Intellectual Property, Administrative Agencies, and Antitrust Laws

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering intellectual property justifications, patent types, trade secret laws, administrative agency roles, and antitrust regulations.

Intellectual Property

An exclusive, legal right to knowledge-based assets that gives incentive to create new things, new ways of doing things, and new invention generally.

Public Domain

The status of resources of new expression and invention after the limited times defined by Congress have passed, making them freely available to everyone.

Novelty

A requirement for patentability indicating that an invention is new and different from the prior art.

Nonobviousness

The ability of an invention to produce surprising or unexpected results, measured against someone with ordinary skill in the prior art.

Utility

The requirement that a valid invention must do something useful; an inoperable invention is not considered useful.

Utility Patent

A patent for useful, functional inventions with a term of $20$ years from the filing date.

Design Patent

A patent for the new and original appearance of an article of manufacture with a term of $15$ years from the issue date.

Plant Patent

A patent for new varieties of asexually reproduced plants with a term of $20$ years from the filing date.

Claim

The details about the subject matter of a patent that an inventor regards as the invention, submitted as part of a patent application.

Patent Examiner

An official from the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) who considers a patent application.

Trade Secret

Any form of knowledge or information that has economic value from not being generally known and has been subject to reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy.

Trade Secret Misappropriation

The act of improperly acquiring secret information through burglary, espionage, or hacking, or disclosing information in violation of a duty to maintain secrecy.

Independent Creation

The process of recreating the same information through one's own effort, which does not constitute misappropriation.

Reverse Engineering

Examining a product to figure out how it works; this is not misappropriation unless the information was contractually agreed to be kept secret.

Injunction

An order by a judge either to do something or to refrain from doing something, such as ordering a party to refrain from using a misappropriated trade secret.

Quasi-legislative Authority

An administrative agency's power to issue rules and regulations that carry the force of law.

Quasi-judicial Authority

An administrative agency's power to make decisions in a manner similar to a court.

Advisory Opinion

A non-binding but persuasive statement issued by an agency on whether a proposed course of action would violate the law.

Secretary (Agency)

An agency official who keeps meeting minutes, serves as legal custodian of records, and publishes agency actions in the Federal Register.

General Counsel (Agency)

The chief law officer of an agency who represents the agency in court and often requires Senate approval for appointment.

Cease and Desist Order

An agency order requiring a violator to stop objectionable activity and refrain from further violations; can carry fines of up to $10,000$ per day.

Consent Order

A settlement where an accused party submits to an agency's jurisdiction and agrees to stop disputed conduct without admitting guilt.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The governmental agency responsible for the prevention of discrimination in employment.

Trust

A legal arrangement in which a fiduciary holds legal title to property for the benefit of another.

Sherman Act, Section 1

Prohibits contracts, combinations, and conspiracies that unreasonably restrain trade or commerce.

Sherman Act, Section 2

Prohibits monopolization or attempts to monopolize a market.

Clayton Act

A $1914$ amendment to the Sherman Act enacted to clarify provisions by declaring certain enumerated practices in interstate commerce illegal.

Horizontal Restraints

Agreements between firms that could compete for the same customers in the same market regarding products or pricing.

Vertical Restraints

Agreements between parties in vertical relationships, such as manufacturers and distributors, concerning pricing, supply, or territory.

Predatory Pricing

The practice of selling at below cost to drive out competition with the intent to eventually recoup losses by raising prices.

Rule of Reason

A legal standard where contracts are illegal only if they constitute undue or unreasonable restraints of trade; commonly used for vertical restraints.

Per se Illegality

A standard where agreements are conclusively presumed illegal without further inquiry because of their pernicious effect on competition.

Concerted Activities

Actions where competitors share activities or join together independent centers of decision making.

State Action Exemption

An exemption from federal antitrust scrutiny granted when a state acts in its sovereign capacity.

Noerr-Pennington Doctrine

An exemption for concerted efforts to lobby government officials, based on the First Amendment, regardless of any anticompetitive purpose.