LSTD_EXAM4

Enforcement and Appeals

1. A local administrative agent, such as a zoning officer typically enforces local use of ordinances 2. A zoning board or commission is often appointed by the local government to handle appeals from decisions of the zoning officer.

Public Domain

1. A work that is in the public domain Is not protectable under copyright laws 2. Works fall into the public domain either because the copyright has expired or because federal or state governments publish the work

Misappropriation

1. Acquisition of a trade secret of another by a person who knows or has reason to know that the trade secret was acquired by improper means 2. Disclosure or use of a trade secret of another without express or implied consent

Doctrine of equivalence:

1. Allowed courts to find infringement if the invention performs substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same result 2. Limited to an evaluation of whether any of the key elements of the claim have been interchanged with known equivalents

Easements can arise by

1. An express grant 2. Implication or necessity, in which a property is landlocked between other properties and the owner must cross through the property of another to gain access to her property 3. Prescription, in which the privilege is gained through adverse possession

Life estate

1. An ownership interest that lasts for the lifetime of a particular person. -The person who has a life estate interest is known as a life tenant because the life tenant may not sell, pledge, or convey the building in any way during ownership.

Vicarious Infringement

1. Based on agency law 2. Can be used as a theory of liability when the infringing agent is acting on behalf of or to the benefit of the principal 3. The principal party is vicariously liable

Legal Systems of Nations

1. Civil law 2. Common law 3. Religious-based law 4. Mixed law systems (also known as hybrid or composite legal systems)

Civil Law Systems

1. Countries using civil law systems have drawn their body of law largely from the Roman law heritage 2. These countries rely heavily on written codes to define their laws and do not favor the notion of courts filling in any gaps in the statutes.

Adverse Possession

1. Each state has a statute that applies to personal property held for an extended period of time by a possessor who is not the true owner 2. Once the statutory period has passed, the possessor of the goods is protected from any suit to recover the property except one by its true owner

Forms of Real Property OwnershipInterests

1. Fee simple 2. Life estate 3. Leasehold estate 4. Easements.

Fee simple defeasible

1. Fee simple right with certain restrictions 2. If one of these restrictions is violated, the property ownership automatically falls back (reverts) to the original owner.

Found Articles

1. If the owner intentionally places the property in a certain place and later forgets about it, the property is considered mislaid 2. If the owner unintentionally parts with the property through either carelessness or neglect it is considered lost 3. If the owner has thrown away or voluntarily forsaken the property it is considered abandoned 4. Found property is considered treasure trove if it is verifiably antiquated and it has been concealed for so long as to indicate that the owners are probably dead or unknown

Bailments

1. In a bailment, although a possessor does not gain title via possession, the non owner is still a rightful possessor of the goods 2. A bailment relationship is created when the bailor (owner of the property) entrusts a bailee to temporarily hold the property

Indirect infringement

1. Involves three parties: the copyright owner, the direct infringer, and the facilitator of the infringement 2. Also known as contributory infringement.

Leased Personal Property: UCC Article 2A

1. Leases fall into an area governed by both principles of property law and certain principles of commercial law 2. Lease agreements are a form of personal property contract and are governed by state statutory laws that are modeled after Article 2A of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

Title

1. Legal term for ownership rights in property 2. Thought of as a bundle of rights related to the personal property. - The title holder is permitted exclusive use of the personal property and has the rights to sell, lease, or prohibit another from using the property.

Adverse Possession Are

1. Open, Notorious, and Visible Possession 2.Exclusive and Actual Possession 3.Continuous Possession.

Two Forms of Tangible property:

1. Personal Property 2. Real Property

Personal Property

1. Personal property is tangible and moveable 2. In a business context, goods, vehicles, inventory, and equipment for business operations such as computers are all examples of personal property

types of property rights:

1. Private Property 2. Common Property 3. Public Property 4. Open-access Property

Good Faith Purchasers

1. Property law maxim holds that a seller cannot convey valid title unless she has valid title in the first place 2. Therefore, if the goods are stolen, the actual owner may recover the property even from a good faith buyer

Ownership Rights

1. Rights related to the use and enjoyment of the land 2. Subsurface rights 3. Water rights 4. Airspace rights.

Categories of Property

1. Rights to tangible property 2. Rights to intellectual property

Environmental Regulation

1. Statutes aimed at preservation of open land areas have been found to be a legitimate government regulation of private property 2. Courts have held that wetland and coastland preservation ordinances that restrict the owner's right to develop, fill, or dredge the land are a legal use of the government's police powers

Defenses to Infringement Claims

1. The Public Domain 2. The First Sale Doctrine 3. The Fair Use Test

Eminent Domain

1. The authority of the state and federal government to take private property is called the power of eminent domain 2. Derived from the Fifth Amendment that states"[N]or shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."

Real Property

1. The main source of law that governs the ownership of real property or land is primarily state statutes, although common law principles also apply 2. Statutes that regulate the legal relationship between residential landlords and tenants are based on the Uniform Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (URLTA).

Fair Use

1. The purpose and nature of the use 2. The nature of the work itself 3. The amount and substantiality of the material used 4. The effect of the use on the market

Durable Medium

1. To be protected a work must not only be original and creative; it must also be fixed in a durable medium 2. A work must be more than just an idea or thought process 3. The work must be fixed in a tangible form, such as writing, digital, video and so forth

Sources of International Law

1. Treaties 2. Customs 3. Judicial Decisions

Zoning Ordinances

1. When a local government passes a zoning ordinance, it is exercising its police powers to advance legitimate objectives 2.The Supreme Court has recognized this power, but has also set limits on the government's control of private property.

