Intellectual Property

This lesson deals with how trademark protection may be lost by abandonment, i.e. the discontinued use of a mark, the licensing of a mark in gross or an assignment of a mark in gross. This lesson is intended to be used as a supplement to the student's course material. It analyzes several issues that arise from the non-use or limited use of a mark, the licensing or assignment of a mark, as well as the considerations that follow the resumption of use of an abandoned mark.

This lesson builds on the concepts that you may have been introduced to in Professor Robert Lind's lesson on the classification of marks, e.g., generic marks, descriptive marks, suggestive marks, arbitrary marks, and fanciful marks. Specifically, this lesson will concentrate on the validity of a mark for trademark protection purposes when the trademark or trade dress is not inherently distinctive.

This lesson examines the scope of one of the exclusive rights belonging to a copyright owner -- the right to create derivative works based on the copyrighted work, under 17 U.S.C. § 106(2).

This lesson explores the protection of architectural works (building designs) both under the 1976 Copyright Act and after adoption of the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990.

This lesson explores the Lanham Act provisions governing federal registration of collective marks and certification marks.

This lesson addresses the protection afforded to compilations (including collective works) under United States copyright law.

This lesson examines the two types of secondary liability in copyright law -- contributory infringement and vicarious liability. Before attempting this lesson, students should be familiar with the exclusive rights that belong to a copyright owner, and should understand the concept of direct infringement. Note: This lesson was written while the Supreme Court was still considering MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., cert. granted, 125 S. Ct. 686 (2004), the outcome of which may alter the standard for contributory infringement.

This lesson will introduce you to the GNU/Linux operating system and its interaction with Copyright Law.

You can complete this lesson without any exposure to the law of copyrights, but the other CALI lessons on copyright will explore basic copyright concepts.  This lesson will be helpful to students studying concepts of ownership in the copyright context. After this lesson and the model answers to the essay questions, you will understand the interaction between current copyright and licensing law and the open source movement's freedom.

This lesson covers some of the basic formalities of copyright: notice, registration, and deposit. Attention is given to changes wrought by the 1976 Act and the Berne Convention Implementation Act.

Copyright Law may seem shrouded in mystery: how can you create, transfer, and protect property interests in something intangible? This lesson provides an overview of how it is done, focusing on copyright protection for music. This focus takes advantage of the multimedia capacity of the program; for example, you can listen to two musical works to determine whether one infringes the other, and you can listen to the parody version of "Pretty Woman" that figured in a decision of the United States Supreme Court.

This lesson introduces the user to the copyright issues that pertain to sound recordings.

This lesson provides an analysis of the levels of distinctiveness and the requirements for the determination of whether a term chosen as a mark is inherently distinctive, must yet acquire distinctiveness, or is incapable of trademark protection regardless of distinctiveness. The lesson is intended as a review of material that is covered early in a Trademark Law course.