Written by David Postolski, Food-X Mentor and Patent Attorney at Gearhart Law
Intellectual property – the words may be unknown to many, but the concept of protecting one’s creations and inventions is not. In fact, Intellectual property is part of the US constitution and through IP rights, innovators felt safe enough to contribute their protected ideas to build, grow and industrialize our nation. Protecting your ideas, inventions, solutions, business methods or creative works from others who seek to copy or infringe you is a necessary step in building value for your company or entrepreneurial venture. Ideas in of themselves are not protectable. One must take the intellectual idea out of one’s head and physically embody it in some sort of invention, brand or logo or as an expression of a creative or artistic work.
An invention, or an idea physically embodied or based in science (biology, chemistry or physics) or engineering (electrical, mechanical or computer) can be protected for 20 years by a patent. The patent is a federal right to exclude others from coming into their described space. The patent owner has an exclusive monopoly after the inventor has proven that they are in fact that the first inventor to file (or publish) a patent application. An IP right is similar to other property rights. Like any piece of real or personal property, one can license it, sell it, use it as collateral for a loan, or use it as the number one value asset.
A US federal trademark is a right bestowed to a creator of a word, logo, sound, or smell that is symbolic of a good or service which one sells to at least one customer in another state in order to satisfy interstate commerce (the buying and selling or goods among the states). The right also gives the trademark holder the power of exclusion to keep others from using a same or similar mark for a same or similar good or service. The trademark right lasts ten years and is renewable for as many additional ten year periods as long as one continues to use the mark in the way you have indicated to the trademark office.
A copyright is the protection a creator gets to the expression of one’s ideas that are fixed in tangible medium and which are original. For example, song lyrics written on a piece of paper, audio visuals on a cd or film feel, a painting on a canvas, etc. A copyright is an automatic right that vests in the creator of the work and for a fee, the creator or owner of the creative work can register the creative work with the US copyright office. The rights of copyright last for the creators life plus an additional 70 years. The copyright rights include: the right to stop others from copying the work, displaying the work, performing the work, making a derivative work of the work by altering the work, or publishing the work.
For more information on protecting and registering your IP protection both in the US and abroad please call David Postolski at 6466442959 or email to david@gearhartlaw.com.
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