ABSTRACT
I. Importance of intellectual property .................................................................... 186 II. A bit of history...................................................................................................... 186
A. Competition among equals........................................................................... 187 B. Permission from the king.............................................................................. 187 C. To stimulate progress in the arts and sciences ............................................ 187 D. The results of history .................................................................................... 188
III. Types of intellectual property ............................................................................. 188 A. Patents ........................................................................................................... 188 B. Trademarks, service marks, trade dress ....................................................... 189 C. Copyrights ..................................................................................................... 190 D. Trade secrets ................................................................................................. 190
IV. Federally purchased intellectual property .......................................................... 190 A. Limited rights................................................................................................. 191 B. Unlimited rights............................................................................................. 191 C. Restricted rights ............................................................................................. 191
V. Federally created intellectual property ............................................................... 192 VI. Violations by federal employees ......................................................................... 192 VII. State-purchased IP................................................................................................ 192
VIII. State-created IP..................................................................................................... 193 IX. Violations by state employees ............................................................................. 193 X. Violations by local government employees........................................................ 194
XI. Fair use and the bounds of protection generally ............................................... 194 A. Trade display properties ............................................................................... 194 B. Trade secrets.................................................................................................. 195
C. Patents............................................................................................................ 196 D. Copyrights ..................................................................................................... 197 E. Websites (‘‘home pages and more’’)............................................................. 199
XII. Further reading..................................................................................................... 200 A. Books............................................................................................................. 200 B. Internet resources.......................................................................................... 200
XIII. Summary chart ..................................................................................................... 201
This chapter starts with a discussion of the importance of intellectual property (IP). It then sets forth a bit of its history. Next, it describes the four major types of IP. It then discusses the special rules surrounding the federal government’s acquisition and creation of IP, then the role of the states (in this context, local governments are similar to states). Finally, it concludes with a table summarizing some of the major points made about each type of IP.
