Category Archives: Copyright

USPTO and Copyright Office Jointly Seek Public Comment on NFTs and IP

by Christina Frangiosa

On November 23, 2022, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) and the Copyright Office issued a joint request for public comment regarding the interplay between non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and intellectual property law and policy issues.

This request for comment comes in response to a June 9, 2022 letter sent by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) on behalf of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Intellectual Property to the USPTO and the Copyright Office, which letter requested that the agencies undertake a study of IP law and policy issues relating to NFTs, and more broadly consider “how best to secure [IP] rights for emerging technologies”. The letter requested a reply by July 9 – and completion of this study by no later than June 9, 2023.

In particular, the Senators requested that the joint study “address the following list of non-exclusive factors”, and invited the agencies to add additional topics for review: Continue reading …

Common Questions: What Kind of IP Protection Should I Pursue?

by Christina Frangiosa

We frequently receive questions from business owners asking for intellectual property (“IP”) advice that combine legally unrelated terms, such as asking whether they should “copyright their logo”, or “trademark their idea”, or “get a patent on their design”.*  While it’s possible for IP owners to “layer” their protection – in other words, the same design might be protected under copyright and trademark law, and the same product configuration might be subject to a design patent as well as copyright and/or trademark protection – in many cases, a rights holder may only be exploring one kind of IP protection at a given time. This post is intended to simply define basic terms (particularly under U.S. law) to help foster conversations regarding obtaining the right protections for your IP – but if you need specific advice about what kinds of IP rights apply to your specific circumstances, you should talk with a lawyer who has experience in this area.

* Note that in some circumstances, it is possible to obtain a design patent – so asking to “patent a design” does not necessarily lead to an impossibility or a mismatch between the type of work and the applicable law. However, a mismatch occurs when the question asks whether unique artwork could be patented – where the questioner was really asking about obtaining a utility patent to protect an artistic work that has no functional elements. Continue reading …

CARES Act Permits Extensions of Statutory Deadlines for Patent, Trademark and Copyright Matters

by Christina Frangiosa

The “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” (or the “CARES Act”) has been approved by both the House and Senate, and was signed by President Trump on March 27, 2020.

While the Act significantly impacts employers, employees and individuals alike, this article will address only the impacts of the Act on the U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), and the newly granted authority of the Register of Copyrights and the Director of the USPTO to amend certain timeframes to deal with the coronavirus and the effects of business closures around the country.

USPTO’s Initial Response to COVID-19

At the beginning the coronavirus outbreak, the USPTO released a statement that confirmed it considers the effects of COVID-19 to be an “extraordinary situation,” but rather than putting a moratorium on official deadlines or suspending current activities before the USPTO, the USPTO would simply “waive petition fees” relating to inadvertently abandoned or cancelled patents or trademark applications/registrations due to the coronavirus. The USPTO further acknowledged that it would not grant waivers, extensions of deadlines or any relaxation of requirements set by statute. We practitioners have heard many times that in the absence of any delegation of specific authority by the legislature, the USPTO cannot amend any statutory deadline.

According to the “Official Notice” in its March 16 statement, the USPTO would waive the filing fees for trademark applicants or registrants to petition the Director to revive an application or a registration that was abandoned/cancelled due to the inability to respond to an Office communication “due to the effects of the Coronavirus outbreak,” provided that such requests were filed within two months after the issuance of the notice of abandonment/cancellation and provided that these petitions included a statement about how the applicant/registrant was affected by the outbreak. (Official Notice at 2).

With respect to patent filings, the USPTO placed even more restrictions: the petition fee would be waived, but only if the patent applicant or patent owner was unable to respond (or was delayed in responding) to an Office communication “because the practitioner, applicant, or at least one inventor, was personally affected by the Coronavirus outbreak such that they were unable to file a timely reply.” (Id. at 1). The petition filed must include a statement that the delay in filing the reply to the Office’s communication was due to the impacts of coronavirus on the filer.

