Chapter 6 Intellectual Property
A patent is a grant of a property right issued by which entity?
USPTO
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty of 1996 eliminated many of the original copyright protections for electronic media. (True or False)
False
The fair use doctrine denies portions of patented materials to be used without permission under any circumstance. (True or False)
False
The term of copyright has been extended several times from its original limit of 25 years to 35 years. (True or False)
False
The Lanham Act (also known as the Trademark Act) defines the use of a trademark, the process for obtaining a trademark, and the penalties associated with trademark infringement. (True or False)
True
The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act of 2008 increased trademark and copyright enforcement and substantially increased penalties for infringement. (True or False)
True
The World Trade Organization (WTO) developed the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights to establish the minimum levels of protection that each government must provide to the intellectual property of all WTO members. (True or False)
True
The main body of law that governs patents is contained in Title 35 of the U.S. Code. (True or False)
True
Two software manufacturers could conceivably develop separate programs that perform the same functions in a nearly identical manner without infringing each other's copyrights. (True or False)
True
Using reverse engineering, a developer can use the code of the current database programming language to recover the design of the information system application. (True or False)
True
One of the tests that an invention must pass to be eligible for a patent is which of the following?
it must be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the same field
What is the name of the agreement that prohibits a departing employee from working for any competitors for a period of time?
noncompete agreement
The redistribution of a program code with no copyright as a proprietary software can be avoided by using which of the following?
open source license
Firefox and OpenOffice are all examples of which of the following?
open source software
Patent Infringement
or the violation of the rights secured by the owner of a patent, occurs when someone makes unauthorized use of another's patent.
Which of the following terms is defined as the existing body of knowledge available to a person of ordinary skill in the art?
prior art
industrial espionage
which is the use of illegal means to obtain business information not available to the general public.
Unlike traditional copyright law, which of the following acts does not govern copying; instead, it focuses on the distribution of tools and software that can be used for copyright infringement as well as for legitimate non-infringing use?
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
The process of taking something apart in order to understand it, build a copy of it, or improve it is known as which of the following?
Reverse Engineering
In what year was The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) signed into law?
1998
Which act allows trademark owners to challenge foreign cybersquatters who might otherwise be beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. courts?
ACPA
Which of the following established the minimum levels of protection that each country must provide to all WTO members?
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
Because organizations can risk losing trade secrets when key employees leave, they often try to prohibit employees from revealing secrets
Because organizations can risk losing trade secrets when key employees leave, they often try to prohibit employees from revealing secrets
Which of the following enables a DVD player or a computer drive to decrypt, unscramble, and play back motion pictures on DVDs, but not copy them?
Content Scramble System (CSS)
Which of the following allows portions of copyrighted materials to be used without permission under certain circumstances?
Fair use doctrine
A trademark is business information that represents something of economic value, has required effort or cost to develop, has some degree of uniqueness or novelty, is generally unknown to the public, and is kept confidential. (True or False)
False
A trademark permits its owner to exclude the public from making, using, or selling a protected invention, and allows for legal action against violators.(True or False)
False
Because organizations can risk losing trade secrets when key employees leave, they often try to prohibit employees from revealing secrets by adding non-compete clauses to employment contracts. (True or False)
False
Copyright infringement is the act of stealing someone's ideas or words and passing them off as one's own. (True or False)
False
Cross-licensing agreements between organizations allow each party to sue the other over patent infringements. (True or False)
False
Formulas, inventions, and processes are not considered forms of intellectual property. (True or False)
False
Industrial espionage and competitive intelligence are essentially the same. (True or False)
False
Reverse engineering can only be applied to computer hardware, not computer software. (True or False)
False
The Fair Use Doctrine is a defense often employed by the defendant in trademark infringement cases. (True or False)
False
Under which act was the U.S. patent system changed from a "first-to-invent" to a "first-inventor-to-file" system?
Leahy-Smith America Invents Act
Discuss the uses of cross-licensing agreements by large software manufacturers and how their use can place smaller companies at a disadvantage.