Classifications of Trademarks

1.Arbitrary or Fanciful 2. Suggestive 3. Descriptive.

Sole author or originator

70 years from death of the author or originator

More than one author or originator

70 years from the death of the last surviving author or originator

Copyright

A copyright protects the rights of creators of original works for a defined period of time during which the holder has the exclusive rights to copy, distribute, display, or perform the work

Trademark

A nonfunctional, distinctive word, name, shape, symbol, phrase, or a combination of words and symbols that helps consumers to distinguish one product from another

Easement

A privilege to use the real estate owned by another

Patent

A statutorily created monopoly right that allows an inventor the exclusive entitlement to make, use, license, and sell her invention for a limited period of time

Madrid Protocol

Aims to help reduce the burden of multinational companies that desire multinational protection of their trademarks by providing a uniform, single-source process

Novelty Standard

An invention or process must be unique and original, and a patent applicant must show that no other identical invention or process exists

Rule of exactness:

Applies when the infringer makes, uses, or sells an invention that is exactly the same as the patent holder's claims in the patent application

Business Method Patents

Business methods may be patentable so long as they accomplish something practically useful in a novel and nonobvious way

Common Law Systems

Countries whose law, for the most part, is based on English common law concepts and legal organizational methods that strongly favor use of case law - Great Britain, United States, Canada, and Australia, and others.

Limits on Zoning Regulations

Courts have ruled that the law sets limits on a local government's right to regulate private property usage through a variety of constitutional protections of property owners.

Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS)

Covers minimum requirements and standards for all areas of intellectual property protection and also provides an infrastructure for enforcement and dispute resolution

United Nations

Created after World War II to facilitate common international concerns on defense, trade, the protection of human rights, and other matters

Sovereign Immunity

Doctrine that stands for the proposition that, with some exceptions, foreign nations are exempt from jurisdiction by U.S. courts (and vice versa)

Publisher or other party

First of (1) 120 years from the date of creation or (2) 95 years from the date of publication

Private international law

Focuses on regulation of private individuals and business entities

Use Regulation

From a business perspective, ordinances that establish various districts or particular uses of property are one of the most important types of zoning regulation.

Comity

General notion that nations will defer to and give effect to the laws and court decisions of other nations

Rule of addition:

If the infringing device does more than is described in the patent application of the protected invention

Subsurface Rights

Landowners have rights to soil and, most importantly, to any mineral, oil, or natural gas within the soil

Water Rights

Landowners have the right to reasonable use of any streams, lakes, and groundwater that are fully or partially part of their property.

Airspace Rights

Landowners may not use their right to airspace to prevent airplane flights over their property.

Direct infringement

Occurs when the copyright owner can prove that she has legal ownership of the work in question and that the infringer copied the work without permission

Remedies

Patent infringers are subject to the following damages: 1. Actual damages 2. Prejudgment interest 3. Attorney fees

Requirements for Design Patents

Patent laws also protect inventors of any new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture

Public international law

Primarily addresses relations between individual countries and international organizations

Religious-Based Legal System

Religious-based legal systems are legal doctrines and guidelines directly based on certain religious tenets -Islamic law.

Nonobviousness standard

Requires that an invention must be something more than that which would be obvious, in light of publicly available knowledge, to one who is skilled in the relevant field

Berne Convention agreement

Requires that foreigners from signatory countries must be granted protection via reciprocity (known as national treatment) under the copyright laws of any other member country

Paris Convention agreement

Requires the approximately 160 member countries that signed the agreement to protect the same inventor rights under any member country's patent laws as those enjoyed by citizens of that member country

Regulation of Commercial Land Use

States and local governments frequently pass statutes and ordinances that impose regulation on how a landowner may use a particular parcel of real estate.

First Sale

The First Sale Doctrine Enables a lawful purchaser of a copyrighted work to resell, transfer, or gift her copy of the work to anyone else without permission of the copyright owner

Notice and Enforcement

The Patent Act sets forth appropriate measures that individuals and business firms who own patents must take to properly inform users that an article is patented

Fee simple absolute

The rights are unrestricted (though always subject to the restrictions imposed bylaw, such as zoning), infinite in duration, and inheritable by the owner's heirs

Rule of omission:

When the alleged infringing invention lacks an essential element of the patent holder's claims in the patent application

Transaction costs

are the costs of defining, monitoring, and enforcing property rights

Design patents

cover primarily the invention of new ornamental designs on articles of manufacture

Utility patents

cover the invention of any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter or any new and useful improvement

Plant patents

cover the invention or discovery of asexually or sexually reproducible plants

Infringement

defined in the Patent Act as "whoever without authority makes, uses or sells any patented invention, within theUnited States during the term of the patent therefore, infringes the patent -Infringement can occur in one of two ways: as literal infringement or through equivalence

most common form of leasehold estate

landlord-tenantagreement

leasehold estate

ownership interest affords the least amount of rights because it grants only a qualified right to use the real estate in an exclusive manner for a limited period of time

Tangible Property

property that can be touched and physically possessed