All About Patents and Intellectual Property

What is intellectual property? Patents - grant by the federal govt. that gives you the right to exclude others from making, using or selling your invention Trademarks - word, phrase, logo, sound that distinguishes your business from others Copyrights - generally used by artists - writers, sculptors, painters - protect their creation from others Trade Secrets - recipe, formula, etc. that is a secret and gives you an adv. in the marketplace How to obtain a patent? -Must be a patentable subject matter -Must meet the standards of patentability -Must abide by the statues of limitations Anything under the sun made by man qualifies for a patent - computer programs, living organisms, methods of doing business (Amazon.com - got a patent for 1-click shopping over the Internet) Types of patents: -Utility patents - machines, compositions of matter (chemical compounds), etc. -Design patents - ornamentality (how it looks) and functionality Standards of patentability: -New - If you are not the first inventor, you will not be awarded the patent. -Non-obvious - Even if new, an invention cannot be patented if it would be deemed obvious to one of ordinary skill in the relevant technology at the time of the invention. The patent office looks at the scope and content of the existing technology and the differences between the prior art and the invention to be patented. Patent Search - Do it and do it early! -Client investigation -Patentability searches -Computer searches - www.uspto.gov and www.google.com/patents Statutes of limitations: -U.S. Patent Law -One year from offer to sell, public use or description in printed publication Patentability vs. marketability: Hard truth - More than 95 percent of all patented inventions never make any money; Marketability is just as important as the legal considerations. Patent enforcement: -The person who brings the law suit must be the patent owner. -If you are on the receiving end of a threat of infringement, you can take that to court. -Around 97 percent of all patent cases are settled outside of court. Only 3 percent actually make it to trial.