Many large software companies have cross-licensing agreements in which each agrees not to sue the other over patent infringements. For example, Apple and HTC battled for several years over various mobile phone-related patents, which eventually led to the U.S. International Trade Committee banning imports of two models of the HTC mobile phone. The two companies eventually agreed to a 10-year cross-licensing agreement that permits each party to license the other's current and future patents.Major IT firms usually have little interest in cross-licensing with smaller firms. As a result, small businesses must pay an additional cost from which many larger companies are exempt. Furthermore, small businesses are generally unsuccessful in enforcing their patents against larger companies. Should a small business bring a patent infringement suit against a large firm, the larger firm can overwhelm the small business with multiple patent suits, whether they have merit or not. Considering that the average patent lawsuit costs $3 to $10 million and takes two to three years to litigate, a small firm often simply cannot afford to fight; instead, it usually settles and licenses its patents to the large company.
State the background and purpose of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
Many nations recognize that intellectual property has become increasingly important in world trade, yet the extent of protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights varies around the world. As a result, the WTO developed the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, also known as the TRIPS Agreement, to establish minimum levels of protection that each government must provide to the intellectual property of all WTO members. This binding agreement requires member governments to ensure that intellectual property rights can be enforced under their laws and that penalties for infringement are tough enough to deter further violations.
What conditions must be met for a defendant to successfully use the nominative fair use defense?
Nominative fair use is a defense often employed by the defendant in a trademark infringement case where a defendant uses a plaintiff's mark to identify the plaintiff's products or services in conjunction with its own products or services. To successfully employ this defense, the defendant must show three things:1) The plaintiff's product or service cannot be readily identifiable without using the plaintiff's mark.2) It uses only as much of plaintiff's mark as necessary to identify the defendant's product or service.3) The defendant does nothing with the plaintiff's mark that suggests endorsement or sponsorship by the plaintiff.
Which of the following terms is used to describe the act of stealing someone's ideas or words and passing them off as one's own?
Plagiarism
Which of the following increased trademark and copyright enforcement and substantially increased penalties for infringement?
Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act
Open source code is any program whose source code is made available for use or modification, as users or other developers see fit. (True or False)
True
Which of the following was a legislator and former singer and entertainer who co-sponsored the Copyright Term Extension Act?
Sonny Bono
Which of the following requires member governments to ensure that intellectual property rights can be enforced under their laws and that penalties for infringement are tough enough to deter further violations?
TRIPS agreement
Software, video games, multimedia works, and Web pages can all be copyrighted. (True or False)
True
What is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)?
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was signed into law in November 1998 and implements two 1996 WIPO treaties: the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The act is divided into the following five sections: Title I (WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act of 1998)-This section implements the WIPO treaties by making certain technical amendments to U.S. law in order to provide appropriate references and links to the treaties. It also creates two new prohibitions in the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the U.S. Code)-one on circumvention of technological measures used by copyright owners to protect their works and one on tampering with copyright management information. Title I also adds civil remedies and criminal penalties for violating the prohibitions. Title II (Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act)-This section enables Web site operators that allow users to post content on their Web site (e.g., music, video, and pictures) to avoid copyright infringement liability if certain "safe harbor" provisions are followed. Title III (Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act)-This section permits the owner or lessee of a computer to make or authorize the making of a copy of a computer program in the course of maintaining or repairing that computer. The new copy cannot be used in any other manner and must be destroyed immediately after the maintenance or repair is completed.Title IV (Miscellaneous provisions)-This section adds language to the Copyright Act confirming the Copyright Office's authority to continue to perform the policy and international functions that it has carried out for decades under its existing general authority. Title V (Vessel Hull Design Protection Act)-This section creates a new form of protection for the original design of vessel hulls.
Which of the following imposes penalties of up to $10 million and 15 years in prison for the theft of trade secrets?
The Economic Espionage Act (EEA) of 1996
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was signed into law in 1998 and implements two 1996 WIPO treaties. (True or False)
True
Identify what types of work are eligible to be copyrighted.
