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Intellectual Property 
Copyright |
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Purpose
| Subject Matter
| Registration
| Duration |
Protection
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| Purpose |
| Copyright law embodies the group
of legal principles that affect the creation, use, distribution,
and transfer of literary, musical, audio-visual, software, and
other artistic and expressive works. Because copyright protection
extends only to the expressive aspects of a work, copyright
does not protect the idea, procedure, discovery, or the like
which forms the underlying basis of the work. For example, a
copyrighted magazine article which details a stock market investment
technique may not be literally copied by a rival magazine or
the reader (the expression of the idea), but the investment
technique itself (the idea) may be implemented by the reader
or described by the rival magazine. |
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Copyrightable
Subject Matter |
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The federal statute
governing copyright states that an original work of authorship
which is fixed in a tangible medium of expression may be protected
by copyright. Hence, to be protected by copyright a work must
be
- an original work,
- a work of authorship, and
- fixed in a tangible medium of expression.
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Originality
The amount of originality necessary to create an original
work of authorship is minimal. Substantially any nontrivial
input which is the product of the author’s independent
effort is sufficient originality to support a copyright.
However, some minimal amount of originality is required
as evidenced by the Copyright Office’s refusal to
register such works as titles (“Hunt for Red October”),
slogans (“Just Do It”), and short phrases, as
lacking sufficient originality.
Work of Authorship
A work of authorship is not directly defined by the copyright
statutes. However, several broad categories that are used
as examples of works of authorship include:
- Literary Works;
- Musical Works, including any accompanying words;
- Dramatic Works, including any accompanying music;
- Pantomimes and Choreographic Works;
- Pictorial, Graphic, and Sculptural Works;
- Motion Pictures and other Audiovisual Works;
- Sound Recordings; and
- Architectural Works.
Fixed in a Tangible Medium
of Expression
For a work to be fixed in a tangible medium
of expression, the work must be embodied in some medium,
now known or later developed, from which the work can be
perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either
directly or with the aid of a machine or device. For example,
works created or reproduced on paper, canvas, audio cassettes,
video cassettes, floppy disks, blocks of wood, slabs of
clay, and stone are all fixed in a tangible medium of expression.
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| Copyright
Registration |
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| Copyright protection
is secured automatically when a work is created and reduced
to a concrete form such as in a copy or phonorecord. Thus, registration
of a work with the United States Copyright Office is NOT a condition
of copyright protection. Registration does, however, bestow
several advantages upon the copyright owner. These include federal
jurisdiction, establishment of a public record of the copyright
claim, and presumption of the validity of the copyright and
the facts stated in the certificate (if filed within five years
of publication). Additionally, registration is a prerequisite
to filing a copyright infringement action.
Registration of a copyright with the United States Copyright
Office may be made at any time during the life of the copyright.
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| Copyright
Duration |
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Generally, copyright
in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, exists for a
term extending from its creation for the life of the author
and 70 years after the author’s death. Copyright duration
of works created before January 1, 1978, may potentially be
governed by one of several statutes and requires individual
analysis to determine.
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| Scope
of Copyright Protection |
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Copyright protection
can be used to prevent others from:
- reproducing the copyrighted work;
- preparing derivative works based on the copyrighted work;
- distributing copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted
work to the public;
- performing the copyrighted work in public in the case
of literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pantomime,
motion picture, and other audiovisual works; and
- publicly displaying the copyrighted work in the case of
literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pantomime, pictorial,
graphic, and sculptural works.
A copyright registration may be recorded with the United
States Customs Service for purposes of blocking the importation
of unauthorized copies.
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Purpose
| Subject Matter
| Registration
| Duration |
Protection
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