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Copyright Joint Authorship and Ownership

According to the Copyright Act, the authors of a joint work jointly own the copyright in the work they create. A joint work is defined in the Copyright Act as "a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be...

Patents

A patent is a federal statutory right that allows an inventor to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention without the inventor's permission for the limited period specified by the...

Foreign and International Copyright

There is no such thing as an "international copyright" that automatically protects an author's works throughout the world. Protection against unauthorized use in a particular country depends on the national laws of that country. However, most...

Creativity Requirement of Copyright

One of the basic requirements for copyright protection is creativity. A work must include something that is above and beyond the original. Verbatim use is not considered original. Reference to the original work that is used to discuss a new...

Trademark Priority

In the United States, subject to one exception, trademark rights arise from use in commerce, regardless of whether or not the mark is registered. The first user of a mark generally takes priority over all subsequent users with respect to use of...