I can’t just make a patent or smth on word “hobabusa” and tell everyone that if they use it they have to pay me, right? Where is the border and how it is determined?
Can you, as an example, sue someone for making similar design of website? A complete copy but with different functionality?
In: 0
The way the current legal framwork is written you can essentially do exactly this. Anyone can sue for breach of the copyright laws or the patent and trademark laws. And it does not require much proof to do this. Trademarks and patents needs to be registered at the patent office but this is a fairly simple process. It is then up to the defendant to prove that they did not violate these laws.
Functionality of a website would be covered under a regular patent. If you truly have a new and unique website function you can register a patent for it, and if the patent office agrees that functionality is now your IP.
Look and feel of a website can also be patented with a design patent. That keeps people from duplicating the look and feel of your website even if the functionality or underlying code is different.
Copyright registration protects you from someone copying the code of your website and modifying it to make their own website. Most people don’t bother registering though because website code tends to change frequently. Specific images like unique icons though tend to be worth registering though.
Trademark registration keeps people from taking stuff that directly identifies your brand (company logo for example) and pretending to be you.
Each kind of intellectual property has its own set of laws governing who can use it and how. And, of course, each country has its own set of rules.
#Patents
Patents cover machines, inventions, processes, etc. In the case of patents, you must apply for a patent through your government office. You don’t need a patent to begin using your thing, but you *do* need to register your patent to prevent anyone else from using your thing. If you invented a new kind of engine, you can sell as many as you want, but anyone else can buy one, take it apart, see how it works, and sell their own version of it unless you have a patent. In the United States, you apply for a patent with the patent office by demonstrating through some kind of model or prototype or something along those lines that your machine or process or whatever actually functions. You can submit only blueprints (IIRC) but you still need to give some kind of proof that it can actually work. It doesn’t have to actually work, but you need to prove that it *can*. For example, you can’t patent perpetual motion machines because, no, they cannot work.
Patents need to fall under certain categories, must be new, must be useful and do something for someone, and can’t be something obvious or just a combination of existing patented things.
#Copyright
Copyright covers works of art, literature, music, etc. You do not have to register a work for you to own the copyright: it belongs to you as soon as you make it. No one else is allowed to use it without your permission, regardless of whether or not it’s registered. However, you will need to *prove* that you made it, and registering your work is certainly the easiest way to do that.
Copyright covers complete works, not merely titles or words. The name “Tony Stark” is not copyrighted, the *character* of Tony Stark is copyrighted. You can use someone named Tony Stark in your work, you just can’t have a character named Tony Stark who is a billionaire inventor with an energy thing in his chest who invents a scifi suit of armor and uses it to fight crime. Copyright covers direct copies of a work as well as derivative work – making your own comics of Tony Stark with your own, original adventures but still using Iron Man. There are various exceptions for copyright, including education uses and parodies. You can’t copyright individual words, or colors, or names, or sounds. You can only copyright a complete *work*.
#Trademark
Trademark covers things associated with a brand, like logos and slogans and the like. Trademarks are *very* context specific: you can trademark Iron Man, but you can’t trademark “iron” and “man”. Marvel can’t stop someone from using “Iron Man” in a way that could not be confused with Marvel’s brand. A better example is Apple Computers. You can’t make Apple brand computers, because that obviously would confuse consumers between your computers and the existing Macintosh Apple company. Nor can you make Apple brand apple fruits, because that’s too generic. But you *could*, for example, make Apple brand orchard farming equipment, as long as nothing about your logo or aesthetic or slogan would make people believe you’re associated with Macintosh Apple computers. If your logo is a solid white apple with a little circle bite taken out, no. If your logo is a colored apple tree in a field against a sunset, yes (probably).
You also have to be *using* the trademark. You can’t just say, “This word is mine,” you have to be able to say, “This word refers to something related to my business. It is the name of this model of car,” or whatever.
I can’t just make a patent or smth on word “hobabusa” and tell everyone that if they use it they have to pay me, right? Where is the border and how it is determined?
Can you, as an example, sue someone for making similar design of website? A complete copy but with different functionality?
In: 0
The way the current legal framwork is written you can essentially do exactly this. Anyone can sue for breach of the copyright laws or the patent and trademark laws. And it does not require much proof to do this. Trademarks and patents needs to be registered at the patent office but this is a fairly simple process. It is then up to the defendant to prove that they did not violate these laws.
Functionality of a website would be covered under a regular patent. If you truly have a new and unique website function you can register a patent for it, and if the patent office agrees that functionality is now your IP.
Look and feel of a website can also be patented with a design patent. That keeps people from duplicating the look and feel of your website even if the functionality or underlying code is different.
Copyright registration protects you from someone copying the code of your website and modifying it to make their own website. Most people don’t bother registering though because website code tends to change frequently. Specific images like unique icons though tend to be worth registering though.
Trademark registration keeps people from taking stuff that directly identifies your brand (company logo for example) and pretending to be you.
Each kind of intellectual property has its own set of laws governing who can use it and how. And, of course, each country has its own set of rules.
#Patents
Patents cover machines, inventions, processes, etc. In the case of patents, you must apply for a patent through your government office. You don’t need a patent to begin using your thing, but you *do* need to register your patent to prevent anyone else from using your thing. If you invented a new kind of engine, you can sell as many as you want, but anyone else can buy one, take it apart, see how it works, and sell their own version of it unless you have a patent. In the United States, you apply for a patent with the patent office by demonstrating through some kind of model or prototype or something along those lines that your machine or process or whatever actually functions. You can submit only blueprints (IIRC) but you still need to give some kind of proof that it can actually work. It doesn’t have to actually work, but you need to prove that it *can*. For example, you can’t patent perpetual motion machines because, no, they cannot work.
Patents need to fall under certain categories, must be new, must be useful and do something for someone, and can’t be something obvious or just a combination of existing patented things.
#Copyright
Copyright covers works of art, literature, music, etc. You do not have to register a work for you to own the copyright: it belongs to you as soon as you make it. No one else is allowed to use it without your permission, regardless of whether or not it’s registered. However, you will need to *prove* that you made it, and registering your work is certainly the easiest way to do that.
Copyright covers complete works, not merely titles or words. The name “Tony Stark” is not copyrighted, the *character* of Tony Stark is copyrighted. You can use someone named Tony Stark in your work, you just can’t have a character named Tony Stark who is a billionaire inventor with an energy thing in his chest who invents a scifi suit of armor and uses it to fight crime. Copyright covers direct copies of a work as well as derivative work – making your own comics of Tony Stark with your own, original adventures but still using Iron Man. There are various exceptions for copyright, including education uses and parodies. You can’t copyright individual words, or colors, or names, or sounds. You can only copyright a complete *work*.
#Trademark
Trademark covers things associated with a brand, like logos and slogans and the like. Trademarks are *very* context specific: you can trademark Iron Man, but you can’t trademark “iron” and “man”. Marvel can’t stop someone from using “Iron Man” in a way that could not be confused with Marvel’s brand. A better example is Apple Computers. You can’t make Apple brand computers, because that obviously would confuse consumers between your computers and the existing Macintosh Apple company. Nor can you make Apple brand apple fruits, because that’s too generic. But you *could*, for example, make Apple brand orchard farming equipment, as long as nothing about your logo or aesthetic or slogan would make people believe you’re associated with Macintosh Apple computers. If your logo is a solid white apple with a little circle bite taken out, no. If your logo is a colored apple tree in a field against a sunset, yes (probably).
You also have to be *using* the trademark. You can’t just say, “This word is mine,” you have to be able to say, “This word refers to something related to my business. It is the name of this model of car,” or whatever.
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