In both cases, the USPTO made it clear that statutorily-set deadlines – such as (a) the deadline to file a nonprovisional application based on a prior-filed foreign patent application, (b) the full 36-month period in which to file a statement of use for a trademark application, (c) the deadline to file declarations of continued use under Section 8, or (d) the deadline to oppose a trademark application – could not be extended by the USPTO and would remain in force. (Id. at 3)

CARES Act – Copyright Office Deadline Extensions

The Copyright Office did not announce any suspension of deadlines for applications filed with the Office as a result of the coronavirus – but instead simply announced on March 13, 2020 that the physical Office would be closed to the public and all applications and other filings could still be made through the Copyright Office’s online systems.

The Senate’s March 25, 2020 amendment to the prior House version of the CARES Act includes a delegation of authority to the Register of Copyrights to permit extensions of deadlines under certain circumstances, under a provision entitled, “National Emergency Relief Authority for the Register of Copyrights.”  Specifically, Senate Amendment 1578 (Section 19011 at p. 84 of 96) permits the Register of Copyrights to extend certain deadlines with the following caveats:

  • The Register must determine that a national emergency “generally disrupt[s] or suspend[s] the ordinary functioning of the copyright systems, or any component thereof”.
  • The “national emergency” must be declared by the President under the National Emergencies Act (50 USC § 1601 et seq.).
  • A national emergency that disrupts or suspends the copyright systems on only a regional basis could still qualify as a “national emergency” permitting the extension of deadlines.
  • The extensions of deadlines could include a toll, waiver, adjustment or modification of “any timing provision including any deadline or effective period” provided that these extensions are only temporary and last no longer than the “Register reasonably determines to be appropriate to mitigate the disruption caused by the national emergency”.
  • The Register’s authority to amend deadlines can be retroactive, provided that the “deadline has not already passed before the declaration of a national emergency described in subsection (a) of this Section.

The Amendment clarifies that statutes of limitation (by which civil actions must be commenced or federal court actions filed) cannot be extended by this provision. Id. § (d).

CARES Act – USPTO Deadline Extensions

The temporary authority given to the USPTO Director to respond to an emergency is more narrowly defined than that under the Copyright Office section. In a section entitled “Temporary Authority of Director of the USPTO During COVID-19 Emergency,” Senate Amendment 1578 (Section 12004 at p. 66 of 96) permits the USPTO Director to “toll, waive, adjust or modify any timing deadline” established by the Patent Act (Title 35), the Trademark Act (15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq.), Section 18 of the America Invents Act (35 U.S.C. § 321) “or regulations promulgated thereunder” if the Director determines that an “emergency” (as defined under subsection (e)) has the following effects:

  1. “materially affects the functioning of the” USPTO;
  2. “prejudices the rights of applicants, registrants, patent owners, or others appearing before the Office” (which presumably would include litigants in inter partes proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) or the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB)); or
  3. “prevents applicants, registrants, patent owners or others appearing before the Office from filing a document or fee with the Office.”

Id. § (a). Item 3 is not broad enough to allow the Director to extend deadlines simply due to computer system failures at the USPTO (unless they happen to occur during the COVID-19 outbreak, during the national emergency declared by the President on March 13, 2020 or during any other emergency covered by this Section). Id.

Note that the “emergency” to which this Section applies “includes” (but does not appear limited to) the emergency declared by President Trump “pursuant to the National Emergencies Act on March 13, 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak (and any renewal thereof)” and continues for a 60-day period following such declaration. Id. § (e). The authority granted by this Section expires two years after the date of its enactment. Id. § (g).

Unlike the Copyright Section, this Section does not explicitly preclude the Director of the USPTO from retroactively impacting a deadline that has already passed, although one might interpret the timing of the emergency period as beginning “on or after the date of enactment of this Section” as limiting the Director to only change current or prospective deadlines. Compare Section 19011(b) (Copyright Office provisions) with Section 12004(e) (USPTO provisions).

NEXT STEPS

Now that the final bill has been signed into law, one would expect to see official announcements from both the USPTO and the Copyright Office to identify particular extensions to be expected for specified periods of time.

One confusing provision in both the Copyright Office and the USPTO provisions is that the Register/Director is required to submit a Report to Congress no later than 20 days after the termination to change the deadlines under this Act is made – but only if the extension of time is “in effect for a consecutive or cumulative period exceeding 120 days”. Id. § (c). Assuming the timing glitch is adjusted appropriately, then the Report must contain a description of the action taken, relevant background and a rationale for why the adjustment was made. Id.

