An Intellectual Property Rights Glossary
The following provides an overview of common Intellectual Property Rights terminology.
Collected Work: a compilation of several individual works that may each be protected by copyright; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Compilation: a work made up of preexisting data or materials selected and arranged in a creative and novel way so that the resulting work qualifies for copyright protection; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Compulsory license: a license created by Congress that allows certain parties the right to use copyrighted works without prior permission of the copyright holder in exchange for a specific royalty fee; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Contributory infringement: the act of contributing to or aiding the infringing acts of another person; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Copyright: a legal concept giving creator of an original work certain exclusive rights to the work for a limited time; See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
Creative Commons: a non-profit organization that promotes the creative reuse of intellectual works, whether owned or in the public domain, through the use of licenses that define the rights copyright holders choose to retain and those uses that may be made of copyrighted works without the prior permission of the copyright holder; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Derivative work: a copyrightable work based on an existing work, such as a translation or dramatization of a work. The right to create derivative works is an exclusive right of the copyright holder; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Digital Rights Management (DRM): "A system of information tehcnology components and services, along with corresponding law, policies and business models, which strive to distribute and control intellectual property and its rights. Product authenticity, user changes, terms-of-use and expiration of rights are typical concerns of DRM" (National Institute of Standards and Technology); See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Exclusive rights: the rights of the copyright holder to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, and display a work and to create derivative works based on the original; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Fair Use: a concept defined in section 107 of the copyright law that allows a user to exercise an exclusive right in certain circumstances without the prior authorization of the copyright holder and without paying a royalty or permission fee. Also the defense in an infringement suit; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Fixed in a tangible medium: the perceptible, physical form of creative expression, such as words in a book or music on a compact disc. Also one of the requirements for copyright protection; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Innocent infringement: a violation of copyright without knowing that one has done so; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Infringement: the act of violating one or more of a copyright holder's exclusive rights; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Intellectual Property (IP): an area of law encompassing copyright, patent, trademark and trade secrets; See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property
License: a formal grant of permission to use another's intellectual property in some way; See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License
Patent: a set of exclusive rights granted to an inventor for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an invention; See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent
Public display: a display of a work before a group larger than a family or a small group of friends or at a place open to the public; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Public domain: the realm of works not protected by copyright; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Public performance: performance before a group larger than a family or small groups of friends or in a place open to the public; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Right of attribution: a moral right that ensures that a creator is correctly identified with the work she creates and not identified with works she did not create; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Right of integrity: a moral right that protects works from modification, destructoin, distortion, and mutilation; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Trademark: a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization or other legal entity to identify uniquely the source of its products and/or services to consumers, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities (typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements); See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark
Trade Secret: a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers; See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_secret
Vicarious infringement: a person's liability for the infringing acts of another even though the person did not infringe them herself; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Work for hire: a copyrightable work created by an employee or a contractor hired to do so; See also Carrie Russell, 2004
Copyright & Publishing by Emory University Libraries' Intellectual Property Rights Office is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License