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Examination

Trade-marks : The process through which the Trademark Office determines whether an application for trade-mark is registrable.

Design Patent: The process through which the Patent Office determines whether a design warrants protection. The main objective is to determine whether the design is indeed design subject matter, that it is original, and that the documentation meets the requirements of the Patent Statutes.

Exception : A provision in a copyright law permitting the use of a work by defined user groups without the consent of its creator or without the payment of royalties, conditions that would normally constitute an infringement of copyright. Examples of user groups benefiting from exceptions are educational institutions, libraries, museums, archives and persons with a perceptual disability.