Intellectual Property Law Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering key doctrines, statutory provisions, legal tests, and landmark case law across Copyright, Trademarks, Designs, Geographical Indications, and Patents from the lecture notes.

Utilitarian Theory of IP

A theory holding that intellectual property rights should promote social welfare by providing incentives for innovation and the dissemination of knowledge.

Labor Theory of IP

A theory asserting that intellectual property rights are natural rights derived from the moral connection between creators and their works to reward them for their efforts.

Piracy Paradox

The phenomenon in fashion design where a lack of copyright protection does not hinder innovation, but rather promotes it through induced obsolescence and anchoring.

Feist Originality Standard

A constitutional requirement for copyright protection requiring independent creation plus a modicum of creativity, explicitly rejecting the "sweat of the brow" doctrine.

Skill and Judgment Test

A standard of originality established in Canadian law (CCH Canadian) and adopted in EBC v. Modak requiring an author's exercise of knowledge, aptitude, and discernment rather than mere labor or novel creativity.

Baker v. Selden

A landmark case establishing that copyright in a book explaining a system or art does not grant exclusive rights to the underlying system, method, or blank forms described.

R.G. Anand Infringement Test

A test determining copyright infringement based on whether an average viewer, after seeing both works, gets an unmistakable overall impression that the subsequent work is a copy of the original.

Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA)

A U.S. statute protecting visual artists' moral rights, specifically granting rights of attribution, integrity, and prevention of destruction for works of recognized stature.

Paternity Right

The moral right of an author to claim authorship and have their name associated with their created work.

Right of Integrity

The moral right allowing an author to restrain or claim damages for any distortion, mutilation, or modification of their work that is prejudicial to their honor or reputation.

De Minimis Non Curat Lex

A legal maxim meaning "the law does not concern itself with trifles", used as a defense against copyright infringement when copying is trivial or insignificant.

Transformative Use

A fair use factor evaluated in Authors Guild v. Google where the copyrighted material is used for a purpose different from the original, adding new utility or context rather than acting as a market substitute.

Abercrombie Spectrum

A classification system ranking terms for trademark eligibility into four categories: generic, descriptive, suggestive, and arbitrary or fanciful.

Sieckmann Criteria

Requirements for graphical representation of non-visual trademarks stating that the representation must be clear, precise, self-contained, easily accessible, intelligible, durable, and objective.

Functional Shape Exclusion

A ground for trademark refusal precluding registration of signs consisting exclusively of a product shape whose essential functional features are attributable solely to achieving a technical result.

Trans-border Reputation

A common law principle established in N.R. Dongre v. Whirlpool allowing an international trademark owner to claim passing off in India based on global goodwill and advertising, even without local registration.

Section 3(d) of the Patents Act

A statutory provision excluding new forms of known substances from patentability unless they demonstrate a significant enhancement of known therapeutic efficacy.

Vendibility Test

A principle affirmed in Dimminaco AG stating a process of manufacture is patentable if it produces a novel, useful, and commercially marketable (vendible) product, even if containing a living organism.

Doctrine of Pith and Marrow

A patent construction doctrine assessing infringement by determining whether an alleged infringer has taken the essential, novel features (pith and marrow) of the patented claim.

Compulsory Licensing under Section 84

A statutory mechanism allowing third parties to request a license to manufacture a patented invention three years post-grant if public requirements are unmet, prices are unaffordable, or local working is absent.