Our society is becoming more and more information-based. Because of this, the ability to protect and benefit from original intellectual property becomes increasingly important to the professionals involved: writers, photographers, software engineers, inventors, and cottage industries.
If you have intellectual property (IP) that you want to protect, you may be wondering exactly how to do it. There are four main ways to protect intellectual property: trademarks, patents, copyrights, and trade secrets. Read on to find out which IP protection would work best for you.
Trademarks: A trademark is a mark that distinguishes one company from another, such as a name, phrase, logo, symbol, image, or a combination of any of these elements. A trademark can also include a jingle or a sound. Recently, trademarks include a variety of digital and electronic images.
patents: Patents are intellectual property rights that protect an invention. Inventions must be novel and non-obvious. A patent has a limited useful life. In addition to patenting inventive devices, scientific discoveries can also be patented. For example, genetically modified seeds and organisms are now patented. However, the Supreme Court recently ruled that medical companies cannot patent natural human genes or DNA, although they can patent DNA they create synthetically in the laboratory.
Copyright: Copyrights protect literature, music, and other creative works. Protect any information or ideas that are discrete and substantive. A copyright gives the owner the privilege of being credited for the work. It also grants the copyright holder the right to:
Determine who can do the work.
Decide who can benefit financially from the job.
Whether the work can be adapted to other forms, and who can adapt it.
Copyright protects work for a limited time only. Copyrights obtained before 1978 are limited to 95 years. Those extracted after 1978 last the life of the owner plus seventy years, or seventy years from the publication of the work.
Trade Secrets: Trade secrets are another form of intellectual property protection that can cover:
Formula
Design
process or practice
ยท Information gathering
instrument or pattern
Rather than obtaining a patent, copyright, or trademark, a trade secret is protected through employee confidentiality. Employees are required to sign non-compete clauses that prevent them from working with competitors in the future. They must also sign a confidentiality clause that prevents them from revealing business secrets to others. The benefit of a trade secret is that its protection is not limited in time, like a patent.
The approach you take to protect your intellectual property depends largely on the type of property it is and the benefit you seek from protecting it. If you are seriously pursuing a trademark, trade secret, patent, or copyright, you should consider speaking with an intellectual property attorney. Also called trademark law, a lawyer who specializes in this field can make sure you choose the right type of protection, be prepared to successfully file your trademark or patent, or help you write non-compete and non-disclosure clauses that are legally sound. and effective for your employees.
The way you protect your intellectual property can be very important in the future. Starting off with the best foot forward is important, even if you don’t fully understand trademark law. A lawyer can help you determine how best to protect your intellectual property in the long term.