Intellectual Property Guide for Entrepreneurs
What Intellectual Property Protection Makes Sense for your Business or Venture?
When businesses, entrepreneurs, or individual inventors approach us with their ideas, the first question we seek to answer is whether the idea is one that can be protected. Protection may best be served by procurement of one or more patents, trademarks, or copyrights. Additionally, under certain circumstances, we advise our clients to treat and protect their intellectual property as a trade secret.
Before seeking advice from an intellectual property attorney, it makes sense to do a little research and find out for yourself what type of services you might require. For example, if you have conceived of an idea that may best be protected with a patent, you may require a patent attorney to draft and submit a patent application on your behalf. If you have one or more marks, logos, or slogans that you would like to use to identify your goods or services, then you may want to request advice for filing a trademark application. If you have an original work, such as software you have developed, a novel you have written, or you have produced video or images that you would like to protect, then you may require advice about filing a copyright application. Sometimes, it makes sense to protect your idea with more than one type of intellectual property. For example, software may be protected both with a patent and a copyright. In other instances, you might find that your innovation may not be adequately protected with a patent, trademark, or copyright, and your idea is best protected by treating it as a trade secret.
Below, we discuss each one of these types of intellectual property. You should read through the material to get a better idea of type of intellectual property protection best suits your business or venture. Typically, it makes sense to then seek an intellectual property attorney that will be there to guide you and your business through the process of procurement, licensing, and enforcement.
PATENTS
A patent is type of government protection afforded to new and unique products, processes, or compositions. Patents allow the inventor a legal monopoly over the right to use, manufacture, or distribute the intellectual property. This means that a patent holder has an exclusive right to be the sole producer of the patented item for a set period of years. In general, this period lasts for about 20 years as of the most current legislation. There are three major types of patents: utility, design, and plant. Utility patents protect the functionality of a particular design or idea, design patents protect the ornamental characteristics of an object, and plant patents protects varying strains of asexually reproducible flora.
Examples of patentable ideas include: mechanical devices such as medical devices, toys, tools or instruments; electronic devices such as computer hardware or electronic equipment; computer software such as mobile apps or proprietary code; compositions of matter such as topical solutions, pharmaceuticals, or cosmetics; methods, including processes of for providing financial data; and many other types of machines, processes, and articles of manufacture.
If this sounds like the protection your idea or your business requires, take a look at our self-help discussion pertaining to procurement of patent protection for your intellectual property: “INVENTORS: PREPARING TO FILE A PATENT APPLICATION.” That section will help guide you through the basic steps to (1) determine whether patent protection is available to protect your idea; (2) determine what type of patent protection will best serve your intellectual property needs; (3) determine whether patent protections is, in your case, a wise investment; and (4) develop a strategy to approach procurement of one or more patents to protect your intellectual property
Patent procurement is a complex process, and it is one that should be left to a patent attorney. We always suggest that after you have done all your own research- determined that patent protection is what you will benefit most from, conduct a prior art search, and determined that procurement is a wise investment for your venture- you should contact a patent attorney that will ensure you take the right steps to protect your business. Our patent attorneys will meet with you, go over any documents that you may have discovered and develop a strategy to protect your intellectual property.
TRADEMARKS
A trademark is a recognizable symbol, figure, slogan, or mark that is used by manufacturers or entrepreneurs to distinguish their product from competitor’s products. Trademark protection ensures that only the company in possession of this protection can use the associated trademark. Trademarks protect your business by preventing others from using confusingly similar slogans, logos, or names.
Trademarks may be used to protect a company name so long as that is the name of the brand used to identify your goods or services. For example, if your company name is XYZ, Inc. you may apply for a trademark of the words XYZ (excluding the corporate designation Inc.), so long as this is the brand used to identify the goods XYZ sells or the brand used to identify the services XYZ offers. Examples of trademarks include the Nike® name, the Nike swoosh (which is their logo), the name Apple® that identifies the source of the well-known computers, the Apple logo which identifies the same, and many other examples that consumers encounter every day.
Trademark procurement is not as complicated as patent procurement, and the procurement process for trademarks is considerably less expensive than the process for obtaining a patent. For one, the fees for filing a trademark application are lower, and prosecuting a trademark application is less time consuming. Since procurement costs are minimal in comparison to the costs involved for patents, it is rarely a good idea to forgo trademark protection. As you build your brand and business, trademarks become more valuable, so trademark protection can become a very powerful investment in the long run.
Because trademarks are fairly inexpensive in proportion to the kind of protection they offer, it is always advisable that you build an intellectual property portfolio for your business, which includes one or more trademarks.
If this sounds like the protection your idea or your business requires, take a look at our self-help discussion pertaining to procurement of trademarks for your intellectual property: “HOW TO PROTECT YOUR BRAND WITH A TRADEMARK PORTFOLIO.” That section will help guide you through the basic steps for (a) determining what opportunities for brand protection exist in your business model; (b) determine what type of trademarks (i.e. word marks, logos, slogans, trade dress) will best serve your intellectual property needs; (c) determine whether your mark or intended trademark is already in use by others; and (c) develop a strategy to build a trademark portfolio for your business.
Our trademark attorneys have been helping build trademark portfolios for clients in Los Angeles, Orange County, and throughout the United States. Contact us to help you strategize and build quality intellectual property assets for your business that ensures a stronger brand.
COPYRIGHTS
A copyright protects the author of an original work from having his material taken, performed, and/or reproduced without consent. Copyrights are afforded to authors, musicians, dramatists, painters sculptors, photographers, and so on. While a utility patent would protect the function of an object (ensuring that no other person could make an item with similar function) a copyright only prevents others from reproducing specific copyright material. For instance, a book could not be reprinted without the permission of the author, but a book with similar characters, themes, and plot points could be produced without infringing on copyright. The only way to use copyrighted material without leasing or paying for it, is through free use, which allows copyrighted material to be reproduced in part without permission for purposes such as journalism, review, or satire, to name a few.
To learn more about copyrights, visit our page about copyright protection.
TRADE SECRETS
Any confidential information that gives your business an edge on the competition can be considered a trade secret. The legal definition of trade secret is actually fairly broad, so it is difficult to give an answer that is accurate, informative and concise. Generally, trade secrets need to be determined on a case by case basis.
To learn more about trade secrets, visit our page about protecting your innovation with a trade secret.