intellectual property

Definition

1) A lawyer who appears in court or receives pleadings and other formal documents on a party's behalf. Also known as counsel of record.

2) In patent and trademark law, a lawyer or agent named in a power of attorney filed by a patent or trademark applicant.

In patent law, anticipation refers to the prior invention or disclosure of the claimed invention by another, or the inventor's own disclosure of the claimed invention by publication, sale, or offer to sell prior to the inventor's application for a patent. In other words, if someone else has known about or used the invention before the patent applicant applies for a patent, that patent applicant will not be entitled to a patent.

Definition

1) In terms of copyright, access refers to the ability of a potential infringer to see or obtain the copyrighted material. Access is important in determining whether a potential infringer has in fact illicitly copied the copyrighted material. If the potential infringer has had no access to the copyrighted material, he can make a strong argument that he could not have copied the copyrighted material, and that any similarities between the allegedly infringing work and the copyrighted work are mere coincidences.

Definition

Abandonment of a trademark occurs when the owner of the trademark deliberately ceases to use the trademark for three or more years, with no intention of using the trademark again in the future. When a trademark is abandoned, the trademark owner may no longer claim rights to the trademark. In effect, this frees the trademark so that anyone else can use it without recourse from the original trademark owner.

Refers to the standard used by the Supreme Court to determine if it will hear a case from a state court.  The Supreme Court will hear a case from a state court only if the state court judgment turned on federal grounds.  It will refuse jurisdiction if it finds adequate and independent nonfederal grounds to support the state decision.

Definition

A type of trademark used by members of a collective, association, or other organization to indicate membership and/or to distinguish the goods and services of members from those of non-members.

Definition

A mark used in commerce by a person other than its owner to identify goods or services as being of a particular type. 

Definition

In the law of branding, a characterization scheme of trade designations in increasing order of distinctiveness: generic, descriptive, suggestive, and arbitrary or fanciful.

See also

• Intellectual property
• Trademark

Definition

Refers to the abandonment of a patent or trademark application.  An application is removed from the docket of pending applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when the applicant (either directly or through his attorney or agent) files an express notice of abandonment, does not pay the issue fee, or does not take appropriate action sometime in the prosecution of a nonprovisional application.  An abandoned application may be revived upon petition.

Abandoned property: an overview

Personal property left by an owner who intentionally relinquishes all rights to its control.  Real property may not be abandoned. See Adverse Possession.

At common law, a person who finds abandoned property may claim it.  To do so, the finder must take definite steps to show their claim.  For example, a finder might claim an abandoned piece of furniture by taking it to her house, or putting a sign on it indicating her ownership.