Law Briefs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Law Briefs - Essay Example rict Court had correctly dismissed the defendants’ counterclaim because the burden of proof of existence of a valid copyright rests with the copyright claimant, however the defendants did not provide any substantive support for their claim of copyright. Mr. Brown was also able to present documentation regarding the poems, their publication and musicalization. However the Court dismissed Brown’s motion for summary judgment on the basis that some material facts remained unresolved This case is important in that it has established that valid evidence must be provided to support a claim for copyright infringement before an infringement action can be allowed to proceed to a trial stage. It also raised the issue of expiry of copyright protection after a 50 year period, (currently raised to 70 years) after which period the musical, artistic or dramatic work reverts to the public domain. Copyrights, trademarks and patents differ in the level of protection they provide. For instance, copyright protection for a literary, dramatic or musical work may extend to seventy years while a patent on an industrial or commercial design may offer a short term 20 year period of exclusive monopoly over a product and a trademark will extend that monopoly only to a particular category of goods2. Patents and trademarks must be renewed each year. Title that is provided to the owner of a real property is permanent, however intellectual property protection is limited to a certain duration in the scope of its protection. The reason is that ownership to real property comprises rights on a specific piece of fixed property in a specific location, such as a building or land which is permanent. However, where a dramatic, musical or literary work is concerned, this comprises a work of art which should properly fall into the public domain and be available for humankind to enjoy, benefit from and further create and modify. Yet at the same time, every creator of an original work has a moral right