Trade Secret Protection A trade secret is any formula, pattern, device, process, tool, mechanism, or compound of peculiar value to its owner (and his or her employees) which is not protected by a patent and is not known or accessible to others. Trade secret protection is governed exclusively by state law, but for all practical…
Fair Use Other people can use (copy, perform, display, etc.) a copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research without infringing the copyright. Fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis. Whether a use is indeed a “fair use” depends largely on the effect of the use upon the…
Copyright Protection A third type of intellectual property is the copyright. A copyright protects literary and artistic “expression” as well as other types of informative media that derive their value from the particular manner in which the information is expressed. Books, musical works, plays, computer programs, paintings, sculptures, and movies are among the types of…
Trademark Infringement A trademark can be infringed even if the infringer is not using an identical mark. Trademark infringement occurs when another trademark is confusingly similar to the original trademark. Whether the two trademarks are confusingly similar depends on a number of factors, including: The existence of actual confusion in the marketplace between the trademarks;…
The Federal Trademark Registration Process The registration of a trademark is not a mere formality. The applicant must first have used the trademark in association with goods or services in interstate commerce. The application process involves filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office a fee, specimens of the trademark as it is actually…
Trademark Selection The selection of a trademark can be very important in terms of the trademark owner’s ability to obtain registration and prevent others from using the mark. Trademarks can generally be classified into four basic categories: (i) generic, (ii) descriptive, (iii) suggestive, and (iv) arbitrary. A generic trademark is really not a trademark at…
Finding Someone To Manufacture And Distribute Your Invention Minnesota to disclose how many individuals who have come to that service for help have made money on the invention after contracting for the service. This number is usually quite small, such as 1 out of 500 or 1,000 people. If the service refuses to provide you…
A Patent Is Not A Guarantee That The Patented Invention Does Not Infringe Other Patents The issues of patentability and infringement are entirely separate. A patent granted by the U.S. Patent Office confers upon the owner the exclusive right to exclude others from “making, using, and selling” the patented invention. The issuance of the patent…
Enforcement Of Patent Rights A patent entitles the patent owner to prevent others from making, using or selling the patented invention within the United States for the term of the patent. While others may make the patented invention outside of the United States, they are not permitted to sell or use the patented invention within…
Cost To Obtain Patent Protection The expenses associated with obtaining patent protection fall into two general categories: patent attorney fees and government fees, both of which are discussed below. Patent Attorney Fees Patent attorney fees include the cost of (i) drafting the patent application, (ii) completing the necessary formal documents, and (iii) drafting responses to…
Experimental Use A patent will be denied if an invention was in public use or on sale more than one year prior to the date of application. However, there is an exception to this rule known as “experimental use.” The “experimental use” exception permits some public use of the product by an inventor in order…
One Year Grace Period An inventor has a grace period of one year (in the United States) in which to file a patent application. During that one year period, an inventor may place his or her invention in public use or on sale without losing his or her right to apply for U.S. patent protection….
Identical Inventions Developed By Two Separate Inventors An “interference” is a proceeding instituted in the Patent and Trademark Office when two or more inventors are claiming the same patentable invention. An interference may be declared between two or more pending applications, or between one or more pending applications and one or more unexpired patents. In…
Options Available After Receiving A Final Rejection Continuing Application A continuing application is basically an original patent application that is refiled. The second application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date of the first application, and must be filed as a separate application before termination of proceedings on the prior application. Thus, after…
The Examiner’s Incentives The Patent Office evaluates its patent Examiners primarily according to the number of applications they process. Examiners, therefore, have no incentive to spend very much time on any one application, as it is to their benefit to process applications as quickly as possible. The Examiner typically does not take the time to…
Examination Of The Patent Application By The Patent Office An application filed in the Patent and Trademark Office is assigned for examination to a group of patent Examiners having responsibility for the category of inventions to which the application relates. The Examiner is charged with making a thorough study of the application and all of…
Patent Application Components A patent application can only be filed with the Patent Office by the actual inventor or his or her representative. The basic elements of a patent application are as follows: A specification, including a claim or claims; Drawings, when necessary; An oath or declaration; and A filing fee. Patent Specification A specification…
There are several major hurdles an inventor must overcome before patent protection can be obtained. First, the applicant for patent must be able to demonstrate that he or she has developed a new, useful, and not obvious process or product. Since a patent cannot be obtained unless the invention is new, the invention must not…
Basic Types Of Intellectual Property Protection There are four basic types of intellectual property protection: patent trademark protection copyright protection and trade secret. Each will be discussed in order over the course of several posts. Patent Protection The United States patent system was created to help achieve various socially desirable goals. By providing an inventor…
On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. While not quite a total patent reform, the America Invents Act (“AIA”) includes some of the most serious changes to federal patent law as we have ever seen. Read the Announcement from USPTO Director David Kappos by clicking here. The AIA…
Cease and desist letters may be useful in a number of circumstances including Defamation, Slander, or Libel Trademark Infringement Copyright Infringement Patent Infringement Breach of Contract Harassment Debt Collection (to collection agency or creditor under Fair Debt Collections Practices Act) Legal Effect of a Cease & Desist Letter From a legal perspective, a cease and…
Cease and desist letters may be useful in a number of circumstances including Defamation, Slander, or Libel Trademark Infringement Copyright Infringement Patent Infringement Breach of Contract Harassment Debt Collection (to collection agency or creditor under Fair Debt Collections Practices Act) Legal Effect of a Cease & Desist Letter From a legal perspective, a cease and…
In order to prove a violation of law, a person must prove certain things. Each law has elements. Each element must be satisfied in order to prove a violation of the law. In order to prove a trademark violation or trademark infringement, a person must prove each element provided by law. Words used in those…
Minnesota copyright laws protect a creator from having his or her original creative works copied. Copyrights protect the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. Creators would not want to show their creative expressions to others if they could always be stolen and sold under another person’s name for a profit. The advancement of society…
Original creative works may be copyrighted in Minnesota. Copyrights in Minnesota do not have to be registered in order to be valid. Even if a copyright is unregistered, use or reproduction by another of the copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner generally constitutes copyright infringement. The plaintiff in a copyright infringement lawsuit is…
Copyright violations lead to lawsuits. There will be a winner and a loser in every lawsuit. The plaintiff in a copyright infringement lawsuit is a person alleging that he or she had a copyright in a creative work and someone else reproduced that creative work without permission. The defendant in a copyright infringement lawsuit is…
Copyrights give protection to those that express ideas in an original way. There are other ways to acquire a right to an original expression of ideas, such as purchasing a copyright, licensing the copyright, or otherwise transferring the copyright (for example, by assignment). Why Copyright Protection is Important This protection is important not only to…
Trademarks are important in the business world because often a business is selling it’s good name with each product or service. Businesses spend time and money developing a good reputation with the public, or with their specific markets, in order to obtain more business. Importance of Trademarks A business with a good reputation will…
There are several requirements to obtaining a trademark, such as being the first to use the mark, not obtaining the mark through fraud, continuing use of the mark, and using the mark more extensively than mere token use, to name a few. One main requirement is that the mark be distinctive. Is the Mark Distinctive?…
Copyrights in Minnesota are intended to present an incentive to people to create works and share them with the world. If an author, playwright, actor, or anyone else with original creative ideas writes them down, acts them out, or otherwise reduces them to a form that may be shared with others, that person does not…