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Intellectual Property Rights are a broad category of rights that can include rights associated with any one of, or any combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, mask works, or trade secrets, for example.
A patent is a property right granted by the United Stated to the first inventor of an invention that does not abandon, suppress, or conceal the invention.
A patent gives the owner of the patent the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing into the United States the patented invention during the term of the patent. The right granted is the right to exclude others. The owner of the patent is not granted the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import the patented invention.
For a U.S. patent application filed after June 8, 1995, the term of the patent is twenty years from the filing date of the patent application provided that the required maintenance fees are paid to the United States Patent and Trademark Office during the term of the patent.
No, the right conferred by the grant of a U.S. Patent extends only throughout the United States and its territories and possessions.
A copyright is a property right that protects an original work of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.
Works of authorship that can be protected by a copyright include the following categories: literary works; musical works including any accompanying words; dramatic works including any accompanying music; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; sound recordings; and architectural works.
Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.
Copyrights are registered with the Copyright Office, which is part of the Library of Congress.
The term "trademark" includes any word, name, symbol, or device or any combination thereof adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify his goods and distinguish them from those manufactured or sold by others.
The purpose of trademark protection is to assist the public in identifying a consistent source of goods or services; the source can be anonymous.
Federal trademark protection lasts at least as long as the mark is used and any Federal registration is periodically renewed.
"Trade Secret" means information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program device, method, technique, or process that: (i) derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use; and (ii) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.