I wrote:
Intellectual property rights do not just evaporate or return to the public domain when a company disappears -- SOMEONE owns them
Poul replied:
Actually, they do evaporate if nobody defends them.
Yes and no (under US law). If someone openly and notoriously infringes IP rights for a significant period of time, some remedies may be foreclosed if the rights holder does not have a good explanation for not defending them. But a rights holder almost never loses all rights, and the retained rights are often sufficient to make life at least somewhat uncomfortable for the infringer going forward. Furthermore, any such diminution of rights is not automatic -- one can never be certain of it until a controversy arises and a court renders judgment (i.e., you have to pay to see the rights holder's hand, just as in poker), and this is one of the areas of US IP law where there are significant inconsistencies from one case to the next -- so it is very hard for even experienced practitioners to predict outcomes.
Best regards, Charles _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