The types of work that can be copyrighted include architecture, art, audiovisual works, choreography, drama, graphics, literature, motion pictures, music, pantomimes, pictures, sculptures, sound recordings, and other intellectual works, as described in Title 17 of the U.S. Code. To be eligible for a copyright, a work must fall within one of the preceding categories, and it must be original. Copyright law has proven to be extremely flexible in covering new technologies; thus, software, video games, multimedia works, and Web pages can all be protected. However, evaluating the originality of a work is not always a straightforward process, and disagreements over whether or not a work is original sometimes lead to litigation.
A common use of open source software is to move data from one application to another and to extract, transform, and load business data into large databases. (True or False)
True
A copyright is the exclusive right to distribute, display, perform, or reproduce an original work in copies or to prepare derivative works based on the work. (True or False)
True
Copyright law protects authored works such as art, books, and film. (True or False)
True
Defining and controlling the appropriate level of access to intellectual property are complex tasks. (True or False)
True
Which act was drafted in the 1970s to bring uniformity to all the United States in the area of trade secret law?
Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA)
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
also known as the TRIPS Agreement, to establish minimum levels of protection that each government must provide to the intellectual property of all WTO members.
Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA)
amended the EEA to create a federal civil remedy for trade secret misappropriation.
Legally obtained information that is gathered to help a company gain an advantage over its rivals is called which of the following?
competitive intelligence
Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act of 2008
created the position of Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator within the Executive Office of the President.
Which of the following can read the machine language of a software program and produce the source code?
decompiler
The courts have ruled in favor of using reverse engineering to:
enable interoperability
Economic Espionage Act (EEA) of 1996
imposes penalties of up to $10 million and 15 years in prison for the theft of trade secrets.
Patent law protects which of the following?
inventions
utility patent
is "issued for the invention of a new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or a new and useful improvement thereof, it gen- erally permits its owner to exclude others from making, using, or selling the invention for 232 a period of up to twenty years from the date of patent application filing, subject to the payment of maintenance fees
patent
is a grant of a property right issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to an inventor.
Intellectual property
is a term used to describe works of the mind—such as art, books, films, formulas, inventions, music, and processes—that are distinct and owned or cre- ated by a single person or group. It is protected through copyright, patent, and trade secret laws.
Copyright infringement
is a violation of the rights secured by the owner of a copyright. Infringement occurs when someone copies a substantial and material part of another's copy- righted work without permission
Open source code
is any program whose source code is made available for use or modification, as users or other developers see fit.
Plagiarism
is the act of stealing someone's ideas or words and passing them off as one's own.
copyright
is the exclusive right to distribute, display, perform, or reproduce an original work in copies or to prepare derivative works based on the work
Reverse Engineering
is the process of taking something apart in order to understand it, build a copy of it, or improve it.
noncompete agreement
prohibits an employee from working for any competitors for a period of time, often one to two years.
Cybersquatters:
register domain names for famous trademarks or company names to which they have no connection
cybersquatters
registered domain names for famous trademarks or company names to which they had no connection, with the hope that the trademark's owner would eventually buy the domain name for a large sum of money.
Which of the following claims as its invention some feature or process embodied in instructions executed by a computer?
software patent
Copyright and patent protection was established through which of the following?
the U.S. Constitution
prior art
the existing body of knowledge available to a person of ordinary skill in the art—starting with patents and published material that have already been issued in the same area.
One key advantage that trade secret law has over the use of patents and copyrights in protecting companies from losing control of their intellectual property is:
there is no need to file an application or disclose a trade secret to gain protection
How many classes of items did the U.S. Supreme Court rule could not be patented?
three
Which of the following is a logo, package design, phrase, sound, or word that enables a consumer to differentiate one company's products from another's?
trademark
fair use doctrine
was developed over the years as courts worked to maintain that balance. It allows portions of copyrighted materials to be used without permission under certain circumstances.
Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA)
was drafted in the 1970s to bring uniformity to all the United States in the area of trade secret law.
Leahy-Smith America Invents Act
which amends Title 35 of the U.S. Code, represented a major change in the U.S. patent law.
design patent
which is "issued for a new, original, and ornamental design embodied in or applied to an article of manufacture," permits its owner to exclude others from mak- ing, using, or selling the design in question.