Our Intellectual Property Attorneys Can Assist You With All Patent, Copyright and Trademark Needs.

Do You Have An Invention You Want To Protect?

Patents

A patent provides the inventor with the right to exclude others from using, selling, making, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention for the term of the patent, which is usually 20 years from the filing date.  Effectively, a patent is a limited property right that the government offers to inventors in exchange for their agreement to share the details of their inventions with the public.

A patent is requested by filing a written application at the relevant patent office. The application contains a description of how to make and use the invention and, if it is not obvious, the usefulness of the invention. The patent application may or must also comprise "claims". Claims define the invention and details for which the applicant wants patent rights. Prior to filing a patent application, it is wise for inventors to obtain a patentability opinion from a patent attorney regarding whether an invention satisfies the substantive conditions of patentability.

In order for an invention to be patentable, it must

• be of patentable subject matter, (i.e. a kind of subject-matter that is eligible for patent protection),
• be novel, (i.e. at least soem aspect of it must be new),
• be non-obvious, and
• be useful.  

Submit a confidential legal evaluation to be contacted by a patent, copyright, and trademark attorney.

 Protect your creative works with a copyright and get protection for your brand, logo, or business name by registering your trademark.  

Copyrights

A copyright is the legal right of an author, playwright, composer, publisher or distributor to control the distribution, adaptation, reproduction, display, and performance of a work of authorship. The Copyright Act of 1976 protects original works of authorship that are fixed in any tangible medium of expression.

Copyright gives the author a right to prevent others from copying a work without permission.  However, copyright law extends only to the particularized expression of an idea, never to the idea itself.

A copyright must be registered with the U.S. Copyright office before a party can sue for damages in federal court. A party can also obtain statutory damages and attorney's fees if the copyright is registered within three months of its publication. The copyright symbol "©" can and should be used to identify original and derivative works, whether or not the work is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. 

Trademarks

A trademark consists of any word, name, symbol, figure, letter, or device used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify and distinguish its products from those manufactured or sold by others. Some of the most famous examples of trademarking are: NyQuil® for cold medicine, Apple® for computers, and the NBC peacock.

Trademark law in general protects a trademark owner's commercial identity (goodwill, reputation, and investment in advertising) by giving the trademark owner the exclusive right to use the trademark on the type of goods or services associated with the mark. Any person who uses a trademark in connection with goods or services in a way that is likely to cause confusion is an infringer. Trademark owners can obtain injunctions against the confusing use of their trademarks by others, and they can collect damages for infringement.

A trademark that merely describes a class of goods rather than distinguishing the trademark owner's goods from goods provided by others is not protectible. For example, the phrase "corn flakes" by itself is not protectible as a trademark for cereal because that term describes a type of cereal that is sold by a number of cereal manufacturers rather than distinguishing one cereal manufacturer's goods. On the other hand, "cheerios" describes a type of cereal sold by one manufacturer and is protected.

The most effective trademark protection is obtained by filing a federal trademark application in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Federal law also protects unregistered trademarks, but such protection is very limited in scope.   

One of our trademark attorneys can conduct a trademark search for you and prepare and file your application with the United States Patent & Trademark Office.