Intellectual Property Outline

Intellectual Property Survey Fall 2010
Professor Ochoa
 
Introduction
 
I.  Basic Information and Doctrines
      A.  Recognizes property rights for products of the mind
            1.  Allow creator to recoup investment
            2.  Need to find an optimal balance between protection of private property rights              AND retention of public access to the products of creativity
           
      B.  Federal Law
            1.  Patents
            2.  Copyright
            3.  Trademark
      C.  State Law
            1.  Unfair Competition, including Trademark
            2.  Trade Secret
            3.  Right of Publicity
 
      D.  CASES:
            1.  INS v. Associated Press
      -suit because INS was using AP news articles when they came out on the east coast and sending them to the west coast
      -found a quasi-property right based on unfair competition between competitors
 
            2.  Sears v. Stiffel
      -suit because Sears copied the design of a lamp pole, which had a design patent, for patent infringement and unfair competition
      -court found the patent invalid because it determined the lamp to be unpatentable    -court concluded because it can’t be patented, unfair competition can’t protect it because it should be in the public domain
 
      3.  Stanley v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.
      -copyright is limited to the arrangement and combination of ideas and the form, sequence, and manner in which the composition expresses the ideas
 
II.  International Considerations
      A.  Importance
            1.  Protects exports
      B.  Start
            1.  Bi-lateral agreements between large trading partners
            2.  Then became multi-party treaties
            3.  Based on national treatment
      C.  WIPO
            1.  Paris Convention 1883
                  (a)  Industrial works; patents and trademarks
                  (b)  Updated in 1967
            2.  Berne Convention 1886
                  (a)  Literary and artistic works; copyrights
                  (b)  updated in 1971
            3.  Problems
                  (a)  Need unanimity
                        (1)  can opt out of a change
                  (b)  No way to enforce
                        (1)  Berne said International Court of Justice, but its not binding because                                nothing they can do to stop you from violating the treaty
                        (2)  Use diplomatic pressure
            4.  TRIPS
                  (a)  Created to solve problem of enforceability
                  (b)  Created through GATT
                  (d)  US successfully negotiated TRIPS to protect its exports
                  (d)  Makes the substantive issues of Paris and Berne enforceable under the                     WTO
                        (1)  Panel can impose trade sanctions against the violating country
                        (2)  can impose tariffs on the other country that don’t have to be related to                                     the violation
                        (3)  SIDE NOTE:  US held in violation of both trademark and copyright                                      provisions of TRIPS
Trade Secrets
I.  Uniform Trade Secret Act
      A.  Adopted in 1979 and revised in 1985
            1.  Under State Law-UTSA has been adopted by most states
      B.  Page 29 in statute book
      C.  Protects confidential business information
      D.  LIMITS
            1.  Must be a secret
            2.  Not protected from lawful means of obtaining information
 
II.  Elements of Protection
      A.  Is it a trade secret?
            1.  Economic value
           
            2.  Not generally known
                  (a)  must distinguish general knowledge, skill and experience from specific                                  secrets that are deemed
 
                  (b)  memorization tends to show general knowledge Flemming
           
                  (c)   customer lists may be protected if takes a lot of money and skill to create                    them, too the actual list, let clients know leaving ahead of time, and NO                                   means available to a stranger
 
            3.  Not readily ascertainable by PROPER means
                  (a)  Reverse engineering is proper, but not readily ascertainable
                        (1)  Can’t steal a secret formula then say it could’ve been attained with                                    reverse engineering UNLESS really cheap and easy to do
           
            4.  Reasonable efforts made to maintain the secret
                  (a)  reasonable depends on the facts of the case
                  (b)  question:  Under the circumstances, were reasonable measures adopted
 
            5.  Expense in Developing (OCHOA thinks this is EVIDENCE not an ELEMENT)
                  (a) NOT IN UTSA, in the Restatement
                  (b)  relevant to show it provides a competitive advantage
 
            6.  CASES: 
                  (a)  Cyberteck Computer Products v. Whitfield
      -suit to protect computer software system against old employee (founding partner) who went to a new company and created a similar system even though had a non-disclosure agreement
      -court went through test and found it was a TS
      -Defendant couldn’t meet burden of showing independent development
 
                  (b)  Fleming Sales Co v. Bailey
      -suit to protect customer list, information about customers, and information about principals and sources of supplies
      -court found that these consisted of general knowledge and skill and were not protected by TS
      -even thou