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 go about 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 may also include a jingle or 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 not 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 synthetically create in the laboratory.
Copyright: Copyright protects literature, music, and other creative works. Protect any information or ideas that are discreet and substantive. A copyright gives the owner the privilege of being credited for the work. It also grants the copyright owner the right to:
Determine who can do the work.
Decide who can benefit financially from the work.
Whether the work can be adapted to other forms, and who can adapt it.
Copyright protects the work for a limited time only. Copyrights obtained before 1978 are limited to 95 years. Those drawn after 1978 last for the life of the holder 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
· Information gathering
instrument or pattern
Instead of 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 largely depends on the type of property it is and the benefit you seek by protecting it. If you are seriously looking for a trademark, trade secret, patent, or copyright, you should consider speaking with an intellectual property attorney. Also called trademark law, an attorney who specializes in this field can make sure you choose the right type of protection, be prepared to file your trademark or patent successfully, or can help you draft non-compete and non-disclosure clauses that are legally sound. and effective for your employees.
How 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. An attorney can help you determine how to best protect your intellectual property in the long term.