The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992

The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (AHRA) is an amendment to the United States Federal Copyright Act of 1976. It provides that parties who import or manufacture "digital audio recording devices and media" must make payments to the United States Copyright Office. These payments are meant to act as the royalties that those who have copyrighted music have presumably lost through the consumer use of digital audio recording devices. The royalty fees are invested in specific U.S. securities and then disbursed to copyright holders yearly through the U.S. Copyright Office

Display Rights

The Copyright Act confers upon copyright owners the right to publicly display certain types of works. This right may be claimed in literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works and in pantomimes, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works as well as in the individual images of motion pictures and other audiovisual works.

Patent Maintenance Fees

Utility patents apply to inventions and processes and are distinguished from design and plant patents. Under current patent law, the term of a new utility patent is 20 years, during which the patent holder has the right to exclude others from using, making, selling, or distributing the invention or process. However, for utility patents based on applications filed on or after December 12, 1980, the 20-year patent term is subject to the payment of maintenance fees.

Restoration from Public Domain

A provision for the restoration of foreign works from public domain status in the United States was included in the 1994 Uruguay Round Agreements Act. The provision went into effect on January 1, 1996, and applies to members of the Berne Convention, members of the World Trade Organization, and countries specifically extended protection by presidential proclamations.

Patent Law

It has been held by the United States Supreme Court that laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas may not be the subject of a patent. The reasoning behind this rule is that laws of nature and abstract ideas are not created; rather, they exist independent of any person and are merely described by the person that discovers them. Included in the types of abstract ideas for which patents may not be obtained are mathematical formulae and algorithms, which are sets of steps or procedures designed to solve a problem.