Intellectual Property
| Trade Dress Protections |
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| Trade dress is governed by the same set of laws that protect unregistered trademarks. While traditional trademark law protects words or logos, trade dress law protects the total packaging and design of a product. Because trade dress often serves the same function as a trademark or service mark-the identification of goods and services in the marketplace-trade dress can be protected under the federal trademark laws and in some cases registered as a trademark or service mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. More... |
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| Fragrances as Trademark Subject Matter |
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| Distinctive fragrances are eligible for federal trademark registration. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, in a landmark decision, reversed the Examining Attorney and held that there was no reason why a fragrance was not capable of identifying and distinguishing certain types of products. Thus, the Board allowed registration of an arbitrary, nonfunctional scent for sewing thread and embroidery yarn. More... |
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| Plant Variety Protection Act |
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| United States patent law has provided patent protection for new varieties of asexually reproduced plants since the 1930s. Congress passed the Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) in 1970 to "encourage the development of novel varieties of sexually reproduced plants and to make them available to the public." More... |
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| Copyright and the Commerce Clause |
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| The Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the authority "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states." Starting at the time of the New Deal, the courts have read that clause expansively, saying that it gives Congress the authority to regulate virtually anything that affects interstate or foreign commerce. Federal trademark protection gets its authority from the Commerce Clause, and trademarks are protected as long as they are being used. More... |
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| The First Sale Doctrine |
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| A copyright owner's right of distribution is limited by the first sale doctrine, which is an exception to the Copyright Act. The first sale doctrine is a legal principle that limits the rights to control content after a work has been sold for the first time. The first sale doctrine states that once a copyright owner sells a copy of his or her work to another, the copyright owner relinquishes all further rights to sell or otherwise dispose of that copy. More... |
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