Page 9 - Reading Success B7

Patents and copyrights are legal protection against theft of intellectual property.
Just as you would not want anyone to steal your computer, you would not want
anyone to claim credit for a song you wrote or a gadget you invented. This is why

there are patents and copyrights. They protect composers, artists, inventors, and
writers from those who would use their work without paying.

A patent is a grant (like a contract) issued by a government of a country. It
protects inventions from being copied and used by others. Newly manufactured
products, machines, designs, and even processes can be patented. A government
will only grant patents to an invention that is both useful and brand new, so
sometimes it may take several years before an invention is patented. Patents

issued by a government only protect against misuse in the issuing government’s
country. If you want to protect your invention in other countries you must be
granted patents by that country’s government.

U.S. patents are granted to inventors for 17 years. During this time, all others in
the country cannot make, use, or sell his or her invention without the inventor’s
consent. Patents on designs only last for 14 years. Just as patents protect

inventors, copyrights protect authors of literary, dramatic, musical, and other
artistic works. Copyrights grant the owner certain exclusive rights to their work.
They retain the exclusive right to print, reprint, copy, transform, revise, perform
and record the work. If anyone violates these rights without the owner of the
copyright’s permission the owner can sue them. In the U.S. a copyright lasts from

the day the work is published with the notice of copyright until 50 years after the
creator’s death.

Most countries have copyright laws that protect creative works published by

their own citizens. Only the author, or those who are given the right by the author,
can legally claim a copyright. It is fairly common for a work’s publisher, rather than
a work’s author to obtain the copyright.

Main Idea

What is the main idea of this story?

a. the difference between patents and copyrights

b. what patents and copyrights are and how they work
c. why publishers of a work often obtain the copyright

d. how to obtain a patent or a copyright

12_Reading Success B 7