Technology Transfer and Economic Development

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property is an intangible right that can be bought and sold, leased or rented, or otherwise transferred between parties in much the same way that rights to real property or other personal property can be transferred. Intellectual property is often a substantial component of the technology transfer process and is transferred most often through contracts or licenses. The intellectual property of all parties must be protected in the transfer of technology to ensure the commercial viability of the technology. Classes of Intellectual Property include, Copyrights, Patents, Mask Works, and Trademarks.

Copyrights grant an exclusive right to authors, composers, artists, or their assignees to copy, exhibit, distribute, or perform their works for a period of the life of author plus 50 years. Under work for hire, the employer is granted copyright; if the product is published, for 75 years, or if unpublished, 100 years from the date of creation. The subject of protection are products of the mind that are produced in tangible expressions (writings, music, sculpture, computer software, graphs, drawings).

Mask Works "Mask Work" means a series of related images, however fixed or encoded, having or representing the redetermined, three-dimensional pattern of metallic, insulating or semiconductor material present or removed from the layers of a semiconductor chip product; and 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. Mask works are a relatively new form of intellectual property. Recognizing the unique nature of semiconductors and the semiconductor industry, Congress enacted the Semiconductor Protection Act of 1984 to protect the masks and other information, e.g., mask databases, used to manufacture semiconductor chip products. The term of protection for a mask work extends for a maximum of ten years from the earliest date that the mask work is either (1) registered; or (2) exploited commercially anywhere in the world.

Patents serve as agreements between the government and an inventor whereby, in exchange for the inventor's complete disclosure of an invention, the government gives the inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the invention (e.g., a process, machine, composition of matter, articles of manufacture.) Patent rights are granted in the name(s) of the inventor(s) and may be assigned by contract. A patent does not give the inventor the right to practice his invention—only the right to exclude others from doing so. Protection begins when the application is received by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Trademark establish a unique expression to identify the source of goods or services for commercial purposes (e.g., a word, symbol, or a combination thereof). Trademark registration can be obtained from the federal government and often from state governments.

Links of Interest

Council On Governmental Relations www.cogr.edu/ (includes issues relating to Intellectual Property)

US Copyright Office www.loc.gov/copyright/

US Patent and Trademark Office www.uspto.gov/