Intellectual Property: Property Law In The United States Of America (Essay Sample)

Intellectual Property Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Introduction Property law in the United States has been established to motivate smooth flow of exchange. Contrary to this, intellectual property law is not the same as the general property law. Instead, the prime duty of the intellectual property law is to boost new technological innovations, artistic creations, and inventions and at the same time raising the economic growth. The government has achieved this idea by putting in place various laws to eliminate the rest from using this particular type of property law. Therefore, intellectual property is composed of three prominent categories. These are trademark law, copyright law and finally patent law. Trademark law takes care of the symbol or name that points out the original owner of the good or service. Patents defend the inventions of a concrete thing. Copyright law guards the different forms of written or electronically appearance. In general, there is a laid down procedure for each and every method of intellectual property listed above. The quality standard needed to receive the protection, the application guidelines, and the time frame limit for each of the methods, as we shall discuss them one by one. The first type of intellectual property is a patent. It is a form of intellectual property that the US government offers to an original inventor. Patent guards the inventions, procedures, and ways of doing the stipulated work. The duty of a patent to an inventor is to get permission from the patent rights to publicly expose the invention. As a result of this, patent creates room for more innovations. For the patent, there is an application required to be filled by the applicant to the patent offices. It clearly stipulates the invention mentioned in the application and also attached correspondence related to the application. Therefore, a person has to legally file a claim to a patent office within which the region of the patent will extend. Payment of Nonrefundable fees made. Once one gets permission, he or she is supposed to pay issue fee. Utility patents, software patents, plant patents and design patents are the four types of patents. A utility is the protection of the manufacturer's articles. Design patent protects the manufacturers' decorative design. An example is an old car body. Plant patents protect plants created by people through asexual reproduction. Software patents which protect an original computer software. A utility patent can go for as long as 20 years from the time of application, as long as the owner pays a maintenance fee. A plant patent is similar to the design patent regarding duration. They both last for 14 years beginning the time issue. Trademark is the second type of intellectual property. A trademark is a symbol, logo, or a mark that will identify the source of a good or service and excludes it from the rest. The definition is from the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO). In simple terms, a trademark is a slogan or a brief description, that denotes a particular product. Examples of trademarks that are well recognized by many people include; coca-cola, ‘M’ which stands for Mcdonald’s ‘golden arches.' For a service trademark, a service mark is significant, because it establishes the origin of a service and not a product. Examples of service marks include; ‘Virgin' which is a service mark of virgin airlines. The voice produced by a woman in ‘AT&T' tone is also a service mark. Registration of a trademark is important for an assumption that the mark is yours, and you have all exclusive rights of ownership. The details are fed into the online databases of the USPTO. ‘TM' or ‘SM' are used to let the public know that you have the legal ownership of a product or service. For any registered trademark they are protected for ten years. They are also renewed indefinitely. The third form of intellectual property is the copyright. It is part of the American intellectual property law which guards the source of work in a tangible form, not ideas or expressions. Things like music, books, poems, the blueprint of house interiors and architecture qualify to have a cop...