Page 261 - Washington Nonprofit Handbook 2018 Edition

PART 11. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CONSIDERATIONS

CHAPTER 70. Application of Intellectual Property Law to Nonprofits

Intellectual property law can be a very detailed and esoteric topic, but here
we will only focus on a few intellectual property issues that nonprofit corporations
commonly encounter. Before doing that, however, we will generally describe five
basic types of intellectual property: patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets,
and publicity rights.

Patents

Patents are a form of protection with three main categories: utility, design,
and plant. In general, (i) utility patents protect new and useful machines,
manufactured goods, processes, or compositions of matter, and any improvements

to any of the foregoing; (ii) design patents protect original and ornamental designs
for a manufactured good; and (iii) plant patents protect distinct and new varieties of
plants. Although there are some nonprofit corporations that may be very involved
with patents (such as university foundations or hospitals), most nonprofit
corporations will not be applying for or obtaining patent rights, so we will not
discuss them here. If interested, a nonprofit corporation can obtain more
information on patents from the patent section of the U.S. Patent and Trademarks
Office website at https://www.uspto.gov/patents-getting-started/general-informa-
tion-concerning-patents.

Copyrights

Copyrights are a form of protection that protect “original works of
authorship”. Items protected by copyright include written text (such as books and
blogs), photographs, videos, graphics, music, and computer software. A copyright
owner can prevent a third party from, among other things, copying, distributing, or
creating new or adapted versions of the work (also called “derivative works”). As
soon as a person creates an original work of authorship he or she has a copyright
in it – nothing more needs to be done. However, additional rights can be obtained
by registering the copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office. Also, a copyright must
be registered in order to sue a third party for copyright infringement of such work.
More information on copyrights and how they may be registered is available from
the website for the U.S. Copyright Office at https://www.copyright.gov/.

It is important to remember that a work is protected by copyright even if you
have purchased a copy of the work, or it is publicly available. Thus, when you

WASHINGTON NONPROFIT HANDBOOK -250- 2018