Jose Iglesias
Business Law 2051-02
Kenneth Coughlin
12/4/15
Copyright and Patents Laws
The Copyright Law of the United States tries to encourage the creation of art and
culture by rewarding authors and artists with a set of exclusive rights. Copyright law
grants authors and artists the exclusive right to make and sell copies of their works, the
right to create derivative works, and the right to perform or display their works publicly.
These exclusive rights are subject to a time limit, and generally expire 70 years after the
author’s death.
The United States copyright law protects “original works of authorship,” fixed in a
tangible medium including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other
intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.
Copyright law includes the following types of works:
•Literary
•Musical
•Dramatic
•Pantomimes and choreographic works
•Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
•Audio-visual works
•Sound recordings
•Derivative works
•Compilations
•Architectural works
Question people make about copyright:
Can I copy images to use on my site? I don’t make any money from it.
Depending on the use and type of site, there might be a small fee, or a big fee, or no
fee. We might even be able to work a deal where I’ll be able to do something brand new,
just for your site that no one else would have. (And then you can hope no one will copy
and use it without permission, too!)
I’ve seen the phrase “It doesn’t hurt anybody — in fact it’s free advertising.” used by
people to justify posting art and text they copied without permission from another site. If
they really felt that way, I wonder why they didn’t ask the copyright holder for permission
to use that material. It’s up to the creator to decide if they want that “free advertising” or
not. It’s not hard to send an email. Just do it, as they say!
Can I copy and then email an image I like to a friend for them to see?
I would prefer, that rather than trying to copy and send an image to a friend, you copy
the URL of the page that image is on and send them that. Hey, if you want them to see
one, wouldn’t you like them to be able to see more? (I’ve seen images copied and
emailed, then resent and resent, and the name of the artist and site being left off, and
some people edit it a little, and suddenly the art is changed, no credit or copyright given,
and someone decides that makes it free to use. So, send your friends here, they‘ll see the
art the best it is on the web!)
Think of it this way: if you make a single copy of a picture for yourself at home, that’s
personal use. But if you put that picture up on a web page, you’ve published it to a huge
audience. It’s why so many of the song-sharing sites got in trouble: if you make a tape of
songs off albums you bought, you aren’t breaking any laws (or causing the artist to lose
any income). If you make a copy of that tape for a friend, while technically not legal, it
has always been considered such a small thing that no one has ever made a big deal about
it. But if you made thousands of copies and handed them out to anyone who asked, you
are definitely breaking the law, and harming everyone who created the work. Publishing
someone’s work on the web does the same thing of exposing that work to thousands and
thousands of people without the consent of the creator.
Again, it doesn’t matter if you are personally making any money from the usage or not.
Publishing someone’s work without their permission can hurt the creator in many ways,
as it limits their income from legally published work. Why would a magazine, in print or
online, pay an artist to reprint their work if it’s already being used all over the net? There
are also agreements and legal contracts between artists and publishers, who have paid for
exclusive rights to an image. If that image pops up elsewhere, that contract could become
void.
5 Famous Copyright infringement and Samsung vs Apple
1. Rogers vs. Koons
2. The Associated Press vs. Fairey
3. Cariou vs. Prince
4. Modern Dog Design vs. Target Corporation
5. Vanilla Ice vs. David Bowie/Freddie Mercury
Patents:
A patent is a right granted to an individual or group (such as a corporation) which permits
the grantee the ability to prevent others from making, using, or selling the invention
described in the patent. A patent can be sold, or the grantee may give others permission to
use the invention (generally in exchange for royalty payments).
There are three main types of patents: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.
Utility patents are patents on inventions which function in a new way or to provide a new
result. A design patent, as its name implies, is a patent on the aesthetic design or
ornamentation of something that already exists. A design patent is granted when the
design in question does not change the functionality of the object, only gives it a novel
appearance. Design patents primarily contain drawings. Plant patents are patents on types
of plants that may be reproduced by grafts and cuttings. Note that patents related to
