Licensing and Intellectual Property Requirements
Patent
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state or intergovernmental organization to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time (typically 20 years) in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem and is a product or a process.
Copyright
A copyright protects published or unpublished original work from unauthorized duplication without due credit and compensation. Copyright covers not only books but also advertisements, articles, graphic designs, labels, letters (including emails), lyrics, maps, musical compositions, product designs, etc.
Works Created on or after January 1, 1978
The law automatically protects a work that is created and fixed in a tangible medium of expression on or after January 1, 1978, from the moment of its creation and gives it a term lasting for the author’s life plus an additional 70 years. For a “joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not work for hire,” the term lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author’s death.
For works made for hire and anonymous and pseudonymous works, the duration of copyright is 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter (unless the author’s identity is later revealed in Copyright Office records, in which case the term becomes the author’s life plus 70 years).
According to the major international intellectual-property protection treaties (Berne Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and WIPO Copyright Treaty) five rights are associated with a copyright, the right to:
- Reproduce the work in any form, language, or medium
- Adapt or derive more works from it
- Make and distribute its copies
- Perform it in public
- Display or exhibit it in public
Trademark
A trademark is a recognizable sign, design, or unique expression related to products or services of a particular source from those of others, usually called service marks.