Exam 10: Intellectual Property Rights

Computer programs are subject to patent protection.

A showing that an invention as a whole would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art when the invention was patented is called "subsequent art."

Courts will likely protect important customer lists under trade secret laws even if customer identities are determinable from other sources.

Three types of patents available under U.S. law are:

Owners of mask works are entitled to the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute their products under U.S. law for a period of:

Trade dress protection under the Lanham Act is the same as that provided a qualified unregistered trademark, and does not provide all the protection available to the holder of a registered trademark.

An owner of a copyright may license some of his or her rights to another in exchange for statutorily-prescribed royalty payments.

A trademark is any word, name, symbol, device, or combination of these used to identify a product.

In addition to U.S. copyright law, the rights of copyright holders are also protected under:

Generic terms that refer to a type or class of goods are never subject to trademark protection.

Trade dress refers to the packaging look and overall image of a product.

The manner in which ideas are expressed in literary, musical, dramatic, and other artistic works may be copyrighted.

Computer programs are subject to trade secrets protection.

In order to obtain a court order enjoining a competitor from using your trademark, it is necessary to show that:

Trademarks or service marks may be registered if they utilize terms that are:

A copyright owner may prohibit even limited use of copyrighted material if it is used for parody or criticism.

Protection for trade dress is available under the Lanham Act.

Where privacy or nondisclosure of proprietary information is desired, it would be best to seek protection under:

Smarts and Then Some, Inc. developed a software program after several years of research and development. The particular software program was then test-marketed, at which point a competitor filed suit claiming that the Smarts and Then Some program violated the competitor's copyright on a program they too were test-marketing. What is the test to determine whether a copyright has been violated?

The Semiconductor Chip Protection Act provides the owner of a mask work fixed in semiconductor chip products the exclusive right for twenty (20) years to reproduce and distribute the products in the United States and to import them into the United States.