Patents
A patent protects inventions through federal law. Inventions are your
creative ideas for new products (articles of manufacture), machines, processes,
methods, compositions of matter, ornamentation on products, or new plants. An
improvement on an existing product may also be patented.
Utility
patents protect the majority of these. To be patentable, your invention must be
useful, novel and non-obvious. Design patents protect the ornamentation on
devices. Plant patents protect new plant varieties.
Utility patents
give you a monopoly (no one else can make, use, sell, offer for sale, or import
your invention) for twenty years from the date of filing.
Design
patents give you a monopoly for fourteen years from the date of issue, and
prevent others from making the patented device with your ornamentation on them.
(By way of example, a table is a useful device. If you could obtain a utility
patent on a table with a flat surface and four legs, you could stop anyone from
making such a table. If your table had an unusual ornamental shape or surface
pattern, you would be able to prevent others from making tables with that shape
or surface pattern.)
Plant patents last for twenty years from the
filing date of the patent application.
Infringement of your patent
allows you to potentially obtain treble damages plus attorney fees.
Trademarks Trademarks (or service marks for services)
protect names, logos, slogans, and the like through both federal and state
laws. Your name, logo or slogan identifies you to your prospective customers as
the source of the goods and services that you are offering, and thus
constitutes a trademark.
There are both federal trademarks and state
trademarks. There are also common law trademarks that are not registered at
either the federal or state level. Federal trademark applications can be filed
even before you are using the trademark name, logo or slogan to reserve your
trademark.
Other than common law trademarks, federal and state
trademarks must periodically be renewed. Federal trademarks must be renewed
every ten years. If you no longer use the trademark, you lose your rights.
Otherwise, so long as you continuously use and/or renew the mark, you will
continue to have rights forever.
Infringement of your trademark allows
you to potentially obtain treble damages and attorney fees.
Copyrights Copyright protects your creative artistic
expression, but only once it is set into a tangible form. For instance, you
create and sing a song. There is no copyright unless the song is recorded or
written, because there is no tangible representation of your artistic
expression. However, once you write, record, photograph, draw, or otherwise
create a tangible record of your artistic expression, you automatically have
copyright. That is, you are the only one who has the right to make or sell
copies.
Ideas cannot be copyrighted. They may only be patented.
Examples of copyrightable materials are written words, such as in books,
magazines, poems, songs; written music; performances of music; paintings and
drawings; photographs, videos, architectural plans, website content and
layouts, and computer software.
Copyright lasts for 70 years plus the
life of the creator (or last to die for multiple authors) for new works under
current law. If the work is made for hire, then the term is the shorter of 95
years from publication or 120 years from creation.
Federal laws
provide you with the right to enforce your copyright, but only once it is
registered. There is the possibility of obtaining statutory damages of up to
$150,000.00, plus the possibility of being awarded attorney fees. Thus, it is
very important to register your copyright as soon as practicable.
Other Finally, trade secret protection is another means of
providing protection to ideas. However, the key word here is secret. Let
someone who has no need to know in on the secret and it is no longer protected.
Trade secrets are most suitable to keep secret formulas or processes protected.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Thomas R. (Terry) Williamson III, Ph.D.,
Registered Patent Attorney
Williamson Intellectual Property Law, LLC
1870 The Exchange, Suite 100
Atlanta, GA 30339
770-777-0977;
http://www.trwiplaw.com
