Intellectual Property Protection: Legal
Right Protection
by Margaret Wommack
Intellectual property, although intangible, is still
ownable and your intellectual property rights should be
protected. Modern business, especially since the rise
of the internet has seen a rise in the creation of intellectual
property. However the internet makes it even easier for
someone to steal your ideas and work. An intelectual property
lawyer who is trained to help reclaim patent, trademark,
copyright and trade secret rights can help protect your
intellectual property.
Types of intellectual property include patents, trademarks
and trade dress, copyrights, and trade secrets.
Patents
A patent is granted by the government allowing a (usually)
20 year monopoly on an invention previously “not
generally known.” Patents are intended to encourage
investment in research and development. If you create
a new useful process for doing something, a machine, manufacture,
or even an improvement on something already in existence,
you can patent your invention and prohibit others from
“making, using, offering for sale, or selling…or
importing” the invention in the U.S. Your right to
patent your invention is a constitutional right (Article
I, section 8). Patents are subdivided into three groups:
design, utility, and plant. Design patents protect innovations
in the appearance (although not the structure or function)
of an item. Utility patents are for wholly new inventions
including machines, industrial processes, compositions
of matter, and articles of manufacture. Plant patents
cover innovations in plant-life, such as new species of
plant created from the reproduction of cuttings and grafts
of existing plants.
Patent lawyers will research previously granted patents
for you to see if a similar product has already been patented
or whether you should apply for a patent for your invention.
A patent attorney will also tell you if your idea is not
patentable because it is a law of nature, a physical phenomena,
or abstract. You should find a specialized patent or intellectual
property attorney because in order to prosecute a client’s
patent application, he or she must be registered with
the U.S. patent office. A patent lawyer will also have
to have passed a science and engineering exam to better
understand and serve clients.
Trademarks
Trademarks are granted for words, names, symbols, or devices
which separate and distinguish businesses and services.
These include arbitrary names such as Kodak, suggestive
names such as Caterpillar (tractors), descriptive names
which indicated the business’ products or services,
and generic names which are descriptive. Generic and some
descriptive names cannot be protected, so a trademark
or intellectual property lawyer should be consulted to
see if your name qualifies for trademark rights. You can
also file an intent-to-use application to reserve a name
that will later be trademarked. (This is especially important
with the expansion of business on the internet.)
Trademark lawyers can also be sought to make sure that
your new business isn’t using a registered mark.
The consequences for using a registered mark, even though
you may have put money and advertising into promoting
your business, include being sued for infringement.
Copyrights
Copyrights protect the individual’s expression of
an idea, but do not protect the idea itself (see patent).
Copyrights are intended to promote scientific progress.
You can copyright your writing, performance (music, dance),
art, sound, compilations. You cannot copyright ideas or
uncompiled facts, words, or phrases (these could be registered
as trademarks, though, so consult an intelectual property
lawyer). If you come up with an idea or invention while
working for a company, it is able to be patented or trademarked
by the company you work for, but copyrightable work belongs
to you, the employee, not the company employing you. However,
there are loopholes, and an intellctaul proprty lawyer
will help you both with the process of getting your expression
copyrighted but will also save you trouble and time in
getting over road blocks.
If you are a company, you need an intellectual property
lawyer who specializes in copyrights because especially
with internet businesses, you will need to make sure that
contractually your web site design can be copyrighted
to your company and will not belong to the employee or
independent contractor who created it. This also applies
to software.
Trade Secrets
It is important to protect your business’ trade secrets
so they will not be misappropriated. Whereas patents have
a limited time of coverage and after 20 years are released,
trade secrets are always protected. To qualify as a trade
secret, it must have independent economic value to the
company. For example, the recipe for Coca-Cola is a trade
secret, not a patent, and therefore will never be released
because without maintaining the secrecy of the recipe,
the business would not be able to compete by offering
an individual product. GA
Contact an experienced Intellectual
Property Lawyer today.
Find an Intellectual Property Lawyer associated with a
major Intellectual Property Law Firm today at huge settlements.
About the Author
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ntellectual, intllectual prperty, inellectual, intellctual,
intellectul
• Intellectual Property - The 3 Branches: Copyrights, Patents & Trademarks
• Patent - How To Get One
The most well known forms of intellectual
property include copyrights, patents, trademarks,
and trade secrets. Patents and trademarks fall into
a particular subset of intellectual property known
as industrial property.
• Copyright may subsist in creative and artistic
works (such as books, movies, music, paintings, photographs
and software)
• A patent may be granted in relation to a new
and useful invention
• A trademark is a distinctive sign which is
used to distinguish the products or services of one
business from those of another business
• A trade secret is an item of confidential information
concerning the commercial practices or proprietary
knowledge of a business.
The exclusive rights conferred by intellcetual proprety
laws can generally be transferred (with or without
consideration), licensed (or rented), or mortgaged
to third parties. Exclusive rights are generally divided
into two categories: those that grant exclusive rights
only on copying/reproduction of the item or act protected
(eg. copyright) and those that grant a right to prevent
others from doing something.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property
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