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Different Types Of Patents

Janet Tan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:07:44 +0000

Patents provide an inventor safety against violation of his rights over the product as well as the process of manufacture of the product by checking its unauthorized use for making profits, with the help of legal regulations. It enables the inventor to take recourse to legal action against any person who is found infringing his rights in that respect.

There are three main types of patents. These divisions are utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.

A design patent safeguards the way the product appears and is designed. Hence, it offers a safeguard for the product’s form, configuration as well as its adornments. Design patents are mostly useful for companies that are into the business of improving the look of current products to design new variants that have a potential market value.

The second kind of patent is a utility patent that protects an innovative and utilitarian product, composition or innovation of an existing product. This patent helps in protecting the nature or working of a product. Utility patent is more used than other kinds of patents and it can either be taken separately or together with a design patent.

The third major kind of patent is related to the protection given for invention of an asexually produced distinct variety of a plant that is new and unknown in the field. It protects an invention from being infringed by others by way of production or marketing of a part of the plant or the entire plant.

However, there is yet another category of patents, which is called a provisional patent that protects the inventor’s right over his invention provisionally, especially if the inventor does not have the resources to file a comprehensive application yet. Though, you are allowed to apply for a more detailed patent at a later time, the new patent can not be greatly different from the original provisional patent. This patent is sought in cases when you are approaching the completion of the development of your invention.

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Various Kinds Of Trademarks

Elizabeth Brown — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:07:32 +0000

The term trademark stands for certain symbols or texts that distinguish the goods of one company from the other. The main objective of trademarks is to prevent any confusion in the consumers’ minds about the source of a product that they plan to purchase.

One of the essential needs for a trademark is that it must be distinctive, which means it must be exclusive and recognizable. The uniqueness of a trademark can be determined by slotting it in one of the trademark classifications – suggestive, descriptive, generic and arbitrary.

A descriptive mark uses a specific feature or aspect of a product to separate it from other products of its kind. Although some descriptive marks that have taken a secondary meaning in the marketplace, which the customers can identify as coming from a specific source, can be trademarked, this is not the usual case as descriptive marks are hardly ever unique.

Suggestive marks on the other hand indicate a particular feature of the product. However, the relationship between the name and the product is not obviously perceptible and it might need a little bit of imagination on the part of the consumers to understand it. For example, ‘Hush Puppies’ is a popular brand name that sells footwear products that guarantee comfort and prevent soreness of your feet. The basic reason behind such a name is that the problem of sore feet is known as ‘barking dogs’ in certain American states.

Fanciful marks are those marks which do not have any link whatsoever with the commodity itself. For instance, there is no justifiable link between the symbol of a half eaten apple and the product name ‘Apple’ to the computer manufacturer. In a similar way, arbitrary marks are those that come from the creative mind of the manufacturer or come from archaic languages like Latin.

Finally, the category of generic marks clearly describes the items, like ’sports wear’, and they cannot be given any trademark security due to lack of distinctiveness.

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Safeguarding Your Intellectual Property

Levy Hans — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:02:20 +0000

Any intangible creation that is capable of being marketed needs to be protected against dishonest persons, who might want to benefit from someone else’s efforts. Intellectual property rights offer legal recognition to your creation or idea and discourage others from using it without permission. Here are some practical choices available to you to safeguard your intellectual property.

Firstly, you must keep the crucial information confined to yourself and not share it with others. You have to be quite cautious about the details of your idea, while sharing it with people, particularly on unprotected mediums such as internet. You must also ensure that you are making use of a reliable email service protected by a tough password, especially when you are sharing your ideas with colleagues or friends through it.

It is good to be personally conscious of some of the fundamental intellectual property laws. This legal understanding will help you safeguard your intellectual property through apt policies and secure your idea against any case of infringement. For instance, if you hire a team to further develop your idea, you can make the members of the team realize that what you are giving them to work upon is classified information. One of the best ways of ensuring confidentiality is by having the employees, third parties and others sign a non-disclosure agreement that provides you a right of legal action.

Further, a legal specialist should be called in to suggest you the most appropriate methods of protecting your intellectual property. Intellectual property laws normally involve complexities that in turn need a law expert to interpret the intricacies of these laws. The lawyer will then let you know the means of patenting or copyrighting your work, so that no one can infringe it.

You should also remember that the preliminary phase of the development of an idea is the best time for consulting an intellectual property lawyer. Filing an early patent or copyright can save you from a lot of trouble in future.

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How To Deal With Patent Infringement

Lenie Sanchez — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:57:28 +0000

Patents help an inventor to prevent unlawful use of his or her invention by other parties for their own economic advantage in an illegal and unauthorized way. They allow the inventor to bring in prosecution against any person or company that is caught making such illegal use of his product or the process for its manufacture. However, there are a few things that need to be kept in mind before resorting to legal action against an infringement.

Firstly, you must make sure that there has been a literal infringement of your product secured by patent. In other words, it must infringe all the essential aspects of your original product. In certain cases even if not all these features have been copied by the alleged offender, the patent can still be treated as having been infringed. However, this needs strong evidence to the effect that there are enough similarities and that the end result that the infringing product creates is significantly similar to the original product.

