The U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and recently hosted a roundtable to discuss the potential for creating a more affordable small claims system that would avoid pricing out small publishers and rights owners wishing to protect their intellectual property rights. The discussion, which was conducted at George Washington University Law School, included several prominent intellectual property experts.
David Kappos, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, explained that small rights holders have long believed that litigation in Federal courts is not a viable option due to the significant expenses involved and that small rights holders are priced out of the market. He described the need to protect content creators and to provide a model for other countries around the world. U.S. Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante explained that small presses and small rights holders are also priorities at the Copyright Office and that their experiences with Google Books - - the Google Inc. service that searches full text of scanned books and magazines in its digital database - - and resulting disputes and tensions between Google and copyright owners was instructive.
The discussions focused on copyright and patent rights and breakout sessions were conducted in each of those areas. Pallante noted that the Copyright Office is conducting a study related to the issues, which is expected to be submitted to Congress next Fall. The USPTO promises to continue to work on these issues with the Copyright Office and Kappos has invited people interested in the issue to post comments here.
Posts
