Legal & Social Environment of Business

The quality or state of being new; a requirement for granting a patent.

The federal agency for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks.

The lessening of the value and uniqueness of a trademark that is caused by the use of the mark by another.

A contract that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to or by third parties.

Requirement for granting a patent that the invention being patented is not obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art.

A trademark that is distinctive and that is used in a fictitious, arbitrary, or fanciful manner in connection with a product.

Property rights that belong to the community at large, unprotected by copyright or patent and subject to free use by anyone.

All information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date that might be relevant to a patent's claims of originality. If an invention has been described in the prior art, a patent on that invention is not valid.

A trademark that began as a distinctive product identifier but has changed in meaning to become generic.

The right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention or products made by an invented process granted to an inventor for a term of years.

Employees of the USPTO who review patent applications to determine whether a claimed invention should be granted a patent.

Use of a trademark which is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party.

An original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression that is the result of at least some creative effort on the part of its author.