Selecting an attorney for legal cases is a very important decision. Please enter your information below to receive a Free Consultation from an attorney in your area:
Intellectual Property News
Users May Be Unaware Of Threats From Filesharing Programs
The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has released a report that concludes that the distributors of five popular filesharing programs repeatedly deployed features that they knew or should have known could cause users to share files inadvertently. The report, Filesharing Programs and “Technological Features to Induce Users to Share,” identifies five features in recent versions of five popular filesharing programs that could cause users to inadvertently distribute to others downloaded files or their own proprietary or sensitive files.
“Computer programs that can cause unintended filesharing contribute to copyright infringement, and they threaten the security of personal, corporate, and governmental data,” noted Jon Dudas, under secretary of commerce for intellectual property—the Bush Administration’s point person on copyright policy.
The report shows that distributors of filesharing programs deployed features that could cause inadvertent sharing even after repeated warnings that these features could facilitate identity theft and breaches of personal and national security. For example, in 2003, two Congressional hearings were prompted by research indicating inadvertent sharing could be caused by search-wizard and share-folder features. After the hearings, many distributors adopted a Code of Conduct that prohibited use of these features. Nevertheless, in 2004 and 2005, many of these same distributors kept deploying more aggressive versions of search-wizard or share-folder features. Many distributors also deployed other features, like partial-uninstall and coerced-sharing features, that also had a known or obvious potential to cause inadvertent sharing. Read more at uspto.gov.
The life of a copyright is longer than other IP rights.
Copyrights also endure longer than some other forms of IP. The copyright period protection cover the life of the author plus 50 years.
Newsroom
News about Intellectual Property cases in Maryland and nationwide:
Definition:
An invasion of one of the exclusive rights of intellectual property. Infringement of a utility patent involves the making, using, selling, offering to sell, or importing of a patented product or process without permission.
Certification mark
Definition:
A certification mark is any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce with the owner’s permission by someone other than its owner, to certify regional or other geographic origin, material, mode of manufacture, quality, accuracy, or other characteristics of someone's goods or services, or that the work or labor on the goods or services was performed by members of a union or other organization.
Author
Definition:
Either the real person who creates a copyrightable work or the employer, corporate or individual, of a person who creates a copyrightable work within the scope of employment, or commissioning.
Legal Disclaimers
All attorney listings are a paid attorney advertisement, and do not in any way constitute a referral or endorsement by an approved or authorized lawyer referral service. The information provided on Maryland Intellectual Property Lawyer.com is not intended to be legal advice, but merely conveys
general information related to legal issues commonly encountered. Your access
to and use of this website is subject to additional Terms
and Conditions.
Local Professional? Generate new business today
Call 866-227-9356 or contact a sales rep
Did You Know?