Protect Innovation - the Basics

You've got a great idea - Now what?!? How do you protect your idea?

First, you need to figure out the category your idea falls into for possible legal protection. (The law of protecting people's innovations and creations is called "intellectual property law".) Do you need a PATENT? a TRADEMARK? a COPYRIGHT? How about a TRADE SECRET? I'll explain each of these very briefly.


A PATENT protects ideas. Patents protect a physical thing ("an article of manufacture") or a method. The right granted by a patent is for a limited time and it prevents others from using your invention. (This is called a right to exclude others. Inventors may not be able to use their own inventions due to regulations, such as needing FDA approval for a drug, or because their inventions might infringe other patents!) Infringing a patent results in civil liability (resulting in money damages, for example). The United States Patent and Trademark Office is the agency that examines patent applications and, if found to be patentable, grants patents. See www.uspto.gov

A COPYRIGHT protects expression. Typical copyrights cover writing, music, art. Like patents, copyright protection is for a limited (but much longer) time. Infringing a copyright results in criminal liability (fines and possibly imprisonment). It is a potential defense to copyright infringement that the use of the copyrighted work was "fair use". The United States Register of Copyrights is where one registers.

Aside: A very cute video about fair use is:


A TRADEMARK protects the source or origin of the product. Consumers use trademarks to indicate the level of quality for a product (or service, in the case of a service mark). Owners of marks work very hard to protect their marks and the quality of products (or services) associated with the mark. For example, owners of trademarks for luxury goods are always on the lookout for "knock offs" which may be of inferior quality. Trademarks may be protected with a federal registration with the US Patent and Trademark Office. A federally registered trademark is uses the "(R)" symbol (with an R in a circle).

A TRADE SECRET is used to protect something that cannot easily be reverse engineered such as a method or a formula. As the name implies, the information must be kept secret for it to be protected. A trade secret will last as long as it can be kept confidential.

Questions?

LEARN MORE ABOUT PATENTS BY CLICKING ON:

Patenting a Craft Method

Does it Make $ and Sense to File a Patent Application?

Secret to a Product's Success: Patenting or Marketing?