This document provides an overview of intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, and copyright. It discusses the constitutional basis and key laws governing copyright in the United States. Copyright protects original works fixed in a tangible medium, including literary works, music, art, films, and software. To be copyrightable, works must be creative, novel, and involve intellectual effort in their creation. The rights of copyright holders include reproduction, creation of derivatives, distribution, and public performance or display. However, copyright also faces criticism for being too protective in some cases.

1. Intellectual Property

2. Patents
• Machines or processes
• Designs
• Artificially Produced Plants

3. Trademarks
• Words
• Logos/Symbols
• Devices

4. Copyright
Constitution gives Congress the power “To
promote the Progress of Science and useful
Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors
and Inventors the exclusive Right to their
respective Writings and Discoveries”

5. Sources of Copyright Law
• 1976 Copyright Act
• Berne Convention
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998
• 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension
Act (CTEA)

6. Copyright
Protects “works of authorship fixed in a
tangible medium”
Must be sufficiently permanent to allow
perception, reproduction, etc.
Not protected: off-the-cuff speech,
improvised skit (if not recorded)

7. What Can Be Protected
Literary works, musical works, dramatic works,
pantomimes and choreographic works,
pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, motion
pictures and other audiovisual works, sound
recordings, architectural works

8. Requirements
• Fixed in a tangible medium
• Must owe origin to the author
• Must be intellectual work involved in its
creation
• Must be “creative” and “novel”
• Transcriptions not copyrightable
• Facts/ideas not copyrightable
• Slogans, titles (trademark)
• Sporting events not copyrightable (but
coverage is)
• Compilations not copyrightable
• Unless there is creativity involved

11. Rights of the Copyright
Holder
• (Works for hire normally owned by
employer)
• Can reproduce in any form for any reason
(or not)
• Create derivative works
• Distribute/perform/display
• Others must get permission

12. Is Copyright Too
Protective?
Economic v. Cultural tension . . .
SCOTUS has called copyright “the engine of
free expression,” but critics say it is in many
cases too protected.

14. Copyright © 2012 James C. Foust
Copyright (c) 2012 James C. Foust

15. Copyright
Music—compulsory licensing
Digital Music
Sampling

16. Fair Use
How to tell?
• Purpose and character of the use
• Nature of the copyrighted work
• Amount of the work used
• Effect of use on market