| The Doctrine of Intervening Rights |
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| A patent is issued for a fixed term--14 years for a plant patent; 20 years for other types--during which the patent holder has a right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the subject of the patent. There are, however, certain circumstances under which a patent claim may become ineffective for the purposes of enforcing exclusive patent rights against possible infringers. United States patent law allows a patentee to request a reissue of a patent, a procedure used when a patent as issued needs to be corrected. There may be an error in the specification that undermines the validity of the patent, or a patentee may determine that the scope of the patent as issued is narrower or broader than intended. As long as the error occurred without deceptive intention, the patentee may seek a reissue of the patent. More... |
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| Trade Dress Protections |
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| Trade dress is governed by the same set of laws that protect unregistered trademarks. While traditional trademark law protects words or logos, trade dress law protects the total packaging and design of a product. Because trade dress often serves the same function as a trademark or service mark-the identification of goods and services in the marketplace-trade dress can be protected under the federal trademark laws and in some cases registered as a trademark or service mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. More... |
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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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| Plant Variety Protection Act |
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| United States patent law has provided patent protection for new varieties of asexually reproduced plants since the 1930s. Congress passed the Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) in 1970 to "encourage the development of novel varieties of sexually reproduced plants and to make them available to the public." More... |
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| Fragrances as Trademark Subject Matter |
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| Distinctive fragrances are eligible for federal trademark registration. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, in a landmark decision, reversed the Examining Attorney and held that there was no reason why a fragrance was not capable of identifying and distinguishing certain types of products. Thus, the Board allowed registration of an arbitrary, nonfunctional scent for sewing thread and embroidery yarn. More... |
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