At 03:57 AM 9/4/2001 , someone wrote:
>Because Canon only recently "lost" its copyright on the USM and IS
You're saying that Canon's patent expired? Wow. Has USM really been around for 20
years? That's how long it takes for a patent to expire.
Copyright law gives creative artists (called "Authors" in the Constitution) the
exclusive right to their own artistic works for a limited period of time. Copyrights
can be transferred until 70 years after the author's death. After that time, the
artistic work goes into the public domain.
Patents allow the creator of inventions that contain new ideas to keep others from
making commercial use of those ideas without the creator's permission. Patents expire
after 20 years.
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