The purpose of United States patent law is to promote the advancement of science and technology by providing a mechanism by which the knowledge and ideas embodied in inventions become available to the public. To provide an incentive to inventors to make their inventions public, patent law grants to inventors a temporary right to exclude others from making, using, or selling their inventions. The most basic requirements for obtaining a patent are that an invention or process be useful, new, and that it be non-obvious to those skilled in the field in which the invention is classified. To further the objective of disclosure of inventions, however, there are additional provisions of the Patent Act that will disqualify an invention from patent eligibility called "statutory bars."
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Trade Secret Protection Program
It is important to adequately safeguard trade secrets. In order for a trade secret litigant to secure court assistance in any jurisdiction so that its rights may be enforced, there is a fundamental requirement that the litigant must prove that it exercised reasonable safeguards to protect secrecy.
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The Copyright Act grants five exclusive rights to the owner of an original work. Together these rights comprise the bundle of rights known as copyright. These exclusive rights are different from the rights given to a person who merely owns a copy of the work. The fact that a particular use of a copyrighted work is said to implicate one or more of the rights does not necessarily mean that such use is an infringement or unlawful. The exclusive rights of a copyright owner include the following:
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Damages Available in Trademark Infringement Actions
The monetary remedies available in trademark infringement actions are based on the actual damages suffered by a trademark owner. The damages may include profits lost to the infringing activity and may be trebled where the infringement was intentional.
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Federal Unfair Competition Law
The law of unfair competition is primarily comprised of torts that cause an economic injury to a business through a deceptive or wrongful business practice. Unfair competition consists of two broad categories. First, the term "unfair competition" is sometimes used to refer only to those torts that are meant to confuse consumers as to the source of the product. The other category, "unfair trade practices," comprises all other forms of unfair competition. In this context, unfair competition does not refer to the economic harms involving monopolies and antitrust legislation.
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Antitrust Guidelines for Intellectual Property
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (the Agencies) have guidelines stating their antitrust enforcement policy with respect to the licensing of intellectual property. Although there are stated guidelines, each case is to be evaluated in light of its own facts with the guidelines applied reasonably and flexibly.