Transcript Slide 1
June 9, 2011
Grant County Inventors and
Entrepreneurs Club
What
is it?
Intellectual Property describes various intangible assets that
provide valuable competitive advantages for owners of the
assets.
Intellectual
Property Includes:
Trademarks (® or TM)
Trade Secrets (Confidential)
Copyrights (© Murphy Desmond 2008 All Rights Reserved)
Patents (from Patent Pending to U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,891)
In
2000, intangible assets accounted for 70% of US
corporate value, of which 40% was not recognized on
the books as assets. That year, IBM made $1.7 Billion
solely from Patent Licensing.
World Intellectual Property Organization Publication No. 888.1
Information
Kept secret
that is:
Not generally known to the industry
Treated as and kept secret
Only disclosed to those legally obligated to keep secret
Has economic value because it is secret
Provides economic value or advantage over competition
Protects the time and money invested in obtaining information
Perpetual
protection as long as secret
May be lost
Independent discovery including reverse engineering
Unrestricted Disclosure
Control
access to information
Controls use of information
Controls disclosure of information
May sue for misappropriation
Improper
or unauthorized use or disclosure of
information
Does not mean any disclosure, only improper
Technically,
a trademark is:
A word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of
words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and
distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from
those of others.
Commonly
though of as brand names
Advertising
Product identification
Service identification
Domain names
Anything
that a potential customer can use to pick
out your product amid the sea of choices
Word
= company name or brand
Dial soap, Pepsi, Gymfinity
Phrase = a slogan
Have it your way, Maybe she’s born with it
Symbol or design = a logo
Sounds
NBC chimes, “Hello and welcome to Moviefone”
Color
Owens Corning Pink, UPS Brown
Indicates
source or origin of good or service
Provides association of quality level for good or
service
With proper branding creates and maintains
demand for good or service of owner
Provides stream of revenue when licensed to
others
Common
law
You are using it, but nothing filed
No evaluation, no presumptions
Common law TM
State
You filed with the State in which it is being used
No evaluation, no presumptions
State TM
Federal
You filed with the United States Patent and Trademark
Office (USPTO)
Evaluated, presumptions of ownership and validity
Federal ®
First
come, first serve for right to use
First to use mark, gets priority
Tangible
goods
Mark used directly on goods or packaging
Services
Mark used on brochures or ads promoting service
Makes
Gives favorable presumptions
May sue in federal court
May obtain attorneys fees, treble damages, and
destruction of infringing goods
Must
enforcement easier
be used in commerce
On goods or promotions of services
Sold or transferred in commerce
Infringement
Must show that mark is:
Same or similar to trademark
Used in connection with sale or advertisement of goods or
services
Used in a way likely to be confusingly similar
Creative
expression of ideas or facts
Independently created
Possesses minimal degree of creativity
Perceived, reproduced, and communicated
Not just thoughts, ideas, facts or data
In
order to get full benefits of protection
Give Notice
© symbol or “Copyright”
Year of first publication
Name of owner
Register
with Copyright Office
File
registration with Copyright Office
Required to file suit
Helps prove ownership
Allows recovery of certain damages and attorney’s fees
Gives protection for life of author plus 70 years or 120
years from date of creation
Rights
of Owners
Reproduction: Make copies of
Adaptation: Prepare derivative works
Distribution: Distribute copies
Public performance
Public display
Once
a copy is distributed, the copyright owner no longer
has control over that copy
A patent
is a contract between an inventor and the
Federal Government
The inventor tells the world about an invention that is:
useful,
new and
not obvious
A limited time to prevent unauthorized making, using,
selling, importing or offering for sale of the invention.
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A patent
is NOT a license to do anything
Having a patent will not keep other factors from blocking
your ability to commercialize the invention (FDA
approval, someone else’s patent)
A patent is not needed to commercialize the invention
A patent
application is not a patent and is not a fillin-the-blank form.
Years will pass before an application becomes a patent ...
if ever.
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Provisional
(A Date)
Utility (Useful, working ...)
Design (Appearance not Function)
Plant (Asexual Plant, not Tuber)
PCT (International Rights)
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A patent
Utility patent
a process
machine
manufacture
composition of matter
any useful improvement thereof
Design patent
can be a:
an ornamental design
Plant patent
certain asexually reproduced plants
Not
ideas or wishful thinking.
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Please Contact:
Erin R. Ogden
[email protected]
268-5595
Thank you for your time.