| Plant Variety Protection Act |
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| United States patent law has provided patent protection for new varieties of asexually reproduced plants since the 1930s. Congress passed the Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) in 1970 to "encourage the development of novel varieties of sexually reproduced plants and to make them available to the public." More... |
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| Regional Patent Offices |
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| The issuance of a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office provides patent protection to an inventor only within the United States. Because each country has its own patent laws, other countries do not provide patent protection to a U.S. patentee, nor does the United States provide patent protection to a foreign patentee. Originally, if a U.S. inventor wished to obtain patent protection in other countries, he or she was required to obtain patents from each country in which patent protection was desired, which obviously entailed substantial time and expense. Eventually, however, international cooperation helped streamline the process of obtaining patents in other countries in many cases. More... |
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| Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 |
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| The moral rights of authors that are recognized in the Berne Convention are: (1) the right of attribution, which is the right to be identified as the author of a work or to be disassociated from a work such as by publishing a work anonymously or under a pseudonym; and (2) the right of integrity, which allows an author to prevent distortion or mutilation of the work. Additional moral rights granted by French law include the right to decide whether the work may be disclosed to the public, the right to withdraw a disclosed work from the public, and the right to reply to criticism of the work in the same medium in which the criticism was presented. Moral rights exist independently of any property rights in the copyrighted work and are kept by the author even if the copyrighted work is sold or transferred. Outside the United States, if another person owns the property right to a copyrighted work, the exercise of moral rights--such as ordering the publishing of a book to cease--may require the author to compensate the owner of the property right for any economic loss that results. In many jurisdictions, moral rights may be waived. More... |
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| Trademark Law and False Advertising |
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| Any advertising which is misleading in any material respect is considered false advertising. An advertisement is considered misleading if it fails to disclose facts that are important in light of what is stated in the advertisement or facts that are relevant in the light of the customary use of the product. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the statutory power to cancel trademarks it finds constitute false advertising. More... |
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| Design Patents |
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| Under United States patent law, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues three different types of patents. Utility patents apply to functional inventions, processes, or compositions of matter, and correspond to the common understanding of patentable subject matter. Patents may also be issued on new varieties of asexually produced cultivated plants and on designs. More... |
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