Property I- Acquisition by Creation

Question 1

What kinds of property can be created?

Answer 1

• Intellectual Property (news)
• Property in One’s person (cells/body parts)
• Accession (labor & materials added to another creation)

Question 2

How do we protect our property?

Answer 2

• Injunctions
• Conversion lawsuits
• Misappropriation

Question 3

General Designs

Answer 3

• No copyright, no protection.
• Something has to be unique in order to get copyright protection.
• the more original and less general the design is, the more likely it can be copyrighted/trademarked/patented.

Question 4

Cheney Bros. v. Doris Silk Corp

Answer 4

• P did not patent/copyright a garment pattern. Once it was copied by someone else, he sued.
• Common Law: the courts did not protect this since they favored competition and wanted to avoid monopolies.
• Under federal law & modern statutes: you can copyright/patent something if it is not too general (what is/isn’t too general will be argued by each side).

Question 5

Smith v. Chanel

Answer 5

• Smith made a product that he claimed was the equivalent of Chanel #5, but cost less. Chanel sued but lost because it did not hurt them in any way.
• Rule: the court laid down guidelines to follow for passing off a product for another.
• To say it “is” the other product is not allowed because:
  1) Fools the public and is meant to fool the public.
  2) Puts the reputation of the original manufacturer at risk if the product passed off is not as good, the ads are sleazy, etc.
  3) Takes money from the original manufacturer.

-To say “it is like” the other product is acceptable.

Question 6

Property Interest in your persona?

Answer 6

• Common Law: no cause of action.
• Modern Law: misappropriation lawsuits were allowed in tort, which stop people from making money off the likeness of a celebrity.
• Vanna White v. Samsung Electronics

Question 7

What is a copyright?

Answer 7

• A form of protection provided to the authors of “original works on authorship”. It protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing.
• Includes: literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished.
• 1976 Copyright Act gives the owner the exclusive right to reproduce the work, prepare derivative works, distribute copies or phonorecords of the work, perform the work publicly, or display the work publicly.
• Registered by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.

Question 8

What is a Trademark/Servicemark?

Answer 8

• Trademark: a word/name/symbol/device which is used in trade with goods to distinguish them from the goods of others.
• Servicemark: The same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product.
• Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusing similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods/services under a clearly different mark.
• Trademarks that are used in interstate/foreign commerce may be registered with the Patent and Trademark Office.

Question 9

What is a Patent?

Answer 9

• The grant of a property right to the inventor. Issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. It is the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling/importing the invention.
• it is for 20 years from the date the application was filed in the U.S. and it is only effective within the U.S., U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions.

Question 10

Does news get a copyright?

Answer 10

-No.

Question 11

International News Service v. Associated Press

Answer 11

• INS was stealing stories from AP, bribing their reporters, and claiming the stories to be their own. AP started losing money. The Supreme Court claimed that news is quasi-property (kinda/sorta property) and started the 24 hour protection rule since:
  1) News could easily be detected as copied
  2) It was only 24 hour protection
  3) AP would go out of business if we allowed this to continue
  4) Although the news was published, the property right of the AP in the news was not abandoned and it was not free for others to take

*News does not get this protection anymore.

Question 12

Moore v. Regents

Answer 12

• Conversion by Cell Conversion
• P went in for surgery and then found out his cells were used for a productive research. P sued for conversion but the court said body parts weren’t personal property so they can’t be the subject of conversion. Court found D breached duty to disclose to patient, but not conversion.
• body parts may be sold for research but not for a transplant.