(THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE - MERERLY a RESPRESENTATION of THE BASICS of IP LAW)
Most people just do NOT get intellectual property but the BASICS are not that hard to understand. And the main areas are Copyright, Trademark, Patents and Trade Secrets.
I’ll touch on Patents just to get them out of the way – Patents are governed by the USPTO – Patent and Trademark office. If you’ve come up with a new design (plants, mechanical, etc, etc) and that design is useful, non-obvious and UNIQUE then you can get a PATENT – but it’s COSTLY and you’ve got ONE YEAR to file for a provisional Patent (to buy a little time) and for your FULL on PATENT which could take YEARS to be granted. So if you’ve got a great new idea that you’ve build and want to market – get your ducks in a row and HIRE a GREAT PATENT ATTORNEY unless you think you can do it yourself – if so, good luck! Einstein was a Patent Clerk…enough said? Patents are designed to protect the OWNER of the Patent but only for a LIMITED TIME – 20 years, so that other companies can put them out and prevent a Monopoly – and of course, the 20 years is for the owner to be able to recoup their R & D ( research and development). So patents protect the owners for a time and then the consumer to be able to buy that design for a much better price and Patents are governed by FEDERAL LAW.
Copyright is probably the most common of all intellectual property rights – and these rights can get a bit complicated as one can get a Copyright immediately but it has no teeth. Suffice it to say that one is granted a “Statutory Copyright” when one creates a “work” and puts it out there for others to view, touch, etc. To keep this discussion as brief as possible I’ll stick to music or websites. You’ll often see song with a © notice or even a website with a © but does that mean that a copyright has been actually filed? NO! It’s easy enough to find out – go to the Library of Congress.Gov – and you can EASILY find out what copyrights have been filed. If the copyright was NOT filed – all that means is that the ORIGINAL OWNER (if you can prove you created the work) has a “Statutory Copyright” and the only POWER that invokes is injunctive relief – or “stop using my work!” – Not much help – right? So it would be wise to file your copyrights so that people can’t take part of your code (from you website) or part of your song (a sample) or just take the whole thing and use it as their own. Plus the owner can get damages for infringement along with attorney’s fees, etc – and all works come with a “BUNDLE OF RIGHTS” but that again is TOO MUCH for this blog – See “The Truth about the Music Business” for more information. But you’ll have to buy the BOOK! Copyright is also governed by FEDERAL LAW but Copyright is designed solely to protect the CREATOR of the work! Not like Patents that are a hybrid or Trademark that protects the CONSUMER!
So, now we’ll talk about Trademark which is governed by FEDERAL LAW and STATE LAW as many states have enacted similar Statutes as a lot of companies just work in ONE STATE or surrounding states and therefore want to only protect their rights in a smaller area. Trademark rights unlike ALL other IP RIGHTS are NOT designed to protect the OWNER of the mark – but the CONSUMER – in regards to the origin of the goods and/or services. In short, when you as a consumer see that BRAND (LOGO) or Name – then you know that you can trust it – (as least that’s the goal!) But TM rights are indeed ALL POWERFUL as if somebody infringes on your mark – and creates confusion in the market place then the DAMAGES can be HUGE – of course, you can always put TM next to your name which shows an intention to trademark your name or that you are in the PROCESS of getting a TRADEMARK but until you actually have the mark REGISTERED and on file with the USPTO – you can only get injunctive relief. Get a REGISTERD MARK and you get injunctive relief, you get Statutory Damages, attorneys fees and in the worst case scenario for an infringer – the owner of the mark can take ALL of your profits from the illegal use of that Mark less what you can PROVE it cost you to make those profits. But in short, an owner of a mark can basically put an infringer OUT OF BUSINESS for GOOD!
The Last is TRADE SECRETS and this is governed by STATE LAW- this just means that if you have internal processes or ways of doing things, ideas, concepts, etc that are UNIQUE to YOUR business – you need to protect them – but you can’t FILE TRADE SECRETS with any agency – you just have to make sure that if you disseminate these secrets within or even outside of your company – you MUST be sure to put something on those communiqués that “THIS IS A TRADE SECRET’ and any type of reasonable damages you think you would be entitled to should someone STEAL your SECRETS of YOUR TRADE!
Just remember – your better of FILING for protection and NOT just going about your business without paying for the proper protection as you’ll end up with no better than “injunctive relief” or in other words, you can get a court to say – STOP DOING THAT!
AGAIN THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE nor is it INTENDED TO BE!
YOU SHOULD CONTACT an attorney if you would like more info or if you need any HELP with these issues, however, you are more than Welcome to buy my BOOK!
