Intellectual Property

Patent Law | Trademark | Servicemark | Copyright

Intellectual Property is common broadly used to stand for patents, trademarks, servicemarks and copyrights. Each of these protect a different aspect of the intellectual property of an inventor or business and knowledge in all is needed to strategically and effectively protect your idea and invention. The following is a simplification of these four areas of law:

Patent Law

A patent is a set of legal rights. It allows the inventor of a novel, new or otherwise useful invention to prevent others from making, selling or even using the invention. There are three types of patents: a utility patent, a design patent and a plant patent.

• Utility Patent: A utility patent covers an inventions function and manner to produce a result. The general invention of a device or something tangible
• Design Patent: A design patent covers the unique, ornamental, appearance or visible shape of an object. The design patent must be purely ornamental or aesthetic and cannot protect a unique function.
• Plant Patent: A plant patent covers asexually reproducible plants.

We are available to answer any questions you may have regarding obtaining patent protection for your invention and we look forward to having the opportunity to work with you. If you are looking for additional general information, visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office web site.

Trademark ™

A Trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, which identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods or services of one party from those of others.

Servicemark

A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product.

We are available to answer any question you may have regarding obtaining trademark protection for you invention, product or service and we look forward to having the opportunity to work with you. If you are looking for additional general information, visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office web site.

Copyright ©

A copyright is an exclusive right to reproduce and prepare derivative works of an original work of authorship. When compared with a patent right, a copyright is affirmative in nature because it gives the owner a right to do something other than just preventing other people from doing something. Copyright is unique to expressions that are in a tangible means, e.g., written, artistic works and computer code.

We are available to answer any questions you may have regarding copyright protection and we look forward to working with you. If you are looking for additional general information, visit the United States Copyright Office web site.