Intellectual Property Law: Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights [3rd Edition]

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 conciseness and accessibility, making complex legal principles easy to grasp. Many law students use this series as supplementary materials outside of class, thereby mastering 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 previously studied courses. It is believed that this series will also be well-received by domestic readers. Whether you are an undergraduate or graduate student in law, a practicing lawyer, or someone else, 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 framework 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 fundamental aspects of the American intellectual property system, covering basic principles, statutory provisions, and case law rules. It serves as a foundational reading for Chinese readers seeking to understand the American intellectual property system. The book is divided into three parts: patents, trademarks, and copyright.
### Part on Patents
The section on patents includes the following key content:
- Basics of Patent Protection: This covers the origins and development of U.S. patent law, fundamental principles of patent protection, and theories of patent protection.
- Objects of Patent Protection: This 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: This covers foreign prior patents or publications, domestic prior patents or public knowledge, disclosure and limited disclosure, and priority.
- Patentability—Utility: This includes substantial utility and presumed utility.
- Patentability—Non-Obviousness: This covers invention and non-obviousness, negative rules for inventions, statutory examination, and the relationship between non-obviousness and novelty.
- Patent Acquisition Process: This discusses patentees, joint inventors, specifications and claims, duties of good faith, and judicial review.
- Infringement of Patent Rights: This covers estoppel in application documents, interpretation of claims, patent rights, direct, indirect, and joint infringement, repair and rework, and defenses against infringement—such as abuse of rights and prior user defenses.
- Remedies: This includes injunctive relief, damages, and attorney fees.
- Interaction Between Patent Law and State/Federal Regulations:
### Part on Trademarks
The section on trademarks includes the following key content:
- Basics of Trademark Protection: This covers the origins and development of trademark law, common law trademarks, and federal registration.
- Distinctiveness: This discusses different markets, prior use, secondary meaning and descriptiveness, and prohibitions on surnames, geographical indications, and immoral trademarks.
- Dilution and Expansion of Trademark Principles: This covers trademarks and reputation, the possibility of expansion, protected interests, state anti-dilution laws, and federal anti-dilution laws.
- Loss and Partial Protection of Trademark Rights: This covers partial rights, concurrent registration, abandonment, and uncontestability.
- Trademark Practice: This involves first use in commerce and rights to sue.
- Objects of Trademark Protection: This includes certification marks, collective marks, and service marks.
- Infringement of Trademark Rights: This covers trademark similarity, similarity of goods or services, market characteristics and similarity, defenses—such as reasonable and indirect use, and gray market goods.
- Remedies: This includes injunctive relief, damages, and attorney fees.
### Part on Copyright
The section on copyright includes the following key content:
- Basics of Copyright Protection: This covers the origins and development of copyright law, the distinction between common law and statutory copyright, and fundamental principles of copyright protection.
- Objects of Copyright: This includes originality, copyrightable works, creation and fixation, computer programs, semiconductor chip protection laws, and copyright registration and notice procedures.
- Exclusive Rights: This covers reproduction, derivative works, distribution, performance, display, digital transmission of performances, and other rights related to digital technology.
- Infringement of Copyright: This covers evidence of infringement, infringement of musical works, and infringement of literary works.
- Fair Use: This includes the dynamic nature of fair use, the purpose and character of use, the nature of the work, the proportion and substantiality of the use, the impact on the market for the original work, parody and satire, and the relationship between fair use and free expression.
- Ownership of Copyright: This covers multiple claims to copyright, rights of co-authors, copyright term, termination of transfer, and employee works.
- Formal Requirements: This includes registration and notice.
- Remedies: This covers injunctive relief, damages and profits, criminal penalties, attorney fees and litigation costs.
- Interaction Between Copyright Law and State/Federal Regulations: This involves the principle of federal law supremacy, state law remedies, federal law remedies, moral rights, and the Berne Convention.
- International Agreements: This includes national treatment and minimum standards, GATT, NAFTA, and TRIPS, and the Special 301 provision.