Protecting Your Intellectual Property
Registered patent attorney Patricia McQueeney http BrinkleyMcNerney.com explains
, Intellectual property can be broken down into four types patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.A patent deals with a completely new invention a useful item, a novel look on an already existing item, or a new plant species. Depending on the type of patent, they are good for between fourteen and twenty years. The scope of a patent is defined by its claims. A claim is only one sentence but it may go on for pages, which is why its best to hire an experienced patent attorney.
Copyrights protect creative expression books, web sites, songs. There is such a thing as common law copyright, which means that you have rights when you create something. The difficulty lies in proving you were first to create it.
For only 30 you can register with the U.S. Copyright Office httpwww.copyright.gov. The forms arenot complicated, and you have a lot more protection in an infringement suit. The copyright is good for your lifetime and seventy years after you die, and you can make it assignable to anyone upon your death.
Copyrights donot protect the information found in a book or on a web site, but they protect the lay out and presentation. For web sites, registering your first and last twenty-five pages of code protects the code for your entire web site and the creative expression of your display screens.
A trademark designates an objects source its a mark or name associated with quality. In trade mark law, arbitrary names are encouraged Kodak, Kleenex, Apple. The less your trademark describes your product, the stronger it is. If you sell film, using Film as a trademark wonot hold up in court. Again there are common law trademarks, but theyre hard to prove and offer less protection than a state or federal trademark
Trade secrets are governed by state laws and vary from state to state. They encompass a variety of things from formulas think Coke to customer lists to product sources. Many companies have contracts that expressly prohibit their employees and vendors from giving away any information they are exposed to while doing business with them. Commonly known facts arenot considered trade secrets so its good to be discreet with your valuable information.
Its important to remember that copyrights and patents give rights to the person who comes up with the idea, not the company that employs them. So if you hire someone to design your web site, the creator owns it unless you have the copyright assigned to you in writing. Thats why many business owners state in their employee agreements that any works or useful inventions created on company time with company funds will be assigned to the company. Cautions McQueeney, You do not own it unless you get it written over to you.
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