This and the following posts have been copied or adopted from A Guide To Intellectual Property Protection, published through a collaborative effort by the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development and Merchant & Gould.

Preface to A Guide To Intellectual Property Protection

Innovation, invention and the process of translating ideas into products and services has been, and remains, a major factor in Minnesota’s economic growth. Indeed, in today’s world that process has even greater importance in light of concerns about national productivity and international competitiveness.

This Guide is intended to serve as a primer for the inventor and entrepreneur on the protection of new ideas and the products which result from them. Like all publications of this kind, the Guide is not intended as a substitute for the advice of an attorney on the complexities of intellectual property law. Hopefully, it will help frame issues and concerns for discussion with private legal counsel as well as with investors, bankers, potential developers, and customers.

Preparation of this work has been a collaborative effort between the Minnesota Small Business Assistance Office and the law firm of Merchant & Gould. A particular note of thanks must go to the original author David George Johnson, the longtime editor of this work Brian H. Batzli, and those individuals who have contributed to earlier editions: Lawrence Buckley, Hallie A. Finucane, Mark A. Krull, Michael L. Mau, Michael S. Sherrill, Janice L. Dowdall; and to Madeline Harris of the Minnesota Small Business Assistance Office.