Perpetual Innovation

Category: Copyright

  • Future of IP + AI? Regenerative AI

    These are the GenAI
    prompts used to gather information about intellectual property (IP) and the
    world of artificial intelligence (AI), i.e., IP+AI. 
    This is part of our Regenerative AI project; recreate as needed,
    when needed, with the GenAI engines available to you at that time. Select
    results from various Generative AI engines (ChatGPT 4.0, Gemini, Claude,
    Copilot).  Look at writing and analysis
    of Human + Artificial Intelligence by Hall and (Hall & Lentz, 2024) over at
    ScenarioPlans.com (alias to DelphiPlan.com).

    This Regenerative AI article, The Future of IP with AI, is reproduced from ScenarioPlans.com (alias DelphiPlan.com) and adapted with permission.  The link to the PDF of the results is there.

    You the
    reader/user can recreate the prompts as needed, when needed, with the GenAI
    engines available to you at that time. Note that a couple prompts are included
    with multiple GenAI engines for comparison. 

    Future of IP with
    AI using GenAI?

    Q: Who owns the copyright
    when something is co-created by human + AI? When something is almost completely
    AI created? When something is totally AI created?

    Q: What about patents and
    inventions? Who is the inventor when something is co-invented by human + AI,
    when something is almost completely AI, when something is totally AI invented?

    Q: . . . and what about
    ownership of the intellectual property?

    Q: How does AI impact
    infringement?

    Q: Are
    trademarks in jeopardy from AI? What steps should be taken to protect TMs?

    Q: Write an article on
    intellectual property in the age of AI, include all the topics in the chat as
    well as any others that are important. Give one or more reliable sources for
    each section including links Wikipedia articles where appropriate (formatted APA
    style and a reference page)

    The graphic image was created using the last prompt by Hall
    (2024, May) and produced using DALL-E.

    #IntellectualProperty #IP #GenAI #PropertyRights #Inventor
    #Creator #Copyright #Patent #Trademark #TradeSecret

     

  • Mickey Mouse Enters to Public Domain

    The first trademarks by Walt Disney run out of copyright protection starting in 2024. This would have happened 20 years earlier had it not been for the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act of 1998” (as discussed here). For corporations, copyright lasts for 95 years from first release. (For individual creators/authors, copyright lasts for 70 years after the last author dies.)

    Associated Press has a discussion about this: Mickey Mouse will soon belong to you and me — with some caveats. This article by Andrew Dalton (Dec 14, 2023) hits two notes that are not intuitive to the average person with only a modest understanding of copyrights. 

    1) When Steamboat Willie (c) Nov 1928 hits 95 years old, this film and some aspects of the stars of the file — Mickey and Minnie Mouse — will enter public domain. When Winnie the Poo entered public domain a horror film was released: “Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey.”  (We suspect that A.A. Nihle would not have been pleased!)

    2) You have to really wonder in amazement that such characters as Winnie, Minnie and Mickey had endured to the test of time. Many characters or graphics would not be worth much, fading into the background canvas on the painting of time. As these distinctive characters have aged they have moved into a status of folklore; and now with the passage of time, they have moved into a status of public domain as well. 

    Remember that there are other types of intellectual property protection by Disney, including other copyrights and trademarks. Be careful making a Disney horror film staring Minnie and Snow White. 

    See The Mickey Mouse Protection Act article from November.

    #IntellZine #PublicDomain #Copyright

  • The Mickey Mouse Protection Act

    The Mickey Mouse Protection Act

    When you hear The Mickey Mouse Protection act, you
    are probably thinking about how to keep the mouse’s tail out from under the heavy boots of the Florida State Governor. But the Law that is informally called the Mickey
    Mouse Protection Act of 1995 extended copyright protection for an additional 20
    years, giving Disney until November 2024 before the first copyrights on Mickey Mouse
    begin to roll off copyright protection.  This means that by Christmas of 2024 you can
    start to borrow and modify aspects of Steamboat Willie’s 1928 movie including
    the world-famous Mickey Mouse figure. HOWEVER, step softly around the mouse
    because Disney does have dozens of trademarks, so what comes into public domain
    on the one four-fingered hand, might still have intellectual property
    protection on the other. 

