Intellectual Property Newsletters

Copyright Law

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."

Generic Names as Trademark Subject Matter

A generic name is the common descriptive name of the product a trademark identifies. Generic names may not be protected under trademark laws. The intended trademark cannot be registered and the owner has no right to stop others from using a similar mark. Unlike descriptive marks, generic devices will not become a trademark even if they are advertised so heavily that secondary meaning can be proven in the mind of consumers. The rationale for creating the category of generic marks is that no manufacturer or service provider should be given exclusive right to use words that generically identify a product. Therefore, if a company attempts to use the name of the goods themselves, such as "Lemonade" for a lemonade drink or "Bicycle" for a bicycle, that name will not be protected because it is generic.

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.

Patent Law

To meet the utility requirement, an invention must provide a specific, known use that differs from the prior art, which is the body of information from which it is determined whether an invention is new; speculative or possible future utility is not sufficient. Application requirements set out by the Patent Act provide that the patent applicant describe in detail the invention, how to make it, what it does, and how it is used, which if properly complied with should make it clear what the claimed utility of the invention is. It is not necessary that the use represent an improvement over the prior art; however, to meet the utility requirement, an invention must work as claimed.

The Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002

The Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002 (SWSA) allows the recording industry and small webcasters to negotiate lower webcasting royalty fees. The SWSA empowers SoundExchange, which is the recording industry's royalty collection clearinghouse, to enter into royalty rate agreements with small commercial and all noncommercial webcasters.