Intellectual Property
| Patent Law and Collateral Estoppel |
|
| In a patent case, under collateral estoppel, once a court has decided an issue of fact or law necessary to its judgment, that decision may preclude relitigation of the issue in a suit on a different cause of action involving a party to the first case. Once a patent has been declared invalid via judicial inquiry, a collateral estoppel barrier is created against further litigation involving the patent, unless the plaintiff can demonstrate that he or she did not have a full and fair chance to litigate the validity of the patent in the prior case. Defendants may be collaterally estopped from contesting issues of infringement and patent validity. More... |
|
|
| Trademark Law |
|
| Trademark Symbols More... |
|
|
| Patents |
|
| A patent is a right granted under federal law that allows the patent owner to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the subject matter of the patent without the inventor's permission for a period of 20 years from the time of the patent application. An activity involving the patented invention that violates that right is said to infringe the patent, for which the patent owner may bring a lawsuit to collect monetary damages and to stop the infringing activity. There are several defenses to patent infringement. One defense that will completely insulate an alleged infringer from liability is patent misuse. More... |
|
|
| Display Rights |
|
| The Copyright Act confers upon copyright owners the right to publicly display certain types of works. This right may be claimed in literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works and in pantomimes, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works as well as in the individual images of motion pictures and other audiovisual works. More... |
|
|
| Distribution Rights |
|
| The distribution right grants to the copyright holder the exclusive right to make a work available to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease, or lending. The owner of a copyright has the right to give away, sell, or withhold any material embodiment of his or her work. In essence, this is the right to control publication of a work because publication without distribution of copies is meaningless. This right allows the copyright holder to prevent the distribution of unauthorized copies of a work. In addition, the right allows the copyright holder to control the first distribution of a particular authorized copy. However, the distribution right is limited by the "first sale doctrine," which states that after the first sale or distribution of a copy, the copyright holder can no longer control what happens to that copy. More... |
|
|