Business Law - Ch 8

Suggestive Trademark

Dairy Queen, Blu Ray

Typo Squatting

Illegal by the ACPA

License

In the context of intellectual property law, an agreement permitting the use of a trademark, copyright patent, or trade secret for certain limited purposes.

Trade Secret

Information or process that gives a business an advantage over competitors that do not know the information or process.

Trademark Infringement

Injunction to prevent further infringement. Can recover lost profits as well as damages and sometimes lawyer fees.

Fanciful/Arbitrary Trademarks

Invented words or words used in an uncommon way.

Service Mark

A mark used in the sale or advertising of services to distinguish the services of one person from those of others. Titles, character names, and other distinctive features of radio and television programs may be registered as service marks. (airlines)

distributed network

A network that can be used by persons located (distributed) around the country or the globe to share computer files.

cloud computing

A subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends a computer's software or storage capabilities.

Trade Name

A term that is used to indicate part or all of a business's name and that is directly related to the business's reputation and goodwill. Trade names are protected under the common law (and under trademark law, if the name is the same as that of the firm's trademarked product).

Cyber Mark

A trademark in cyberspace.

Domain Name

"westlaw.com." The top level (the part of the name to the right of the period) indicates the type of entity that operates the site (com is an abbreviation for "commercial"). The second level (the part of the name to the left of the period) is chosen by the entity.

Trademark

A distinctive mark, motto, device, or emblem that a manufacturer stamps, prints, or otherwise affixes to the goods it produces so that they may be identified on the market and their origins made known. Once a trademark is established (under the common law or through registration), the owner is entitled to its exclusive use.

Patent

A government grant that gives an inventor the exclusive right or privilege to make, use, or sell his or her invention for a period of 20 Years for inventions. 14 years for designs and not renewable. First to invent but first to file typically used.

Collective Mark

A mark used by members of a cooperative, association,union, or other organization to certify the region, materials, mode or manufacture, quality, or other characteristic of specific goods or services.

Certification Mark

A mark used by one or more persons, other than the owner, to certify the region,materials, mode of manufacture, quality, or other characteristics of specific goods or services.

Secondary Meaning

London Fog, Frosty Treats

Generic Use

No longer held under patent law, Aspirin

What is Patentable

Process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter or any improvement thereof. Exceptions: 1. Laws of nature, 2. Natural phenomena, 3. Abstract ideas (algorithms). Simple arithmetic is patentable as well as some simple business processes.

Intellectual Property

Property resulting from intellectual, creative process.

Dilution

Protects distinctive trademarks even from unauthorized use even when the use in on unauthorized goods. Includes similar marks in the same market. (Sambucks)

Cybersquating

The act of registering a domain name that is the same as. or confusingly similar to, the trademark of another and then offering to sell that domain name back to the trademark owner.

Copyright

The exclusive right of an author or orginator of a literary or artistic production to publish, print, or sell that production for a statutory period of time. A copyright has the same monopolistic nature as a patent or trademark, but it differs in that it applies or exclusively to works of art, literature, and other works of authorship ( including computer programs). Registration not required. Fair use exception.

Trade dress

The image and overall appearance of a product- for example, the distinctive decor, menu, layout, and style of service of a particular restaurant. Basically, trade dress is subject to the same protection as trademarks.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networking

The sharing of resources (such as files,hard drives, and processing styles) among multiple computers without necessarily requiring a central network.

Meta Tags

Used to insert a companies trademark into their fields to increase where they show up in search results.