BUS Law CH8

Vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, statutory provisions, landmark legal concepts, and international treaties from Chapter 8 on Intellectual Property Rights.

Intellectual Property

Any property that results from intellectual, creative processes—that is, the products of an individual's mind.

Trademark

A trademark is a special name, symbol, logo, or phrase that a company puts on its products so people can recognize the product and know who made it.

Service Mark

A mark used to tell the difference between the services of one company from another.

Certification Mark

Mark used to show that certain goods or services meet specific standards, such as their region, materials, quality, or how they are made.

Collective Mark

A mark used by members of a cooperative, association, or other organization to certify or identify membership or association.

Trade Dress

The image and overall appearance of a product, including part or all of the total image or overall impression created by a product or its packaging.

Trade Name

A unique name that identifies the business/company itself.

License

An agreement or contract permitting the use of a trademark, copyright, patent, or trade secret for certain specified purposes.

Licensor

The party that owns the intellectual property rights and issues a license.

Licensee

The party receiving a license to use intellectual property.

Royalties

Fees paid by a licensee to a licensor for the privilege of using intellectual property.

Patent

A grant from the government that gives an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, or sell their invention for twenty years (or fifteen years for design patents issued after May 13, 2015).

Copyright

An intangible property right given by federal statute to the author or originator of artistic production of a specified type.

Trade Secret

Information of commercial value, such as customer lists, plans, research and development, pricing, and production techniques, that gives a business an advantage over competitors.

Lanham Act of 1946

Federal legislation that protects trademarks and stops other companies from using similar marks that could confuse customers.

Trademark Dilution

Using a famous trademark without permission in a way that weakens its identity or hurts its reputation, even if the products are different.

Secondary Meaning

A legal condition achieved when customers begin to associate a descriptive term, geographic term, or personal name with specific trademarked items made by a particular company.

Fanciful and Arbitrary Trademarks

Inherently distinctive strong marks that use invented words (fanciful) or common words used in an uncommon, non-descriptive way (arbitrary).

Suggestive Trademarks

It gives you a hint about the product, but you have to use your imagination to understand the connection.

Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act (SCMGA)

A 2006 federal statute making it a crime to intentionally traffic in counterfeit goods or services, or knowingly traffic in fake labels, packaging, and stickers.

America Invents Act

A 2011 federal law that changed the U.S. patent system from a 'first-to-invent' model to a 'first-person-to-file' model.

First Sale Doctrine

A rule under Section 109(a) of the Copyright Act providing that once a copyright owner sells or gives away a particular copy of a work, they no longer have the right to control its distribution.

Berne Convention

An international agreement that protects an author's copyright in other countries that are part of the agreement.

TRIPS Agreement

A 1994 international agreement that created basic rules for protecting intellectual property (like copyrights, patents, and trademarks) in countries that are members of the WTO.

Madrid Protocol

An international treaty allowing a company seeking foreign trademark protection to submit a single application instead multiple member countries.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

A 2011 international agreement created to fight fake products and illegal copying. It encourages countries to work together, improve law enforcement, and check shipments at borders.