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Inspiration versus IP Infringement

04 Mar Blurry Line Between Inspiration and IP Infringement

Posted at 06:00h in Intellectual Property by

“Blurred Lines” singers Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke recently learned just how blurry the line between intellectual property right infringement and creative inspiration can truly be. A jury controversially awarded $7.3 million to the Marvin Gaye estate after finding that Williams and Thicke infringed the copyrighted sheet music for Marvin Gaye’s song, “Got to Give it Up”­– a claim the singers strongly refute.

Confused? You’re not alone: the line between inspiration and property infringement can indeed be fuzzy, even for experts. Patents are complex and contain language meant to hide innovation. Copyrighted works can be difficult to find because everything since 1989 is copyrighted automatically and not all copyrights have been registered. Trademarks can take hours to search through and compare.

Understanding Intellectual Property Rights Basics

Here’s an easy way to think about intellectual property rights: consider how mining rights were developed. A prospector would discover a piece of land to mine and the government would allow the prospector to ‘stake a claim’ and exclusively mine his claim. Patent claims are similar in that they exclude others, in this case using words as boundaries to define the claim instead of physical markers. Claims are the only enforceable part of a patent and they draw the legal boundary of ownership.

Patent infringement is “the act of making, using, selling, or offering to sell a patented invention—without the permission of the patent owner.” Similarly, copyright infringement is the “unauthorized use, reproduction, distribution, display, or performance of a protected work” and trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark.

Next Steps: Minimizing the Risk for Infringement

Here’s how to minimize your litigation risk and determine if your inspiration has a legal pathway to commercial success:

  • Assume your work is not unique. Start from the assumption that a significant number of innovations covered by intellectual property rights protections already exist.
  • Do your research. Research your art to determine if your inspiration risks infringing another’s property. Publicly available tools can aid your research including Patent General Info, Patent Search, Google Patent Search, Trademark General Info, Trademark Search, and Copyright Search.
  • Protect yourself. Even if your art is unintentionally close to infringing another property, ask the property owner permission. They are not required to give you permission (or sell a license) but it’s better to check first (and change your own work, as necessary) rather than be sued after the fact.
Intellectual property rights can be confusing. When in doubt, consult a lawyer for expert advice specific to your needs.
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