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS - Steve Moore, B.A., J.D., Author
SM @ MSO
Most people just do NOT get intellectual property but the BASICS are not that hard to understand. And the main areas are Copyright, Trademark, Patents and Trade Secrets.
I’ll touch on Patents just to get them out of the way – Patents are governed by the USPTO – Patent and Trademark office. If you’ve come up with a new design (plants, mechanical, etc, etc) and that design is useful, non-obvious and UNIQUE then you can get a PATENT – but it’s COSTLY and you’ve got ONE YEAR to file for a provisional Patent (to buy a little time) and for your FULL on PATENT which could take YEARS to be granted. So if you’ve got a great new idea that you’ve build and want to market – get your ducks in a row and HIRE a GREAT PATENT ATTORNEY unless you think you can do it yourself – if so, good luck! Einstein was a Patent Clerk…enough said? Patents are designed to protect the OWNER of the Patent but only for a LIMITED TIME – 20 years, so that other companies can put them out and prevent a Monopoly – and of course, the 20 years is for the owner to be able to recoup their R & D ( research and development). So patents protect the owners for a time and then the consumer to be able to buy that design for a much better price and Patents are governed by FEDERAL LAW.
Copyright is probably the most common of all intellectual property rights – and these rights can get a bit complicated as one can get a Copyright immediately but it has no teeth. Suffice it to say that one is granted a “Statutory Copyright” when one creates a “work” and puts it out there for others to view, touch, etc. To keep this discussion as brief as possible I’ll stick to music or websites. You’ll often see song with a © notice or even a website with a © but does that mean that a copyright has been actually filed? NO! It’s easy enough to find out – go to the Library of Congress.Gov – and you can EASILY find out what copyrights have been filed. If the copyright was NOT filed – all that means is that the ORIGINAL OWNER (if you can prove you created the work) has a “Statutory Copyright” and the only POWER that invokes is injunctive relief – or “stop using my work!” – Not much help – right? So it would be wise to file your copyrights so that people can’t take part of your code (from you website) or part of your song (a sample) or just take the whole thing and use it as their own. Plus the owner can get damages for infringement along with attorney’s fees, etc – and all works come with a “BUNDLE OF RIGHTS” but that again is TOO MUCH for this blog – See “The Truth about the Music Business” for more information. But you’ll have to buy the BOOK! Copyright is also governed by FEDERAL LAW but Copyright is designed solely to protect the CREATOR of the work! Not like Patents that are a hybrid or Trademark that protects the CONSUMER!
So, now we’ll talk about Trademark which is governed by FEDERAL LAW and STATE LAW as many states have enacted similar Statutes as a lot of companies just work in ONE STATE or surrounding states and therefore want to only protect their rights in a smaller area. Trademark rights unlike ALL other IP RIGHTS are NOT designed to protect the OWNER of the mark – but the CONSUMER – in regards to the origin of the goods and/or services. In short, when you as a consumer see that BRAND (LOGO) or Name – then you know that you can trust it – (as least that’s the goal!) But TM rights are indeed ALL POWERFUL as if somebody infringes on your mark – and creates confusion in the market place then the DAMAGES can be HUGE – of course, you can always put TM next to your name which shows an intention to trademark your name or that you are in the PROCESS of getting a TRADEMARK but until you actually have the mark REGISTERED and on file with the USPTO – you can only get injunctive relief. Get a REGISTERD MARK and you get injunctive relief, you get Statutory Damages, attorneys fees and in the worst case scenario for an infringer – the owner of the mark can take ALL of your profits from the illegal use of that Mark less what you can PROVE it cost you to make those profits. But in short, an owner of a mark can basically put an infringer OUT OF BUSINESS for GOOD!
The Last is TRADE SECRETS and this is governed by STATE LAW- this just means that if you have internal processes or ways of doing things, ideas, concepts, etc that are UNIQUE to YOUR business – you need to protect them – but you can’t FILE TRADE SECRETS with any agency – you just have to make sure that if you disseminate these secrets within or even outside of your company – you MUST be sure to put something on those communiqués that “THIS IS A TRADE SECRET’ and any type of reasonable damages you think you would be entitled to should someone STEAL your SECRETS of YOUR TRADE!
Just remember – your better of FILING for protection and NOT just going about your business without paying for the proper protection as you’ll end up with no better than “injunctive relief” or in other words, you can get a court to say – STOP DOING THAT!
AGAIN THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE nor is it INTENDED TO BE!
YOU SHOULD CONTACT an attorney if you would like more info or if you need any HELP with these issues, however, you are more than Welcome to buy my BOOK!
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS - Steve Moore, B.A., J.D., Author
SM @ MSO