    The Copyright
    Term Extension Act of 1995     was sponsored by the late Sonny Bono of Sonny
    & Cher, so Sonny Bono’s name is part of the act. It is (derisively) called
    the Mickey Mouse Protection Act because Disney was one of the biggest and most
    conspicuous beneficiaries. Under the new law, corporations now have 95 years
    from first publication before their creative works go into the public domain.
    During that time the copyright owner(s) has exclusive rights to their creative
    works including sales and royalties. The intellectual property ownership of
    those rights can be assigned or sold. For an individual author/creator, the
    copyright lasts for 70 years after death. If multiple creators/authors, the
    copyright lasts for 70 years after the last author dies. (https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-duration.html)

    The cool thing about copyright (and trademark, for that
    matter) is that you simply put the cute copyright symbol © on creative works
    you want to designate as copyrighted and it magically becomes copyrighted.
    Cool. This is why you would want to indicate “copyright” on promotional
    materials, your books and your web site content. Books are often “registered”
    to strengthen copyright protection and to provide documentation if a lawsuit is
    needed to enforce your copyrights.

    What happens when a creative work loses its copyright
    protection? “After the copyright expires, the creative work falls into the
    public domain. Anyone can use a work in the public domain without permission or
    payment to the copyright holder. This includes making copies of the creative
    work and distributing transformative versions of it.” (https://MEKipLaw.com/the-mickey-mouse-copyright/)

    All types of intellectual property protection are discussed
    in the Patent Primer by Hall & Hinkelman.

    Visit the SBP Bookstore: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/SBPlan

    Hall, E. B. & Hinkelman, R. M. (2017). Perpetual
    innovation™: Patent Primer 4.0. Patents, the great equalizer of our time    .
    (Also, find on Amazon in e-Book format.)

    #Copyright #IntellectualProperty #PerpetualInnovation
    #IPCommercialization

  • Taking Liberty, A $3.5m copyright stamp of mistaken identity

    Putting the Status of Liberty on a US stamp seems like a no brainer, send someone out to take an original picture of miss liberty, stamp it and run. Or, get full rights to a picture, modify it to your hearts content — maybe make her happier to be holding up so well after most of a century in the New York weather! (Maybe add a Mono Lisa Smile!?)… But, often, copyrights may not be as simple as they appear.
    Rick Kurnit has a great blog about a copyright for the Status of Liberty stamp on Lexology.
    Here’s the backstory. The US Post Office got a picture of a Status of Liberty, but not THE Status of Liberty. It is a picture of the replica (although Lady Liberty is smaller, mind you) in Las Vegas.
    “Robert Davidson, the artist who created the model, upon seeing the stamp (after his wife came home from the post office and exclaimed ‘they put our statue on a stamp’) registered the copyright in his version of the statue and sued.”
    After 5 years and a 2 week trial… Davidson won $3.5m+. That’s a lot of forever stamps. Talk about making it BIG in Vegas!
    Kurnit takes the time to make this a learning moment by discussion the use of copyrighted materials, and even derivative works.
    You would kind of think that anything publicly owned and publicly viewable link the Statue of Liberty would be, well, public domain, including the photos thereof. Not so. (Generally, I own my photos, and the derivative works of those photos.)

  • Maria Pallante out of Copyright. Unified IP?

    Maria Pallante: out of Copyright Office

    Great article by Dennis Crouch over at Patently-O. (But then aren’t they all great over there.)

    Apparently Pallante is out as Chief of the Copyright office. And the clamor is up as to why we don’t have a unified IP at the patent and trademark office, kind of a US PTOC. (I guess that would be pronounced Pea-Talk, or PeeTalk, if you wanted to talk dirty.)

    Back in 2012, Crouch recommended creating an integrated US Intellectual Property Organization, or USIPO (you sip oh) akin to WIPO for the world of IP.

    The argument for an integrated IP approach “…  is that many operating businesses relying upon intellectual property (IP) rights typically do not focus on a single form of IP rights but instead take a layered approach that includes some combination of patent, trademark, copyright, contractual, employment, trade secret, and design rights, for instance.”

    With all the changes happening, or potentially happening, in the IP world this integration seems like a great idea when the time has come.

    Let’s go with USIPO, not PTOC, on this one.

    ‘via Blog this’