The Copyright Act of 1976 (Section 106) grants the author of the work or the party commissioning the work of authorship all the means of commercially exploiting the copyrightable work. This collection of rights includes the exclusive rights of 1) reproduction, 2) adaptation, 3) publication, 4) performance, and 5) display. In addition to these five rights, the copyright owner may prohibit the importation of infringing copies into the US in certain situations.

In principle, the author of any copyrightable work is granted these basic five rights. However, different works may have different limitations depending on the nature of the work. This is especially true in the case of computer programs, reproduction of pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, internet material, and sound recordings. For instance, it is not an infringement to make a copy of a computer program provided the copy is to utilize the software for backup purposes and not for sale. In the case of works of art -pictorial, graphic, and sculptural- it is also permitted for third parties to reproduce these works on useful articles such as in new reports, commentaries, and advertisement. This is an example where the Copyright Act of 1976 prevents the author from enforcing the exclusivity rights of reproduction.

Finally, the nature of the work is also an important factor in the assessment of fair use. As an example, it would be easier to protect the rights of a movie or a movie script than those of a public news broadcast, a public scientific information session, or scientific literature. This is the case because the copying from scholarly and informational works is easier to justify as fair use since the purpose is often to educate and disseminate knowledge.

References:
[1] Stim, R. "Intellectual Property. Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights" West Legal Studies.
[2] Black's Law Dictionary 5th ed., (West Publishing, 1979).
[3] Copyright Act of 1976

The purpose of copyright law is to promote the progress of useful arts and science by protecting the exclusive right of authors and inventors to benefit from their works of authorship. To this end, the US Copyright Act of 1976 -a complete revision of the Copyright Act of 1909- protects all the works of authorship created between 1978 and the present. This protection extends to works that are unpublished but are in a fixed and tangible form. Copyright law is regulated by the federal government by registering copyrighted works through the Copyright Office (a division of the Library of Congress) and by enforcing copyright laws in the federal court system.

The most commonly litigated issue in copyright law involves copyright infringement. Disputes regarding the violation of any exclusive right granted under copyright law, such as copying a work, are filed in federal courts due to Federal Preemption.

Copyright law protects literary, musical, graphic, or other artistic forms in which an author expresses intellectual concepts. In the context of copyright law an author is the creator of any copyrightable creation. Any author creation that meets the standards of copyright law is protectible under copyright law and considered to be a work of authorship. The main two requirements to meet the standards of copyright law are originality and fixation.

References:
[1] Stim, R. "Intellectual Property. Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights" West Legal Studies.
[2] Black's Law Dictionary 5th ed., (West Publishing, 1979).

In the context of copyright law, a work is considered to be fixed when it is embodied in a tangible, stable, and concrete form. For instance, a short story that is printed on paper meets this requirement, while a live performance of the same short story that is not being simultaneously recorded does not. The Copyright Act of 1976 requires that in order to meet the standards of copyright law, works of authorship must be embodied in a form that is sufficiently permanent to be reproduced, communicated, and perceived. Consequently, works that are transitory in nature are not protectible under copyright law, since they are not fixed.

To illustrate the difference between a fixed work and a work that is not fixed in a practical scenario I will consider a real situation involving a university professor and a graduate student regarding the copyrights of lecture materials and associated class notes. A personal friend of mine completing graduate studies had been taking excellent class notes during lectures and creating thorough course guides by complementing the class notes with materials from additional sources and using a professional quality typesetting system to publish them. Additionally, the student decided to make these course guides freely available to other students as PDF documents. I recently learned about a dispute involving the copyrights of the lecture materials between the university professor and the student. The dispute goes as follows. Allegedly, the university professor wanted to prevent the student from sharing her course guides with other students on the basis that since the student had created them based on her lectures, she -as the professor-- was the copyright owner of the materials.

Analyzing the previous case, we find that based on the US Copyright Act of 1976 and the Berne Convention Implementation Act, the student not only is within her right to distribute the course guides as she pleases without any copyright infringement, but also has the right to seek copyright protection for her work of authorship. Given that the professor lectures have not been simultaneously taped or transcribed, they are transient in nature and cannot be protected by copyright laws since they do not meet the fixation requirement. On the other hand, the student's work of authorship meets the originality, fixation, and Judge Learned Hand's abstraction tests. Additionally, copyright protection does not extend to the ideas, but only to the author's unique expression of the ideas. Consequently, in this particular case the student has the right to copyright the course guides or make them public domain.

References:
[1] Stim, R. "Intellectual Property. Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights" West Legal Studies.
[2] Black's Law Dictionary 5th ed., (West Publishing, 1979).

A trademark is any word, symbol, design, device, logo, or slogan that identifies and distinguishes one product or service from another.

To obtain trademark protection it is necessary for a person or a business to sell a product using the mark. Consequently, trademark rights are only acquired when the trademark is used in commerce. Additionally, it is recommended to register the trademark in order to obtain special rights in the event of infringement. Trademarks are protected by federal and state law. Trademark owners can register the trademark with the PTO (federal) or with the respective secretary of state. Trademark rights are acquired by being the first to use the mark in commerce. The first user of the mark on goods in commerce creates an association with consumers, and trademark laws are intended to protect the consumer by avoiding confusion and enabling companies to compete fairly.

Under the Trademark Law Revision Act of 1998 a trademark owner can apply for registration prior to using the mark, based upon the owner's bona fide intent to use (ITU) the mark. If the application is approved and published without opposition, the trademark owner is required to submit evidence that the mark is in use within a period of three years. Upon submitting this evidence the PTO will issue the trademark registration. Currently, trademark registration are protected for an initial 10-year period. The registrant may renew the registration for subsequent 10-year periods as long as the mark continues to be used in commerce.

The extend of trademark rights is affected by several factors. These include:
-Distinctiveness of the mark.

-The date of first use in commerce.
-The geographic area where the mark is used.
-The registration of the mark
-The goods or services associated with the mark

References:
[1] Stim, R. "Intellectual Property. Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights" West Legal Studies.
[2] Black's Law Dictionary 5th ed., (West Publishing, 1979).

Patent rights in the US are acquired only after the patent is issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). Contrary to other forms of intellectual property, protection does not exist for patentable inventions until the patent is formally issued (Letters Patent). The PTO is responsible for determining the patentability and issuing patents. Even though inventors can prepare their own patent applications, these application are normally prepared by a certified patent specialist with engineering or scientific background.

In the US both attorneys and nonattorneys that meet the educational requirements may take the examination to become certified patent specialist. A nonattorney licensed by the PTO to prepare and prosecute patent applications is a Patent Agent. While patent agents can prepare, file, respond to office actions from the PTO, and participate in the amendment of the application, only Patent Attorneys can provide legal advise.

After the patent is issued, the inventor acquires exclusionary patent rights for a period. Currently, utility patents filed after June 7, 1995 will expire 20 years for the date of filing.

References:
[1] Stim, R. "Intellectual Property. Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights" West Legal Studies.
[2] Black's Law Dictionary 5th ed., (West Publishing, 1979).

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