Proposed Change to US Intellectual....
Posted to: The Google+ Heraldry Community
Posted by: Karl Wilcox
Created on: December 21 2013 at 19:11
Proposed Change to US Intellectual Property Law
Heraldic law goes back a long way - the case of Scrope vs Grosvenor was heard in the Court of Chivalry in the year 1390 and concerned the ownership of the blazon Azure a bend or . Because this long history of cases and laws pre-dated any kind of Intellectual Property (IP) legislation, when those IP laws were drawn up they often specifically excluded anything to do with flags, seals or coats of arms, leaving all of that to the existing laws.
Recently however, some countries have started to unify these laws and treat Coats of Arms just like any other type of intellectual property and it looks like the US is going the same way with the bipartisan bill H.R 3713 simultaneously to the House of Congress and the Senate.
An interesting development, and probably a good thing as I presume it will clarify what constitutes "fair use" of a coat of arms (although I am not a lawyer, so I might be wrong on this!)
Heraldic law goes back a long way - the case of Scrope vs Grosvenor was heard in the Court of Chivalry in the year 1390 and concerned the ownership of the blazon Azure a bend or . Because this long history of cases and laws pre-dated any kind of Intellectual Property (IP) legislation, when those IP laws were drawn up they often specifically excluded anything to do with flags, seals or coats of arms, leaving all of that to the existing laws.
Recently however, some countries have started to unify these laws and treat Coats of Arms just like any other type of intellectual property and it looks like the US is going the same way with the bipartisan bill H.R 3713 simultaneously to the House of Congress and the Senate.
An interesting development, and probably a good thing as I presume it will clarify what constitutes "fair use" of a coat of arms (although I am not a lawyer, so I might be wrong on this!)
Trademark Bill to Allow Marks Consisting of Flag or Coat of Arms - IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Patent Law
Please Help!
DrawShield is a Free service supported by its users.
If you can, please help cover the cost of the server, or just buy the team a coffee to say thanks!
Buy me a coffee
