It’s been ten years! It is a long time. Ten years is the initial term of trademark registration. It’s half the time for utility patents granted. A marriage can reach 10 years. According to one internet source (www.CreditDonkey.com), about 70% of U.S. married couples make it to their 10th anniversary (we were sort of surprised by this, thinking it would be a lower percentage).
We celebrate anniversaries as a society all the time. Each birthday celebration is a celebration for another year’s success. We also observe annual deaths remembrances. These include November 22 (JFK’s Assassination), December 7th (Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day), and September 11th (Patriot Day). National holidays are designated for important dates in each country’s history and culture. You can think of the Independence Day in the United States, Victoria Day in Canada, and the Dragon Boat Festival (China) as examples.
We are proud to celebrate 10 years of Attorney at Law Magazine’s monthly thoughts on intellectual property (IP). It seems like a long time ago that our first column appeared in December 2012. 2012 was the year (1) of President Obama’s reelection; (2) of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebration (60 years on her throne); and (3) of the end of the Mayan calendar.
We are grateful to you for reading our monthly IP column. And happy that you made it this far. We are grateful for your support and readership. The authorship journey has been a joyful and pleasant one, even when opposing counsel tried to sabotage our words – see “How to Kill a Patent,” September 2016. It was an extraordinary experience. But enough with the hand-shaking, pats-on-the-back stuff and self-congratulations. Let’s return to the reason we are all here: a discussion on IP anniversaries.
What does it mean to have an anniversary in intellectual property?
TRADE SECRETS
Here are no celebrations of an anniversary. Trade secrets do not have expiration, filing or issue dates. They are not something that anyone should know, and they shouldn’t be celebrated publicly on an annual basis.
TRADEMARKS
There are no annual celebrations, but the 10-year renewal date for registered marks is something to remember. If a trademark registration expires on its 10-year anniversary, it can result in the loss of rights or even a significant impairment.
PATENTS
There are no annual anniversaries in America, but many countries require that a “patent anuity” (read as a tax for patent owners) be paid to their local patent office to keep a patent application pending and a patent in force for the following year (of the full 20-year term). The patent affected will expire if the patent annuity isn’t paid, or in the U.S., if any of the three maintenance fees due during a U.S. utility license are not paid), which happens also at the end the patent’s full 20 year term. Patent owners (wistfully) don’t celebrate the expiration of their patents, but infringers-in-waiting might do so. This is a huge deal in generic drug industry. See, for instance, stories about Viagra, Lyrica, and Lipitor falling off the “Patent Cliff”.
Copyrights
Disney and the U.S. have made copyright protection last a long time thanks to them. Annual celebrations are not observed by Congressman Sony Bono. The U.S. copyright community is growing to embrace “Public Domain Day”. According to U.S. copyright laws, January 1 marks the day that expired copyright works are legally made public. The copyright rights to Disney’s original Mickey Mouse iteration – “Steamboat Willie”, – become public domain on January 1, 2024.
Ten years – That’s how many years we’ve been writing about you. Hallmark says that gifts of aluminum can be used to celebrate a 10th anniversary. Hey! We like beer in aluminum cans! Just say ‘…
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