Intellectual Property and PatentsIntellectual Property Litigation True IP litigators are part of a broader business objective. They understand core business value and product strategies. The value extends beyond the courtroom as the lawyers work with you to preserve your market, protect your assets or look to the future for new opportunities. Our lawyers integrate both legal and industry expertise in all aspects of intellectual property issues. This knowledge and experience provides creative, timely and efficient solutions. If you have an IP issue that goes to the core of your business and affects your bottom line or market position, you want to be represented by the best in the legal industry. Our network of independent lawyers and law firms are the right people with the right expertise to get the right result for you. A word about IP law and what it means. CopyrightsA Copyright is the exclusive right to copy an original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work. Additionally, it protects performances, sound recordings, broadcasts and computer programs. Copyright Law prevents outright copying, prevents unauthorized public performance, publishing, translation, conversion, adaptation, recording or broadcasting of the protected work or any substantial part of it. Copyright applies to original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, whatever the mode or form of expression. To be original, the work must be the product of the author’s skill and labor and should not be copied from another’s work. The originality requirement does not, however, mean that the work must be a completely new product or have any special artistic value. Therefore things such as maps or engineering drawings, as well as books, computer programs, plays, songs, paintings, and photographs are all proper subject matter for copyright. The law prohibits exact duplicates. It does not prevent someone from drawing a map merely because someone secured a copyright on a map in the past. Clearly, the ability to copyright material has its limitations. While a copyright does not protect ideas or concepts, it can protect a specific expression of an idea or concept. For example, the author of a book on US history may obtain a copyright in that specific book, but could not prevent publication of other books on US history, even though the same topics are in both writings. The copyright only prevents copying of the way in which the first book expresses the topic. Subsequent authors must use their own words to cover the same topics. Similarly, anyone may photograph the Empire State Building; however, a copyright cannot prevent others from taking the same photo. Copyright will only prevent the coping of your photo. Additionally, while a copyright does not apply to transient occurrences such as sporting events, a film, videotape or broadcast of the event could be protected. However, to protect the work you will have to file for copyright protection from the US patent and Trademark Office. An experienced attorney can help you file the papers you will need to file successfully safeguard your work. TrademarksJust as a copyright protects written works, a trademark is a word, logo, symbol, design, or a specific combination thereof, which is displayed on wares or associated with services, and identifies them to purchasers. The trademark generally indicates that the wares or services come from, or are approved or sponsored by, a particular source. A trademark may also indicate that the wares or services meet a particular standard of quality. For example, the trademark “FDA Approved” is a trademark used by the Food and Drug Association in order to distinguish the products it has approved from the products that are not FDA approved. It would be illegal as well as a trademark violation for some to use the FDA logo on any not approved product. Trademark rights are created by registering the particular trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office. In addition, you will need to have actual “use” of the trademark or a statement of “intent to use” the trademark on items or in association with services. The sale of certain items in packages bearing the trademark, or provision of services described in advertising which displays the trademark, are examples of trademark use. In some countries, trademark rights are created solely by registration, even if the mark is not actually used. In general, only a registered trademark can be protected by the courts regardless of whether it is being used or enjoys goodwill in any particular area. (“Goodwill” simply refers to possible associations people have with the trademark.) In other jurisdictions, an unregistered trademark can be enforced only in those areas where it has been used extensively enough to establish goodwill. This is why the Trademarks Office will often refuses applications to register trade-names or trademarks which are likely to be confused with previously registered trademarks. If you own a trademark, you may enforce your rights in the Federal Courts. If the trademark owner is successful in the law suit, the court may order the infringer to pay for the owners legal fees. PatentsSimilar to protecting a copyright or a trademark, the US Patent and Trademark Association will also register patents. A patent is a legally enforceable property right, which enables its owner to exclude others from making, selling or using a particular invention from the date of the filing for the next 20 years. If you change the product even slightly, the patent on the new product can afford protection for an additional 20 years. However, since there is no worldwide patent, to protect your patent in a global market, you will need to file for patent protection in every country. Generally, only new “inventions” are patentable. An invention must be new, useful and involve an “inventive step” compared to the closest “prior art”. (“Prior art” refers to information that is already known to the public, as reflected in publications, patents, public uses, and other sources of public knowledge.) A new and unobvious product, process, apparatus or composition of matter will generally be patentable; as will a new and unobvious improvement to an existing product, process, apparatus or composition of matter. However, not every invention is capable of being patented. For example, medical procedures; marketing or business plans; teaching methods; cosmetic procedures such as make up styles, hair dressing and pedicures; and artistic expressions such as flower arranging, painting, and playing musical instruments are not patentable. However, the materials and instruments used may be patentable. In order to receive patent protection in the US, a patent application must be filed no later than one year after the earliest public disclosure of the invention. Public disclosure can include offering marketing samples as well as selling or exhibiting the invention. Additionally, publishing details of the invention in advertising or any other printed material, and public use or testing of the invention will count toward the one year limitation on filing. Even disclosure to just one person can constitute public disclosure in some circumstances. In order to protect and preserve any potential patent rights, an invention should not be disclosed prior to the filing of a patent application, or to anyone who has not signed a properly executed non-disclosure agreement, which your lawyer can provide for you. Non disclosure agreements are vital in the success of most businesses. Do not merely copy one from the internet. You do not know who wrote it or if it is even legal or enforceable. Protect yourself and speak to an attorney who can put together the proper forms for you. . Also, a patent does not necessarily entitle the patent owner to make, use or sell the patented invention. It merely allows the patent owner to prevent others from using it. Making, using or selling one’s own invention may infringe another patent. For example, if an invention is an improvement to a prior invention, making the improved product may infringe a patent for the original product. An experienced attorney will conduct a thorough PTO search in order to determine if you can validly obtain a patent. Trade SecretsSimilar to patent protections, trade secrets can be protected, even though no formal government application or recognition is required to obtain trade secret protection. Essentially, the law enables a trade secret owner to prevent others from exploiting the secret, if they have obtained knowledge of it through fraud, theft or breach of some obligation of confidence. However, to obtain a valid patent, the invention must be fully disclosed and described in a patent application, which becomes public information as part of the patent-grant process. On the other hand, trade secret protection exists only if the information in question remains secret. Trade secret protection is inappropriate if routine examination of any apparatus, process or other subject matter embodying the trade secret will reveal what the secret is. And if a trade secret owner inadvertently allows the secret to slip out, then trade secret protection is lost. Trade secrets include items such as certain ingredients, customer lists or company database information. For example, a manufactures quantity and pricing list for each of its customer may be a trade secret, However, the fact that a particular distributer sells his product is not a trade secret. Similarly, the unique formula a stock broker may use to value a portfolio may be a trade secret, but the particular stocks owned may be public information. Disclosure of trade secrets is a hotly litigated field in the law. There are many lawyers who devote up to 80 hours per work week on this issue alone. If you need to protect your trade secrets or are accused of disclosing your company’s trade secrets, you need an attorney now. Click Here To Find A Intellectual Property and Patent Law Attorney
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