(Once the Public Law version of the bill is available, this post will be updated with a link to it.)

Are There Deadlines to File Copyright Infringement Suits?

by Christina Frangiosa

This article is the second in a series, analyzing the Supreme Court’s decision in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC., issued on March 4, 2019.

In the briefing submitted to the Supreme Court in connection with the Fourth Estate case, the petitioner argued that a determination that the registration certificates were required before filing suit would dramatically constrict a copyright owner’s ability to stop infringements and enforce its rights in court, given the statutory time limit in which to file suit. Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, No. 17-571, 2019 WL 1005829 at ¶ 20 (U.S. Mar. 4, 2019).  The Court dismissed this concern as “overstated,” noting that “the average processing time for registration applications is currently seven months.” Id.

However, the presence of a three-year statute of limitations on filing copyright infringement actions should instruct copyright owners to be diligent in policing their rights and seeking registration as soon as possible – or at least as soon as possible after infringement has occurred (if the infringed work was not already registered), so that the owner is not precluded from recovering its actual damages or enjoining further infringement. 17 U.S.C. § 507(b) (“No civil action shall be maintained under the provisions of this title unless it is commenced within three years after the claim accrued.”) (emphasis added).

When Does a “Claim” Accrue?

The date when a copyright infringement claim accrues is also the subject of a circuit split – so copyright owners must also pay attention to the rule that applies in their jurisdiction. Continue reading …

Copyright Registration Certificate Must be “In Hand” Before Filing Infringement Suit

by Christina Frangiosa

This article is the first in a series, discussing the Supreme Court’s decision in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC. issued on March 4, 2019.

Resolving a long-standing circuit split over whether copyright owners must have a copyright registration certificate in hand before filing a copyright infringement suit, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it’s not sufficient to have simply filed a completed application, but that the Copyright Office must act on the application, either to grant or to refuse registration, before a copyright owner can commence a lawsuit to combat infringement. Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, No. 17-571, 2019 WL 1005829 (U.S. Mar. 4, 2019).

Copyright Registration – “Keys to the Courthouse”

Registration of a copyright in a work has long been considered the “keys to the courthouse” for copyright owners – meaning that while creative works written after 1978 were automatically protected by the Copyright Act (Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186, 195 (2003) (confirming that “federal copyright protection . . . runs from the work’s creation”)), their owners could not sue for infringement until those works were registered with the Copyright Office. 17 U.S.C. § 501(b) (providing a private right of action for infringement of a copyright); id. § 411(a) (requiring registration before copyright owner was permitted to institute suit).

Incentives to Prompt Registration – Before Infringement

The Act provides several additional incentives for owners to apply for registration with the Copyright Office as soon as possible. In particular, if a work that has been registered is later infringed, the rights holder could recover statutory damages of up to $30,000 per work infringed (or up to $150,000 per work if the infringement were proven to be willful) and could recover its reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred in connection with enforcing its rights if it prevails in the case. Id. §§ 504(c), 505. Statutory damages and attorney’s fees are not available unless the work had been registered before the infringement occurred or within three months after first publication of the work. Id. § 412(2).

Prior Circuit Split – “Registration” versus “Application” Approaches

Until now, federal courts were split on the issue of whether a registration certificate was required (the “registration approach”) or whether it was sufficient to have submitted a completed application with the mandatory deposit copies and the correct filing fee to the Copyright Office for consideration (the “application approach”) before filing a complaint in federal court. Fourth Estate, 2019 WL 10055829, ¶ 4 (confirming that certiorari was granted to “resolve a division among U.S. Courts of Appeals on when registration occurs in accordance with § 411(a)); see also Cosmetic Ideas, Inc. v. IAC/Interactivecorp, 606 F.3d 612, 615-16 (9th Cir. 2010) (collecting cases and noting circuit split); Zaslow v. Coleman, 103 F. Supp. 3d 657, 663 (E.D. Pa. 2015) (“Courts are divided over whether merely applying to the Copyright Office (the ‘application’ approach), or whether the Office issuing the registration (the ‘registration’ approach), sufficiently satisfies § 411.”). Continue reading …