| Reexamination of Patents |
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| After a patent is issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the discovery of prior art or publications not noticed prior to the patent's issue may raise questions as to the validity of the issued patent. In such a case, a patentee or a third party may file an application for reexamination of the patent in the USPTO. For a third party, reexamination provides a lower cost alternative to a conventional lawsuit for challenging the validity of a patent. If the third party is an unsuccessful infringement defendant, a reexamination that results in the invalidation of a patent may provide vindication of that defendant's rights despite the results of the court case. For the patentee, the reexamination process may reveal the need to narrow a patent's claims in order to be in a better position to fend off a challenge to the patent's validity. In addition, the USPTO may take it upon itself to reexamine a patent without it being requested by the patentee or a third party. More... |
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| Copyrights and Fair Use |
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| A copyright is a property right granted by federal law to authors or creators of original works such as writings, art, music and sound recordings, performances, photographs, movies, and the like. The copyright holder has the exclusive right to reproduce or copy the work, distribute or sell the work, or perform or display the work publicly. The copyright holder may also authorize others to use the work in those same ways. More... |
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| Patent Law |
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| A patent is a property right that the federal government gives to an inventor with respect to an invention. That property right is the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention without the inventor's permission for the limited period specified by the patent statute. A person or other entity that makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, or imports the invention covered by the patent is said to liable for direct infringement of the patent. Patent infringement is classified by the law as a "tort," which is a wrong--other than a breach of contract--for which the law provides a remedy. Therefore, the rules of tort law will govern how a lawsuit alleging patent infringement is to be commenced and prosecuted. More... |
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| Copyright Law |
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| The Copyright Act defines a "collective work" as an assemblage into a collective whole of a number of individual contributions, each of which constitutes a separate and independent work, and gives as examples periodicals, anthologies, and encyclopedias. A collective work is also referred to as a "compilation." More... |
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| Substantial Similarity |
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| Plaintiffs may establish copyright infringement by proving that a defendant had access to the copyrighted work prior to the creation of the allegedly infringing work and that the two works are substantially similar. Generally, once a plaintiff demonstrates access and substantial similarity then the burden shifts to the defendant to prove that the allegedly infringing work is not a copy but was independently created. More... |
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