| Copyright and the Protection of Ideas and Facts |
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| Copyright law protects the expression of ideas and facts, not the ideas and facts themselves. Copyright protects only fixed, original, and creative expression, not the ideas or facts upon which the expression is based. Works that have not been fixed to a tangible medium are just ideas. Ideas are fair game for everyone to express in their own words. Allowing authors to monopolize their ideas would defeat the underlying purpose of copyright law, which is to encourage people to create new work. One may express ideas in writing or drawings and claim copyright in the description, but that copyright will not protect the idea itself as revealed in the written or artistic work. This exclusion helps maintain the distinction between copyright protection and patent law. Ideas and inventions are the subject matter for patents, while the expression of ideas is governed by copyright law. If copyright were extended to protect ideas, principles, and devices, then it would be possible to circumvent the rigorous prerequisites of patent law and secure protection for an invention merely by describing the invention in a copyrightable work.More... |
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| Display Rights |
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| The Copyright Act confers upon copyright owners the right to publicly display certain types of works. This right may be claimed in literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works and in pantomimes, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works as well as in the individual images of motion pictures and other audiovisual works. More... |
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| What is Intellectual Property? |
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| IntroductionMore... |
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| Right to Perform Copyrighted Work |
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| Under the Copyright Act, to perform a copyrighted work means "to recite, render, play, dance, or act it, either directly or by means of any device or process." "Performing" a motion picture or other audiovisual work means "to show its images in any sequence or to make the sounds accompanying it audible." The Copyright Act defines the term "publicly perform" to mean "to perform or display [a copyrighted work] at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered." "To perform or display" includes to broadcast to such place open to the public. Therefore, performances in concert halls, theaters, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and other common public facilities are covered by the exclusive right of performance, whether the performance is live or broadcast to the public place, while the viewing of a movie in a private home is not a public performance and thus is not covered by the right of performance.More... |
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| The Doctrine of Equivalents |
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| When a patent is applied for, the inventor must include a specification, which is a written description of the invention, the manner and process by which the invention is made, and the manner and process by which the invention is used. A specification concludes with a claim or claims that particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter that the applicant asserts to be the invention to be patented. One of the purposes of claims is to put the public on notice as to what inventions have been patented and may not be patented again. Therefore, the language of claims are exceedingly important in a patent application because, in the event of a patent dispute, the language of the claims will define the scope of the patent protection. Ordinarily, even if patentable, any part of the invention that is not included in the claims will not receive patent protection. Each claim must conform to the description of the invention set out in the specification. More... |
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