by Kathleen Lynch | Jan 29, 2015 | Entrepreneurship, Patent Prosecution, Start Up Considerations, Trademark Service Mark
Intellectual property is the life blood of many small businesses and entrepreneurial enterprises. Knowing how and what may need protection could mean the difference between success and failure. I set forth below three basic things every entrepreneur and business person should do to protect the intellectual property inherent in any organization.
- Identify your intellectual property
- Before you can protect your intellectual property assets, you need to understand what they are. Intellectual property is a bundle of legal rights. These consist essentially of patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. Patents are directed primarily to objects of manufacture (things), methods of making or doing something, designs (ornamental aspects of a thing), compositions of matter and plants. If you make devices or compositions of matter, you will likely want to determine whether your device, composition, or methodologies associated with your business may be subject to patent protection. If you make an object, you may also want to consider whether there are any ornamental aspects of your object that may be new and subject to design patent protection.
- If you use trademarks, service marks or logos in connection with the sale of your goods or services, you may want to register those marks or logos nationally or internationally. If your business involves training or educational services, any materials used may be subject to copyright protection. If your business has been successful by using particular strategies or processes that have given it a competitive edge over your competition, you may want to properly identify those strategies as trade secrets. Some methodologies used in manufacturing may be better suited to trade secret protection rather than patent protection.
- Determine whether your intellectual property can be protected
- Once you have identified what you believe to be your intellectual property, you need to determine whether it is protectable under current laws. If you believe your new widget is patentable, a patentability search and assessment is a logical next step. A patentability search and assessment will provide you with the information you need to determine whether there is any meaningful patent protection available to you. This applies to objects, as well as methods, compositions of matter, and designs. A proper patentability search will search all relevant patent records and provide you with the most pertinent documentation of the state of the relevant art. A patent professional can assist with interpreting the search results to determine the scope of patent protection likely available to your invention.
- Similarly, with a trademark or logo, an availability search and assessment is a prudent next step. This involves searching relevant records to provide you with current uses of the same or similar marks or logos. From this information, you can determine whether to proceed with a trademark or service mark registration. A trademark professional can help you make that determination.
- Protect What Intellectual Property You Can
- Once you have identified and determined what rights are available to you, you can proceed with protecting your intellectual property to maximize your competitive advantage. Patentable aspects of any objects, methods, compositions or designs should be protected. Marks or logos available for use and registration should be the subject of US or international trademark or service mark applications.
- Copyrighted materials should be marked with the “©” or “Copyright” followed by the year(s) in which the material was created and name of the owner. Trade secrets, properly identified, should be protected through a series of procedures identified by your organization to ensure confidentiality. This may include, by example, limiting access to certain information, marking documents as “confidential”, ensuring all employees understand their obligations to maintain secrecy of proprietary information, executing confidentiality agreements with third parties where proprietary information may be exchanged.
Protecting your innovative developments is critical to any organization. Having the right person to help you make that decision is important. The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game. The first telephone consultation is free. Email us at kl****@*****aw.com.
by Kathleen Lynch | Nov 18, 2014 | Trade Secrets
A trade secret is the secret sauce of any business. It is information that sets your company apart from you competition and it is information that your competitors would find valuable. The good news about trade secrets is that their life is limitless. The bad news is that once a trade secret has been exposed, it is gone forever.
Trade secrets can include items of information that you may not immediately consider are valuable. But if you think of what your competition might find valuable, your scope may widen. For example, trade secrets may include pricing, customer or supplier lists, employee names and contact information, and manufacturing practices.
Protecting a trade secret from exposure is critical. The first thing to do is identify all of your organization’s trade secrets or otherwise proprietary information. Next, you should limit access to the information only on a “need to know” basis. This means that manufacturing may not need to have access to pricing information, while accounting may not need to know the nuances of some manufacturing techniques that enhance quality.
In addition, employees should be trained on how to handle trade secret information. Once trade secrets have been inventoried, those within an organization designated as “need to know” should understand how to protect the trade secrets entrusted to them. A confidentiality agreement should always be used when disclosing any trade secret information, including agreements with employees.
Protecting proprietary information is critical to any organization. Having the right person to help you make those decisions is important. The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game. The first telephone consultation is free. Email us at kl****@*****aw.com.
by Kathleen Lynch | Nov 13, 2014 | Copyright, Intellectual Property
This is one in a series of posts covering some basic aspects of intellectual property law. Previous posts touch on patents (parts 1 and 2) and trademarks (parts 3 and 4). This post will cover the general elements of copyright law.
Copyright law protects the expression of an idea fixed in a tangible medium. Thus, the protection is more limited than other aspects of intellectual property law. However, if copyright infringement is found, relief to the copyright owner can include an order against further infringement as well as money damages which can range from between $200 and $300,000 per act of infringement. Damages may also include attorneys’ fees and costs. Infringers may also be subject to criminal prosecution and may be imprisoned if found guilty.
Types of works covered by copyright law include:
- literary;
- musical;
- dramatic;
- pantomimes and choreographic works;
- pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
- audiovisual works;
- sound recordings;
- derivative works;
- compilations; and
- architectural works.
In order to proceed with a copyright infringement action, you must register your work with the United States Copyright Office. This can be done online on their website.
Copyright notice is given by using “©” followed by the year or years in which the work was published and the owner. In addition, a statement such as “all rights reserved” or “no unauthorized use permitted” may follow the notice. This puts the public on notice of your intent to enforce your rights via copyright law.
Protecting your innovative developments is critical to any organization. Having the right person to help you make that decision is important. The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game. The first telephone consultation is free. Email us at kl****@*****aw.com.
by Kathleen Lynch | Sep 10, 2014 | Invention
With the passage of the American Invents Act, the U.S. Patent System has moved from a first to invent system to a first inventor to file system. While the new law awards the patent to the first inventor, it also prevents others from obtaining an invention if you disclose your invention before someone else files an application on the same invention.
This disclosure can work to anyone’s benefit and may be used as an inexpensive offensive tool in cases where a patent is not needed, desired, or unaffordable. Disclosure of an invention prevents others from obtaining patent protection on the same invention.
If the invention is worth protecting with a patent, make sure your application is on file so that your own disclosure is not used as prior art against you.
This offensive move to disclose some developments can work in connection with a robust patent strategy. In this way, you can work to carve out an area of technology and keep others from encroaching where disclosure helps to prevent third party patents from issuing.
Protecting your innovative developments is critical to any organization. Having the right person to help you make those strategic decisions is important. The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game. The first telephone consultation is free. Email us at kl****@*****aw.com.
by Kathleen Lynch | Sep 2, 2014 | Intellectual Property
This week I am highlighting a recent article written by Mark Schultz and Adam Mossoff on the connection between intellectual property rights and economic prosperity. In sum, the article makes an excellent connection between the strength of a country’s IP system to that of its economy.
One could argue that a country like China that has not historically enforced intellectual property still has a strong economy. But China has made progress in their IP system and the enforcement of intellectual property rights under that system.
In general, the evidence seems to indicate that where intellectual property rights are protected, and where innovation is encouraged, the economy will grow.
