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You have learned that creators of intellectual property protect their work by applying for a
patent. The patent protects the property by not allowing anyone other than the creator to make it or sell it. Because patents have time limits, they enter the public domain when they expire or are over.

Public domain refers to intellectual property that is no longer protected by a patent. People and companies in the public can now make, use, or sell the invention without the patent holder’s permission. An exception applies to trademarks or brand names, which can be renewed as long as the trademark is in use.

For example, Johnson and Johnson makes “Tylenol” and holds a patent on the trademark name “Tylenol”.  Other companies can make the non-aspirin formula, but they cannot call it “Tylenol”. They have to use a different name called a generic name.

However, sometimes brand names become generic through common usage.  This means that people start calling a product by its trademark.  When this happens, the United States courts can rule that the trademark itself is now generic or so common that it cannot be protected.  Examples of trademarks becoming generic names include Q-tips, Band-Aids, and Jello.  Companies do not like when their trademarks become generic because they no longer have ownership rights.

There are 3 different categories of intellectual property that enter the public domain at different times.  First, there are chemical, mechanical, and electrical inventions, which enter the public domain after 20 years.  Second, copyright materials such as computer software, music and books, which enter the public domain 70 years after the death of the author. Finally, trademarks enter the public domain only when the trademark is not registered again, or the trademark becomes a generic word.

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