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official functions of the employee, in cases in which such functions included research and development, or in the making of which Government time, materials, or facilities were used."
time of taking effect
Sec. 233. This title shall take effect one year after enactment of this Act.
no retroactive effect
Sec. 234. Protection under this title shall not be available for any design that has been made public as provided in section 209(b) prior to the effective date of this title.
short title
Sec. 235. This title may be cited as “The Design Protection Act of 1975”.
Purpose
The purpose of the proposed legislation, as amended, is to provide in Title I for a general revision of the United States Copyright Law, title 17 of the United States Code, Title II of the bill creates a new type of protection for ornamental designs of useful articles.
Statement
The present Copyright Law of the United States is essentially that enacted by the Congress in 1909. Many significant developments in technology and communications have rendered that law clearly inadequate to the needs of the country today.
The enactment of legislation “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries”, is one of the powers of the Congress enumerated in Article I, section 8 of the Constitution. Some commentators on the Congress in recent years have expressed concern that the legislative branch has too frequently yielded the initiative in legislative matters to the executive branch. This legislation is exclusively the product of the legislative branch and has received detailed consideration over a period of several years.
The origin of this legislation can ultimately be traced to the Legislative Appropriations Act of 1955 which appropriated funds for a comprehensive program of research and study of copyright law revision by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress. This committee’s Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights published a series of 34 studies on all aspects of copyright revision, which were prepared under the supervision of the Copyright Office. In 1961 the Congress received the “Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law.” The Copyright Office subsequently conducted a series of panel meetings on copyright law revision. On July 20, 1964, Senator John L. McClellan, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights, introduced, at the request of the Librarian of Congress, S. 3008 of the 88th Congress, for the general revision of the copyright law. No action was taken on this bill prior to the adjournment of the Congress.
In the 1st session of the 89th Congress, Senator McClellan, again introduced at the request of the Librarian of Congress, a general copy-