Secondly, you need to have some kind of direct connection with the patent in order to file a suit against the infringer. For filing such a suit, you have to be the owner or at least a partial or exclusive licensee of the patented product. Further, in order to make sure that your suit will get a court hearing, you have to file the suit within the allotted time under the limitation laws of your government.

Though, you have an alternative of proceeding against the owner or even the user of the counterfeit product, you can take any such legal action only when the patent has not already expired. No unauthorized use of the product can be considered an infringement after the expiry of the patent.

Regardless of the strict liability principle that patents are governed by, carrying out research work by using a patented product does not qualify as an infringement under the current laws in most nations.

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How Are Patents Different From Copyrights And Trademarks?

Mariel Taylor — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:48:56 +0000

Patents, trademarks and copyrights are different aspects of the same central idea. These are types of intellectual property that protect the interest of owners and creators. However, there are a number of important differences between the three.

One of the key differences is that the patents essentially protect the physical or conceptual inventions, while copyrights protect literary, artistic or other similar works. On the contrary, trademark does not always need to be innovative, as it can include any word or symbol that can identify an item or brand.

The next important factor that differentiates patents from others is the high standard of safety provided by it on account of strict liability principles. In other words, regardless the fact that the offender did or did not know that he was infringing the patent, he will be considered responsible for the same. Thus patents offer greater protection against infringement, on the other hand copyright and trademarks offer for reasonable use and other exceptions.

A patent is generally valid for 20 years and then it switches from exclusive ownership of the owner, to the public domain availability of the idea. Whereas, trademarks continue for an infinite duration while copyrights are valid for 60-70 years from the date of creation of that work. Further, patents can protect your invention or process in a very stringent manner. In other words, a copyright protects the mere expression of ideas, while patents can safeguard the underlying processes and ideas behind the invention as well.

Lastly, the procedures for submitting an application for these different legal mechanisms are also very different from each other. For example, while a patent application demands comprehensive information on the invention to be disclosed, copyright just needs a copy of the original work and trademark requires a complete search for already existing marks in use.

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How To Safeguard Your Intellectual Property On The Internet

Jake Martin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:47:52 +0000

With the internet expanding its tentacles far and wide to reach a global audience, people have started deliberating upon how best to stop violation of copyright on this new medium by adopting appropriate policies.

Almost any original piece of content on the internet, from videos and graphics to pictures and textual content, can be intellectual property. An original creation can be protected from infringement by posting a copyright notice that will mention the terms and conditions of its lawful use. The notice should contain a declaration that the matter is protected by copyright and that any replication, publication or further reproduction of it by anyone else should not be done in absence of prior permission of the owner.

If you choose to get your logo or brand name trademarked, you can secure them from any kind of misuse by competitors or other parties. Likewise, visual content secured by copyright laws can be watermarked, so that an indelible imprint is present on the picture or video of which you own the copyright. This will deter people from reproducing or reprinting it.

An extremely important question is how to monitor or find out an illegal use of your IP on the internet. There are a number of solutions available for this. There are several software products available that can help you find out if your IP, especially textual content, is being subject to unauthorised use. A quick online search with your trademark can also help you figure out if any infringement is going on. There are firms that provide specialised services related to infringement detection, and they will investigate and report to you of any infringement of copyright in return for a small fee.

In case you happen to find any unauthorised use of your content by other websites or companies, you can get in touch with the site owner or administrator and tell him to remove your copyrighted content from the site. This can be carried out by issuing warning letters to the offenders. If the letters are disregarded by the infringers, you can take legal action and can even sue them for damages.

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Why Are Patent Laws Important?

Sarah Walter — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:28:18 +0000

A patent is an intellectual property right given to an inventor for his invention and also for the manufacturing process for creating that product or invention. It plays a very significant part in the commercial world by encouraging new ideas and developments.

When a person invents an innovative and unique product that can be marketed for a profit, he would not want others to take benefit of his creation, and the time and efforts invested in it. However, it is not simple to monitor each and every violation of your right over your invention as you might be required to discuss it in public for promotional purposes. In such situations, patent laws can help you protect your rights.

Patent laws give the inventor legal ownership over his product and processes thereto in addition to the right of exclusive usage for a particular span, after which any other person can make use of that invention for his or her own benefit. This provides legal safety to the inventor, who can then make the maximum commercial gain out of his time and efforts put into the product before another person can take advantage of it.

Another aspect that adds to the importance of patents is that they aid the inventor license out his invention for a profit, as most licensees are willing to invest in exclusive rights over a product. However, the complex procedures and large costs involved in patenting make it unnecessary for products with low commercial viability as well as for those which are to be marketed for a very restricted time span.

The true importance of patents is reflected in a scenario where the inventor had to work diligently and use his skills to create a unique product that has some real advantage and can be successfully mass produced. The legal protection granted by a patent inspires people to develop more innovative ideas and inventions, as it guarantees that they will be well rewarded for their work.

