Intellectual Property
Protect your work from copycats. Learn the difference between trademarks, copyrights, and patents so you can safeguard your intellectual property.
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Understanding Digital Rights Management
Copyright registration of digital content has limited ability to protect creative works. Digital rights management (DRM) is a way to increase protection, but it's necessary to understand its benefits and limitations.
· 4 min read
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Monitoring and Protecting Your Trademark
In order for a trademark to be effective, it must be enforced. Find out how to guard your trademark, what happens if you don’t stop trademark conflicts, how you can stop an infringing trademark, and more.
· 3 min read
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What You Can Do When Someone Steals or Misuses Your Photos
With social communities, using cameras phones to upload and instantly share images on the Internet has become a regular part of our lives. With this, the potential to have your photos stolen or misused becomes all too real. But there are laws that can help a sticky situation from getting worse.
· 4 min read
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Does Your Employer Own Intellectual Property You Create?
Employers typically own intellectual property developed by their employees, but there is room for negotiation.
· 4 min read
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How the COVID-19 Vaccines Could Affect Intellectual Property Rights
The development of the COVID-19 vaccine didn't necessarily alter the landscape of intellectual property rights, but it may have fostered a new spirit of innovation and cooperation.
· 2 min read
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Joint Ownership of Patents: A to Z
An invention's patent is considered personal property. Under patent law, each co-inventor named on a patent application owns that property. In the absence of any agreement, each co-inventor owns 100 percent of the patent, regardless of how much each individual contributed to the invention. Patent law gives co-owners of a patent the right to make, use, license, sell and import the patented invention within the U.S. in whatever way they please, without the consent of the other co-owners.
· 3 min read
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What Is Creative Commons? 5 Frequently Asked Questions
Get answers to your Creative Commons questions here.
· 4 min read
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Can Fashion Designs Be Copyrighted?
Recording artist Gwen Stefani recently filed an infringement suit against Forever 21, alleging that the 'fast-fashion' retailer improperly used the heart and heart/box trademarks from her upscale Harajuku line on its own merchandise in a 'virtually indistinguishable' way.
· 3 min read
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Top 5 Accidental Inventions & Discoveries
From a vengeful chef who created a classic treat to a scientist whose moldy Petri dishes became a life-saving medication, some of today's best-known inventions were the result of accidental discoveries.
· 3 min read
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Christmas Carols & IP Rights
This holiday season, many of us download and play Christmas carols to our heart's content without any thought to copyright ownership. By downloading and playing these songs, are we infringing on the author's copyright protection? Check out this primer on intellectual property rights, including what's protected, how long it's protected for.
· 4 min read
