Patents

• Grants rights to be exclusive creator or distributor of a product

• cover things as opposed to copyrights which cover creative works

Patents

Utility Patents

Design itself

Design patents

Appearance or product is displayed to appear

How to get a patent

• long, expensive, difficult

• need to file a patent application with the U.S patent and trademark office

Are patent attorneys expensive?

YES

How long do utility patents last for?

20 years

How long do design patents last for?

15 years

How long does a provisional patent provide protection for?

1 year

Have full legal protections of other forms of intellectual property, to include criminal liability for those that disclose those trade secrets

Trade secrets

How long do trade secrets last for?

Forever, or as long as you can keep the secret

What do trade secrets protect?

Recipes

Do you have to file anything for a trade secret?

No

Why would people choose a trade secret over a patent?

only last 20 years and once it is up, anyone can simply, look at the records you provided to the US patent office and make the product themselves

Trade secrets are protected by?

Federal and state law

Penalties of breaking trade secrets?

Criminal and civil

When can you use anothers Intellectual Property?

Selling the IP over to another is referred to as assigning the rights to another

• License the product NIKE sells jersey for an athlete, movie uses a song

Mechanical license

Gives someone the authority to make cover songs of someone else’s copyrighted work or to “sample” a part of it and apply it to their own music

Mechanical license is granted by?

Federal law and have royalty rates set by statues

Public Domain

Work that either was never protected by one of the IP rights or one whose protection has expired

Free to use things in the public domain, don’t need to ask permission, things created by the US federal government

Public Domain

Not all the IP that the federal government owns is in the public domain, only the property it creates

True

Fair use

• Purpose

• Educational, more likely to be fair use

• Nature

• Nonfiction

• amount

• the lower the reach the better

• effect on market

• the less effect the better

When that time expires with IP it enters the _______?

Public Domain

Two major types of property

Real and personal

Real property

Land and the things attached to the land, houses, mineral rights, and even air rights

Personal Property

movable, tangible, like a car, TV, furniture

Personal property can be intangible like?

Stocks or IP

The intangible legal ownership right to the property, whether real or personal property, like borrowing friends lawnmower

Title

How to avoid copyright infringement?

• Use own work

• Use public domain

• Get a release or a mechanical license

• Fall under the DMCA

Digital Millenium copyright

Protects people putting copyright material on your webiste - not your own infringements. You need an agent and take down policies posted

Biggest players here are site like youtube and facebook

• Take down the material

• Tell poster you took it down

• Tell the person sending you the takedown notice that you did

Misplaced personal property

If property has been abandoned, then the person with title immediately forfeits it

Property can only be abandoned if you have _____?

title

Gifts Inter vivos require three elements?

Intent, delivery and acceptance

• Giver must intent to give the gift

• Title to item must be delivered

• Delivery in this sense is the same as when you legally communicate an offer or acceptance in contract law

• Gift respondent must accept it

gifts Inter vivos

• Are gifts because of death

• Revokable gift

• Once elements are met, title changes hands and there is no obligation

Gifts Casa Mortis

• The specific way the condition on the gift is set

• Important that conditions are made very clear to avoid legal problems moving forward

Conditional gift

Conditional gift

• Setting a condition until it is met

• aren’t granted title till its met

• Parent gifting a car to an adult child

Bailments

Bailor grants possession but not title to another person (Bailee) EX. Taking car to mechanic

3 elements of bailments

bailor must have title to the property- bailor must deliver possession, but not title, bailee must be made aware of the terms of the bailment

Liens are a sort of encumbrance OR?

Ownership interest placed upon another’s property

Mechanics lien

Attaches property when someone performs labor on that property

Possessory interests in Land

• Present interests

• Future interests

Fee simple

That you own the property outright, subject to any encumbrances

Person who owns property in fee simple has all the ___ and ____ interests in that property

Present and future

Defeasible estates

You can lose that right of possession

With this type of ownership, there is some condition placed upon the property, that if triggered wil cause the person with the present interest to lose that property

Defeasible estates

Revison

Will go back to person who transferred it to you or go to third party with a future interests in the property, called a remainder

Life estates

provides the person with the present possessory interests in the property the right to live there or use the property for their nature life

Tenants in common each have a divided interest in the property with no right of survivorship

Yep

Property owned by multiple people is owned as a ?

Joint Tenancy

Joint tenancy

has an undivided interest in the property

Non possessory interests in land

Includes both your ability to access another persons land as well as your interests in limiting what other people do with their own land

Easement

An access interests to part of another persons land

Not only allows someone else access to your land but it also prevents you from doing things that you want with your own land

Easement

Affirmative Easement

You can use someone else’s property

Appurtant Easement

Easement for a neighbor to use your property

Restrictive Easement

easement for someone who NEEDS to get access to your property to get their

Negative easement

You can prevent someone from doing something on their land