Legal Advice
Intellectual Property 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 intellectual 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 intellectual 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 intellectual property 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.
Contact an experienced
Intellectual Property Lawyer today.
Find an
Intellectual Property Lawyer associated with a major
Intellectual Property Law Firm today at huge settlements
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/
|
|
