I
would like to know a little about intellectual property
rights. What is the difference between trademarks, copyrights,
etc.?
Intellectual property law has to do with intangible assets,
things like words, phrases, logos, and pictures. These
may be your most important assets.
Let's
use Nike as an example. How important is that swoosh logo?
That is intellectual property (a trademark.) What about
the name “Nike”? That is also intellectual property (Copyright
and trademark.) And its tag line, “Just Do It” – yep,
that is intellectual property too.
Intellectual
property is no less important in a small business. You
need to know how it works in order to protect your business
name, logo, inventions, and so on. There are four main
areas of intellectual property that may help you: Trademarks,
copyrights, patents, and trade secrets. Let's look at
each:
Trademark:
A trademark is a word, phrase, design, or symbol
that identifies your business and distinguishes it from
the competition. Examples of trademarks would be Dr. Pepper
® or The Los Angeles Dodgers ®.
Trademarking
your business name or logo is quite easy. To get full
trademark protection, you need to register your mark with
the federal trademark office. Logon to www.USPTO.gov
(the website of the United States Patent and Trademark
Office) and follow the directions.
Copyright:
Copyright protects the original, physical expression
of a creative idea. To be copyrightable, the ideas must
be unique, must be tangible (written or taped, for instance),
and must be a “work of authorship.” Musical scores, magazine
articles, choreographed dances, photographs, movies, even
sculptures would be examples of copyrightable expressions.
Copyrights
last the life of the author plus 75 years, and the creator
owns the copyright, although if the creator created the
thing working for someone else, the employer would own
the copyright. You own the copyright to any works your
employees create in the fulfillment of their duties. This
is called work-for-hire.
One
of the best aspects of copyright law is that there is
nothing to register. As soon as you create the thing,
it is copyrighted as a matter of law. This sentence is
being copyrighted as I write it. Certainly you can register
it with the U.S. Copyright Office, but it is not necessary.
What you should do instead when you want to put the world
on notice that you have copyrighted material is to have
“© All Rights Reserved” prominently affixed to the
work.
Patents:
If you invent or discover a new and useful “process,
machine, manufacture, or composition thereof” you can
apply for a federal patent to protect your invention from
being used by others without your permission. Utility
patents protect machines and industrial processes and
last for 20 years. Design patents protect designs of manufactured
items and last for 14 years. Plant design patents protect
new plant varieties and last for 17 years.
Trade
secrets: Most states have adopted the Uniform
Trade Secrets Act. This law defines trade secret as information
that has independent economic value by virtue of remaining
secret. A customer or vendor list might be a trade secret.
KFC's “17 secret herbs and spices” would surely be a trade
secret.
To
be legally protected, you have to make efforts to keep
your secrets secret. This is not to say that you can never
tell anyone the secret, but rather, that you attempt to
retain the secret and act appropriately.
If
you want to share a trade secret with another party, make
sure they sign a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. A NDA
says that you will be sharing confidential information
and that it cannot be used by the other side for commercial
reasons and cannot be disclosed to a third party without
your prior, written approval. You can find one online
or by going to www.Nolo.com
.
Protecting
your intellectual property is critical. You may remember
that the first videogame ever was Pong. Yet, within a
few years, scores of knockoff Pong games hit the market
and the original was lost in the shuffle. How did that
happen? Atari failed to protect its intellectual property.
