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Intellectual Property: Copyright, Trademark, Patents, and Fair Use

This guide provides access to resources and tools relating to copyright and trademark resources

Definitions

Trademark, Copyright, Patent, Fair Use, Public Domain

  Trademark Copyright  Patent Fair Use  Public Domain
           
Definitions A word, symbol, logo, picture, colour scheme that legally characterizes the identity of the company or organization. The exclusive legal rights to reproduce bodies of work such as books, music, TV, movies, and clothing/fashion design Laws that protect inventions, medical/drug discoveries, "secret" recipes, medications, and vaccines.  An exception to copyright where individuals are permitted to use/copy a small portion of copyright protected material for educational and/or non commercial purposes. Materials are not subject to copyright law. For materials to enter the public domain, the copyright has either expired or the material was never copyright protected to begin with.
What is  legally protected? A word, phrase, design, or a combination that identifies goods or services, distinguishes them from the goods or services of others, and indicates the source of your goods or services. Artistic, literary, or intellectually created works, such as novels, music, movies, software code, photographs, and paintings that are original and exist in a tangible medium, such as paper, canvas, film, or digital format. Technical inventions, such as chemical compositions like pharmaceutical drugs, mechanical processes like complex machinery, or machine designs that are new, unique, and usable in some type of industry. Commentary, analysis or criticism. Showing a film clip or portion of a tv show, excerpt of a song for non commercial purposes is considered fair use. Photocopying a portion of a book for study purposes, educational use,  These materials are outside the scope of copyright protected material, either because the copyright expired, or a copyright never existed.
Example Big Mac® for a McDonalds hamburger Music and song lyrics  Drug discoveries (medications), vaccines, and inventions Presenting a portion of a song, an episode from a TV show, or film clip for a class assignment Works by William Shakespeare 
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