Intellectual Property: Copyright, Patents, Trademarks, Secrets
Intellectual property law grants exclusive rights in creations and signs. The exam tests which protection applies to a given asset, how long it lasts, and when limited use is permitted. Questions often present copying of software, text, a logo, or a formula and ask which right is infringed.
The four main rights
- Copyright protects the expression of original works, including source code, documentation, music, and images. It arises automatically on fixation and generally lasts for the author's life plus 70 years, or a fixed term for works made for hire.
- Patents protect new, useful, and non-obvious inventions and processes, lasting 20 years from the filing date, not the grant date.
- Trademarks protect signs that identify commercial source, such as names and logos, and can be renewed indefinitely if distinctiveness is maintained.
- Trade secrets protect confidential information with commercial value, lasting as long as secrecy is preserved.
Software specifics
- Source code is protected by copyright; the ideas and algorithms behind it are not.
- Patents may cover software-implemented processes where they meet patentability tests.
- End-user licence terms govern permitted copying, reverse engineering, and redistribution.
Fair use and fair dealing
- Four US fair use factors: purpose and character of the use, nature of the work, amount used, and effect on the market.
- Quotation for criticism, comment, news, teaching, or research is more likely to qualify; commercial substitution is not.
Worked example
An employee copies a competitor's confidential source code into a new product and changes variable names. Reasoning: renaming does not avoid infringement, because the copied expression remains substantially similar, so copyright is infringed. If the code was also a protected trade secret, misappropriation applies independently. A patent claim would require the competitor to hold a patent covering the method, and a trademark claim would not fit because no source identifier is being used to confuse customers.
Traps that cost marks
- Believing an idea, algorithm, or fact can be copyrighted; only expression is protected.
- Mailing yourself a copy as proof of authorship, which has no special legal effect.
- Measuring patent life from grant rather than filing, or assuming patents last forever.
- Confusing trademark (source identification) with copyright (authorship).
- Assuming attribution alone makes copying lawful.