US VIRGIN ISLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Marjorie (Jorie) Roberts, Duncan J.J. Kessler and Jessica McKenney, Marjorie Rawls Roberts PC
US patent grants are effective only within the United States, US territories and US possessions. To apply for a provisional or a non-provisional pat - ent, an inventor may file a paper or online application. Once a patent is issued, the patentee must enforce the patent without aid of the USPTO. 7.2 Trade Marks A trade mark is a device, name, symbol or word used with goods to designate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from goods of others. A ser - vice mark identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods. The purpose of apply - ing and obtaining trade mark or service mark rights is to prevent others from using a confusingly similar trade mark or service mark. It does not prevent oth - ers from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a different trade mark or service mark. Trade mark registrations can be filed by paper or online. A registered trade mark requires regular maintenance. Six years after the registration date, a Declaration of Use or Excusable Non-Use must be filed with appli - cable fees and evidence showing that the trade mark is in use. If this declaration is not filed, the registration is cancelled. The Madrid Protocol is a filing treaty to ensure protec - tion for trade marks in multiple countries through filing one application. It is the right of each country whether or not trade mark protection is granted. If granted, the trade mark is protected in that country. 7.3 Industrial Designs Industrial design is a combination of applied art and science to improve a product in its function, aesthet - ics, usability and ergonomics. The Hague Agreement is an international registration system which offers the possibility of obtaining protection for up to 100 industrial designs in designated member countries and intergovernmental organisations (referred to as “Contracting Parties”) by filing a single international application in a single language either directly with the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization or indirectly through the office of appli - cant’s Contracting Party.
Applicants can file international design applications through the USPTO as an office of indirect filing. Industrial design patents have a 15-year term from issuance. 7.4 Copyright Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of “original works of authorship” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. The 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copy - righted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, and to display the copyrighted work publicly. The copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing. For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description; it would not prevent others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the machine. Copyrights are registered by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress, and applicants may file paper or online applications. For works created after 1 January 1978, a copyright is good for 70 years after the death of the author. 7.5 Others A person, association or entity doing business in the USVI under any name other than its own, whether they are a resident or non-resident, must have their trade- name approved, file an application for the tradename, and pay a USD50 fee to the Office of the Lieuten - ant Governor of the USVI, Division of Corporations & Trademarks. The application should set forth the name or style under which said business will be known, the location of the business, a brief description of the kind of business to be transacted under the tradename, and the real name or names of the party or parties conducting or intending to conduct business and the addresses of the party or parties. The application must be notarised before an officer authorised by the laws of the USVI to authenticate signatures. A certificate of tradename is issued for a period of two years and is renewable. If the party or parties fail to
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