Patent, Copyright and Trademark Basics and FAQ

 

a) Patent

A patent is an exclusive right of an inventor/owner to exclude others from making, using, or selling the patented invention without permission for the life of a valid patent. The life of a patent is 20 years from the date of applying.

To obtain patent protection, an invention must be new or novel, useful, and unobvious, to someone skilled in the art. Patentable inventions include new processes, products, apparatus, compositions of matter, living organisms, and/or improvements to existing technology in those categories.

There are three types of patent: Utility patent (main type), design patent and plant patent.


Patent FAQ:

  1. Who is considered an inventor?
    Under U.S. Patent Law, an inventor must contribute to the concept covered in the claims of a patent. That is, a person must have contributed at least one claim. Therefore, making contributions to a technical paper or testing the invention are not sufficient to be considered as contribution to the claims.

  2. What constitutes publication?
    Many scenarios are considered as publication and some rights might be lost. Examples include publication on a journal, website, and publication or presentation of an abstract on a conference. For more details please contact OTL.

  3. How does publication affect patent rights?
    Publication before applying for patent protection in foreign countries except U.S. generally result in lost of foreign rights. In U.S., there is a grace period of one year after the first publication, and one can file a patent application (including provisional application) up to one year after the invention has been published.

  4. What is a provisional application?
    Provisional application is an option for inventors to file a low-cost application in preserving priority date. It allows filing without formal patent claims and it will not be examined. It establishes an early effective filing date in a non-provisional patent application and also allows the term "Patent Pending" to be applied. A provisional application has a pendency lasting 12 months from the date the provisional application is filed. This 12-month pending period cannot be extended.

  5. What is the general process of patent prosecution?
    The simplified process of patent prosecution can be summarized as below. The actual process can be more complex than this.

    1. Filing an application, including filing provisional application or electing PCT countries
      The patent attorney will contact you and work with you to draft the patent application (usually full utility patent application). An application basically consist description, drawings, and claims, as well as other necessary documents. If foreign rights are available, within 30 months after the initial filing date we would need to elect foreign countries if a foreign patent is desired (Step b-d might take place within these 30 months.)
    2. Office Action
      Sometime after filing we will receive an office action from the examiner stating his or her findings regarding to this invention and whether any claim is allowable or rejected. The patent attorney will work with you to rebut the rejected claims. There are usually more than one office actions we will receive from the USPTO.
    3. Notice of Allowance, Issuance and Maintenance Fees
      The USPTO will send us a notice of allowance, giving us three months notice to pay the Issue Fee. Once the patent is issued, generally it will be valid for twenty years from the date of initial filing. Finally, there are also on-going costs, called maintenance fees, payable after three and half, seven and half and eleven years after the issuance of a patent.


b) Copyright

Copyrights protect works of authorship, such as software, writings, musical works, sound recordings, and other works of art. A copyright applies to an original embodiment, but it does not have to be novel or unique in a patent sense. Copyright protection prevents others from unauthorized use of an original work of authorship by duplication, preparation of derivative works, distribution, or public performance. The protection is longer than for patents, currently 70 years.


Copyright FAQ:

  1. Who owns copyright in works of university authors?
    In the academic tradition, copyrights in textbooks or other works of a primarily pedagogical or scholarly nature vest with the faculty author. Copyrights in faculty works of a commercial nature, such as a computer program that optimizes a telephone network, would belong to the university, if the works were developed using university resources or developed under a university managed Sponsored Research Program. More information can be obtained in USC IP Policy.

  2. How does registering Copyright affect my rights?
    Copyright will automatically apply as soon as the work is fixed in a tangible form. Registration is not required for the rights described above to apply. However, copyright must be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before a legal suit for alleged infringement can be filed in a U.S. court.

c) Trademark

Trademarks are handled by USC Trademarks and Licensing Services. For further information, please visit http://www.usc.edu/bus-affairs/trademarks/.

 

 

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