Introduction to Copyright Law
and its Neighbors: Law 410
Peter W. Martin 2004

I. Overview

A. The Skeleton of this (or any) Intellectual Property Regime

(Questions to ask or dimensions to probe of any body of law arguably establishing a regime of intellectual property)

References below to:

• WP refers to the sections of the so-called September 1995 "White Paper" --
  The Report of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights of the
  National Information Infrastructure Task Force
• A section number, e.g., § 107, refers to 17 U.S.C. (the Copyright Act of the U.S.)
• Basics refers to the U.S. Copyright Office publication of that name.

1. What type of intellectual product or creative activity is covered (and excluded)?

[For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.2.a., WP I.A.2.c. and Basics [4] ]

2. What must be done to establish initial entitlement?

Originating and realizing -- How new/different must the intellectual product be, how completely and in what form must it be realized? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.2.a. and Basics [6]]

Competing claims -- how are competing claims to the same intellectual product resolved? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.8.]

Formal requirements (including notice in some particular form) -- what formal steps must be completed to secure entitlement? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.2.a., WP I.A.5. and Basics [8]]

Mechanism for recognizing and validating -- how does the originator know that the entitlement has been granted (knowing both that others cannot appropriate and that the originator's distribution does not infringe on the entitlement of someone else)? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.2.a., WP I.A.8. and Basics [12]]

Effect of institutional context on who holds what rights -- the effect of employment, collaborative or cumulative work, on entitlement? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.3. and Basics [2]]

3. Content of entitlement

Infringement -- What activities by others are an infringement on the entitlement (equal, similar, copied) (same market, different markets/forms)? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.6., WP I.A.7., WP I.A.8. and Basics [1]]

Remedies -- What relief can the entitlement holder claim against infringers, financial and other? Are there criminal penalties for infringement? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.8.e., WP I.A.8.f. and WP I.A.8.g.]

Duration [For copyright's (recently altered) answers, see Basics [9]]

Transferability (whether/how) -- during the creator's lifetime, at death -- divisibility [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.3.a., WP I.A.3.b. and Basics [10]]

4. Loss of entitlement

Use -- Must the entitlement be used to be kept? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.8.g.]

Filing or other formalities -- Are there formality failures that can cause its loss? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.5. and Basics [12]]

Abuse of right, etc. -- Other ways of losing? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.8.g.]

5. Federalism questions

Where does this body of intellectual property fit in the federal-state matrix? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.1. and WP I.A.2.b.]

6. International law questions

To what extent and upon taking what steps is the intellectual property entitlement enforceable internationally? [For copyright's answers, see WP I.A.9. and Basics [11]]