Pineola is an unincorporated community in Avery County, North Carolina; generally spanning out in a three mile radius from the intersection of US highway US 221 and NC 181. The area was originally known as "Saginaw" until the early 20th century. Pineola is the site of several businesses including an asphalt plant, a concrete plant, a sawmill, and a small hotel. The Linville River flows through the area, and is impounded by a dam into a small lake for a resort community. The Blue Ridge Parkway passes through the southeast portion of the area. During the early 1900s it was notably the site of a large logging operation and sawmill, owned by the W.M. Ritter Company. The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad ("Tweetsie") operated into the community until 1939, when it received permission, by the Interstate Commerce Commission, to abandon Pineola.

What is intellectual property law?

Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets. Intellectual property law involves advising and assisting individuals and businesses on the development, use, and protection of intellectual property -- which includes ideas, artistic creations, engineering processes, scientific inventions, and more.

Answers to intellectual property law issues in North Carolina

A patent is a document issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) that grants a monopoly for a limited...

Some types of inventions will not qualify for a patent, no matter how interesting or important they are. For example...

In the context of a patent application, an invention is considered novel when it is different from all...

Once a patent is issued, it is up to the owner to enforce it. If friendly negotiations fail, enforcement involves...

Patent protection usually ends when the patent expires.

For all utility patents filed before June 8, 1995,...

Typically, inventor-employees who invent in the course of their employment are bound by employment agreements that...

On its own, a patent has no value. A patent becomes valuable only when a patent owner takes action to profit from...

Copyright protects works such as poetry, movies, video games, videos, DVDs, plays, paintings, sheet music, recorded...

For works published after 1977, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. However, if the work...

The term "trademark" is commonly used to describe many different types of devices that label, identify, and...