Copyrights - Action Cyber Law

What is a Copyright?

A Copyright protects the expression of “original works of authorship” such as literature, art, music, software and computer chip mask works. The Copyright is protectable for (A.) seventy (70) years after death of the author, or (B.) by an employer of a work-for-hire author for ninety five (95) years after publication or one hundred twenty (120) years after creation, whichever comes first.

Action Cyber Law Guide to Copyright:

Introduction

Copyright arises upon the expression of ideas and thoughts in words, sentences, paragraphs, sketches, pictures, graphs, or any other method of conveying thoughts or ideas, commonly referred to as ”writings” or ”works of authorship.” In contrast to patent law which protects the underlying invention, a copyright does not protect the underlying idea, but only the means or manner in which the idea is expressed.

Copyright is Constitutional in origin (Article 1 Section 8), and reserves to authors the exclusive control of their ”writings” for a fixed period of time. Since 1978, copyright in both published and unpublished works has been controlled exclusively by Federal statute.

Copyrightable Matter

Matter which is protected by copyright under the present statute is referred to as “works of authorship,” and includes:

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;
computer programs.

Commercial Significance

Because copyright conjures up images of artistic expressions, copyright is often overlooked in the United States as an option in a commercial intellectual property program. In Europe, in contrast, copyright is now prominent for protecting industrial property. For example, valuable copyright protection is available in the United States, for the following:

technical and shop manuals,
catalogs and brochures,
instruction and policy manuals,
advertising,
any other work, the copying of which would benefit a competitor.

Prerequisites to Enforcement

Although copyright protection begins with creation of a work, it may be lost if the work created is published without meeting the copyright notice and registration requirements. For published works, it is required that the original and all copies of the work carry the copyright notice – ©, the owner’s name, and the date of publication. Filing for registration of all works bearing the copyright notice with the Copyright Office is required, and registration is a prerequisite to maintaining a suit for copyright infringement.

Finally, it is worth noting that copyright infringement requires copying of the copyrighted work. Thus, a copyright protects the author against others who copy the work without permission, but it does not protect against someone who, without knowledge of the author’s work or access to it, creates a similar work.

Enforcement

Federal Courts have exclusive jurisdiction over copyright suits. Relief in copyright litigation includes:

preliminary injunctive relief to prevent copying or distribution of copies during the lawsuit;
preliminary impoundment of all copies or means by which copies may be reproduced during the lawsuit;
money damages – in the form of actual damages or the infringer’s profits, or statutory damages – after trial on the merits;
destruction or other reasonable disposition of all in fringing copies or means by which such copies can be reproduced;
increased statutory damages and costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees;
In addition, the Federal Courts or the United States Customs Service can prohibit importation of infringing copies.

The Semiconductor Chip Protection Act

Under the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984, P.L. 98-620, Chapter 9 of Title 17, United States Code, Federal statutory protection is now available for mask works fixed in semiconductor chip products. Although administered by the Register of Copyrights, this protection differs in many respects from the provisions of the Copyright Act.

Mask works are defined in the Act as: a series of related images, however fixed or encoded (1) having or representing the predetermined, three-dimensional pattern of metallic, insulating, or semiconductor material present or removed from the layers of a semiconductor chip product; and (2) in which series the relation of the images to one another is that each image has the pattern of the surface of one form of the semiconductor chip product.

Semiconductor chips are used to operate many consumer, medical, commercial, and industrial products and machinery, and are defined in the Act as the final or intermediate form of any product (1) having two or more layers of metallic, insulating, or semiconductor material, deposited or other wise placed on, or etched away or otherwise removed from, a piece of semiconductor material in accordance with a predetermined pattern; and (2) intended to perform electronic circuitry functions.

Scope of Protection

Protection under the Act extends merely to the layout or topography of the chip, and does not extend to any idea or concept associated with the mask work. Just as ideas are not protected by copyright, no protection is available for the process of making the mask work.

To be protected under the Act, a mask work must be original, although no examination of originality is performed by the Copyright Office.

Notice and Registration

Notice of a mask work is optional, although it does constitute prima fade evidence of notice of protection. The Act requires the form of the notice to be: (1) the words MASK WORK, the symbol •M• or the symbol @); and (2) the name of the owner(s) of the mask work.

Registration of mask works must occur within two years after the date on which the mask work is first commercially exploited, or the opportunity to secure protection under the Act will be lost. Protection lasts for 10 years.

The owner of a mask work is the person who created the mask work, unless the work was done within the scope of a person’s employment. In that event, the owner of the mask work is the employer. Transfer of these ownership rights allows the owner to transfer all of the rights or to license all or fewer than all of the rights. A transfer or license must be in writing and signed by the owner of the rights or by a duly authorized agent of the owner.