ε Intellectual Property - Key Terms

Term

Definition

Copyright

Exclusive legal rights to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (as a literary, musical, or artistic work).

Entrepreneur

A person who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assuming the risk for the sake of the profit.

Innovation

An improvement of an existing technological product, system, or method of doing something.

Intellectual Property

Any product of someone's intellect that has commercial value, especially copyrighted material, patents, and trademarks.

Intrapreneur

A person in a corporation who is given the freedom and resources to initiate products, business ventures, etc.

Invention

A new product, system, or process that has never existed before, created by study and experimentation.

Licensing

The granting of permission to use intellectual property rights, such as trademarks, patents, or technology, under defined conditions.

Patent

A grant made by a government that gives an individual or a body the sole right to make, use, and sell an invention for a set period of time.

Patent Infringement

A patent provides the proprietor of that patent with the right to exclude others from utilizing the invention claimed in that patent. When a person utilizes that invention without the permission of the patent proprietor, they have committed a patent infringement.

Patent Licensing

A patent is not a right to practice or use an invention. Rather, a patent provides the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention for the term of the patent, usually 20 years from the filing date. A patent does not exclude others from conducting research (e.g., for academic purposes) on the invention or from developing further inventions based on the patented invention. In order for a patent to be granted, or to take legal effect, the patent application must meet the legal requirements related to patentability.

Patent Search

 A formal inquiry to the U.S. Patent Office on a specific technical item.  Today, patent searches are most often completed via the Internet.

Provisional Patent

A less expensive and detailed application that allows one year’s protection to provide time to further investigate or pursue licensing before filing a regular patent application.

Royalties

A share of the proceeds or product paid to the owner of a right, as a patent, for permission to use it or operate under it.

Trade Secret

Any device, method, formula, etc. known to the manufacturer who uses it but not to competitors.

Trademark

A symbol, design, word, letter, etc. used by a manufacturer or dealer to distinguish a product or products from those of competitors.