative works, distribution, performance, display, digital transmission of performances, and other rights related to digital technology.
- Infringement of copyright, which covers evidence of infringement, infringement of musical works, and infringement of literary works.
- Fair use, which includes the dynamic of fair use, purpose and character of use, nature of the work, proportion and substantiality of use, impact on the market for the original work, parody and satire, and fair use versus free expression.
- Ownership of copyright, which covers multiple claims to copyright, rights of co-authors, term of copyright, termination of transfer, and employee works.
- Formal requirements, which include registration and notice.
- Remedies, which cover injunctive relief, damages and profits, criminal penalties, attorney fees and litigation costs.
- Intersection of copyright law and state and federal regulations, which includes the principle of federal law supremacy, state law remedies, federal law remedies, moral rights, and the Berne Convention.
- International agreements, which include national treatment and minimum standards, GATT, NAFTA, and TRIPS, and the Special 301 provision.