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How To Find A Good Patents Lawyers

Joseph Martin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:22:17 +0000

Unlike most other fields of law where the need of a lawyer is felt only after an issue has arisen, a patent lawyer is required even before any issue arises. The main responsibilities of a patent lawyer are to assist clients obtain patents, recommend measures to protect the patents and if needed, defend the right of the patentee in case of an infringement.

The process of acquiring a patent is quite lengthy and tedious. That is why the necessity of a patents lawyer is felt so much. But, before you actually select and hire a lawyer, you must assess his experience in working with patents, and if he’ll be able to understand the invention that you are patenting. For example, a person with a biology background might not be quite appropriate for assisting with patenting of electronic goods.

A second point that you must think about is the success rate of the lawyer you wish to employ for patent application submission and related processing. The credentials of the lawyer you choose can be determined by the number of patents granted or turned down from the ones that he had applied for. This exercise will tell you how capable or efficient the lawyer is and this can determine the success of your own patent application since only a good patent lawyer can well ensure the uniqueness of your work in the industry.

Of the several upcoming lawyers in the field who work with patents, it should be a simple job to identify one who is competent enough to deal with your needs and whose charges are not too costly.

Moreover, you must make sure that unless there are any grave lapses on part of the lawyer in dealing with your patent, you stick to the same lawyer from the filing stage to any later disputes that might turn up with regard to your patent as this lawyer would have the most detailed understanding of the patent in consideration.

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Understanding Different Forms Of Intellectual Property

Faith Diaz — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:18:17 +0000

Property does not only comprise of tangible things like homes, cars, furniture, money, investments etc and such assets are not the only type that can be safeguarded by law. There are other kinds of property too which are recognized by law and safeguarded within the legal provisions and these are called intellectual property, which can be secured against exploitation by others. Patents, trademarks and copyrights are the three main categories of intellectual property.

Copyrights are intellectual property pertaining to rights of the creator over his or her original creation. Copyright protects all types of artistic expressions including melodies, films, videos, designs etc in addition to original literature. Under copyright law, the owner of the work gets a number of privileges which include financial rights to income generated from the work and acknowledgement as sole owner of that work.

Trademarks afford intellectual property privileges which aim at pre-empting duplication and exploitation of symbols registered by a person for his own products, and they help a consumer easily tell the origin of a product. Trademark protection gives the owner complete safety from unauthorised use of his own mark by others to mislead consumers.

The third type of intellectual property right, termed as patent, protects the rights of inventors in their novel and useful invention. A patent is valid for a predefined span and gives the holder exclusive right to use and commercially exploit his or her idea.

Some other, less often found intellectual property rights are also provided for by the law. To cite some examples of these rare intellectual properties, they can be some special knowledge passed on by a particular family only; business secrets like recipes behind successful products; and location based symbols or marks to refer to a product arising from that location, like Champagne.

While all the three kinds of intellectual property discussed above are different from each other there are also some similarities. Any of these are fully admissible under the law and the rightful holder can take legal action to enforce his right and claim compensation for any violation.

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Getting It Right With IP

Christopher Lee — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:56:34 +0000

We may think that registering intellectual property (IP) ownership rights are fairly new occurrence it is not. Even the Romans stamped bricks to show their sign of ownership. Trademark law is quite ancient dating back to the year 1266 in England. The old law known as the “bakers marking law” used to indicate the maker of a loaf of bread. Each baker would have their own registered mark.

Trademark law is very well established globally. It is still flouted in some developing counties but that is the joy of the jungle. Most established companies these days have trademark protection or are in the process of getting protection. Most people think that you have to legally register a mark to be able to use it but the opposite is true. You register a mark so that others cannot use it! When you register a trademark you gain the unique right to be the only one to use the mark or to control who can use it.

A trademark is a unique mark that permits customers to distinguish you without seeing your product. It is a unique part of your brand. Trials have shown that you can display just part of a noted trademark and people know which brand it belongs to. This demonstrates the power of a good image and how the brain works at remembering such things. This is why it is key to legally protect important marks and words.

In most countries if you create something yourself you have the sole rights to use this. However if an idea is used by many people it very quickly becomes common property and cannot be registered. It is always best to legally register marks and ideas. Registration legally determines the date of ownership beyond any sense of doubt. In some countries common law gives some protection but at the end of the day you have more security if you engage trademark lawyers to protect key IP.

These days you can self-register a trademark but there are inherent risks of doing this of course. Trademark attorneys of course know how to register and how to protect possession if the rights are misused. They know the full story of registration and protection. If you self-register you may get a cheap registration but you may have left a loop-hole for somebody to abuse your rights later on.

Registration of trademarks can be done in one or more countries. Presently there is no such thing as a global trademark. You have to register in all the nations where you require protection.

Registration has become simpler over the recent years with the creation of systems like the Madrid System of International Registration of Marks through the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, Switzerland but international registration is still a slow and fairly costly process.

Of course the benefits of registering a trademark outweigh the costs and challenges. If you are serious about your business you should be looking at registration today.

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