When new products are found to be useful, people usually are willing to pay for them. Most companies are reluctant to market products unprotected by copyright or patent. Under The University of Texas System Intellectual Property Policy, the inventor will share in royalties that may result from licensing patented or copyrighted materials. Patents and copyrights are legal mechanisms to protect intellectual property for limited time periods. Intellectual property protected by a patent or a copyright may not be used by any individual, other than the owner of the patent or copyright, except with the express permission of that owner.
Enforcement is in the federal courts.
In some instances, a constructive reduction to practice can be accomplished through the filing of a speculative patent application. Mental processes, theories, or ideas usually cannot be patented, and neither can discoveries of new laws of nature and naturally occurring articles. For example, a previously unknown non-manmade virus is not patentable, but a newly purified state of a known virus may be. Copyright gives the owner exclusive right to publish or copy the work. While copyright attaches upon creation of the work, legal enforcement of one's rights is possible only if the copyright is registered in the Copyright Office.