CLaudia Holland

January 27, 2009

Claudia Holland, currently head of the Copyright Resources office, discussed the challenges and obstacles surrounding the world of patents and protections, with George Mason University students on January 27.

Holland explained Article II, section 8 (http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#A1Sec8) of the Constitution with students, elaborating on the different restrictions that it pertained to such as limited times and exclusive rights.

Leading off of this original discussion, Holland explained the traits surrounding copyright, which are expression, originality and fixation meaning that the work had to be written, recorded or tangible. Meaning anything that can be put through the patent and trademarks office, it has to be original and physical, not just an idea.

Copyright, she explained, “depends on how long ago it was created for it to last” which is usually your lifetime plus 70-years. This can be seen from the case of Mickey Mouse in which the copyright issues around his character were extended to corporate authorship. This was called Mickey Mouse Protection Act,

(http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/09/28/free_mickey/) under this Act, additional works made in 1923 or afterwards that were still copyrighted in 1998 will not enter the public domain until 2019 or afterwards (depending on the date of the product) unless the owner of the copyright releases them into the public domain prior to that or if the copyright gets extended again.

This brings us to the point of the discussion of fair use, in which individuals are given the right to use copyrighted works. The fair use clause depends upon the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the work, and the amount and substantiality of the portion used.
The fair use clause is supported by these applications, Criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. (More on this subject can be found here: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html)

In closing she continued to focus on infringement cases and how different copyright clauses can be used to help or curb claims against the defendant. The use of intellectual property and patent lawyers and discussions on the ways in which the patent office works.