The United States, joining WIPO in 1970, is a member of key intellectual property-related multilateral bodies, including: Berne Convention, Brussels Convention, Budapest Treaty, Madrid Protocol, Paris Convention, Patent Cooperation Treaty, Trademark Law Treaty, WTO TRIPs Agreement, and the like.

American IP law is grounded in the idea of achieving economic benefit and increasing the amount of innovation and creative works available to the people. In U.S. common law system, federal IP law is directly permitted by the Constitution for copyrights and patents. For trademarks and other forms of IP, however, the federal government only has the authority to make law to regulate commerce. Since state laws are still important for IP law, it is therefore important to note that a person's rights and obligations can only be completely understood with reference to both federal and state law.

The congress has delegated regulatory authority relevant to IP to several federal agencies, among which U.S. Copyright Office and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are the major two. The former, under the Library of Congress, registers claims of copyright and records copyright transfers. USPTO, under the Department of Commerce, grants U.S. patents, registers trademarks, and hears certain disputes through either the Patent Trial or Appeal Board (PTAB) or Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).

Patent

The America Invents Act (AIA) (enforced in March 2013) moved the U.S. from the first-to-invent patent system to the more common first-inventor-to-file system, where priority is based on the date of application. Moreover, the AIA also brought another 3 fundamental changes to US patent law: adding four new procedures to challenge the validity of a patent; strengthening some infringement pleadings while canceling or alleviating some other pleadings; ruling out some patentable subjects. USPTO issues patent certificates for the following three types of patents in the US:

　　·Utility Patents: Utility patent is the most common and most beneficial type for inventors. Only functional inventions can apply for utility patents. Process, machine, article of manufacture, composition of matter, or improvement thereof can be granted patents.

·Design Patent: Only the appearance design can apply for patent. The protection for design patent is limited to the appearance of commodities shown in the design.

·Patent for plant: Any distinct and new variety of asexually-reproduced plant, excluding tuber-propagated plants can be granted patents. One plant can only apply for one patent. The United States does not protect utility model.

Duration of Patent Protection

Utility and plant patent that files patent application on and after June 8, 1995 enjoys the patent protection period of 20 years starting from the date of actual application. The protection duration for design patent is 14 years from the date of patent authorization.

For patent applications filed after May 29, 2000, USPTO makes appropriate adjustment on the duration of patent protection in accordance with the time delay made by USPTO or inventors.

For patents that filed applications before June 8, 1995 but got granted after June 8, 1995, or patent that are still valid on June 8, 1995, the patent protection duration will be the longer one of the following 2 terms: 17 years from the authorization date or 20 years from the application date.

Trademark

The current Trademark Law of the United States is the Lanham Act promulgated in 1948. The Act was last amended in October 1982. The trademark register by USPTO is divided into 2 kinds: principal register and supplemental register. At present, the majority of applications are for principal register. If the application is not accepted because of some reason, the applicant may re-register the trademark for supplemental register. 5 trademark samples shall be submitted in either principal register or supplemental register.

In accordance with the Lanham Act, trademarks or service marks of the goods or services designated by producers or sellers, which can distinguish the producers or sellers of the goods or services as well as distinguish the goods or services from those provided by other producers or sellers, are eligible to apply for principal register. The marks that can merely “distinguish between the applicant’s goods or services” can only apply for supplemental register.

Principal register has the procedure of opposition. If anyone thinks that the trademark in the Official Gazette will damage his interests, he may submit the opposition letter to the Appeal Board within 30 days after the Official Gazette is released. Supplemental register has no opposition procedure, but there is trademark revocation procedure, which is also published on the Official Gazette. Anyone who thinks the supplemental register damages his benefits may ask for repeal of this supplemental register.

Duration of Trademark Protection

The United States adopts the use approach for trademark protection. The duration of trademark protection is 10 years from the registration date, and it can be extended several times with each extension of 10 years. If the trademark has been used in the United States, application can be filed in accordance with the actual use. But related evidence as well as the date of use in the United States shall be submitted at the same time.

Copyright

The first copyright law issued by the Congress was the Copyright Act in 1790. Since then, many new versions have been released in response to the emergence of new technologies, and the copyright protection duration has also been extended.

U.S. copyright law does not distinguish between copyrights and related rights. This law is based on the utilitarian concept that copyright should promote the creation of works rather than protect the personal rights of the author, which is established in the Constitution; "to promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts." Thus, the United States recognizes only minimal moral rights of authors as part of copyright law, which, however, could still be protected by laws external to the Copyright Code. Also, this understanding has led to the principle of fair use.

Copyright is automatic from the moment of creation of an original work of authorship; however, unlike other countries, in US, registration with the Copyright Office is beneficial in cases of litigation over the copyright and is necessary to obtain statutory damages in cases of infringement. In many cases, registration is required before suing an infringer, although registration does not alter the existence of protection.

In August 2008, the Federal Court of Appeal recognized for the first time open-source protocol as copyright agreement in the case of Jacobsen v. Katzer.

The latest copyright law provides that the copyright protection period is 70 years after the author’s death, which is 20 years longer than the international practice regulated by Berne Convention. The copyright protection period is from 75 to 95 years if the work is collective work or was published before January 1st, 1978. Works published before 1923 belong to public domain.

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