Today I would like to discuss about what we learned during Professor Efrat Kasznik's speech (hope everyone enjoyed our guest speaker!) and would like to go over intellectual property protection.
In order for Entrepreneurs and business owners to protect their own companies, they have to understand the basics of intellectual property law.
Here are the four types of intellectual property that they can use to protect their business:
- Copyrights
- Patents
- Trademarks
- Trade Secrets
Copyrights
Copyrights protect original works of authorship, such as, literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and computer works. The hodler of a copyright has the exclusive right to reporuce and adapt the work. It is recommended to register at the U.S. Copyright Office since registered works may be eligible for attorneys fees in the copyright infringement suit.
The average time it takes is 2.5 months ~ 5.6 months. Although the duration of the copyright depends on several factors, it lasts for the life of the creator and an additional 70 years.
Patents
Patents allows the patent holder to exclude others from making, selling, or using the invention. It should be filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
There are three types of patents:
- Utility: Most common type, covering any process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter.
- It should be novel, non-obvious, and have some usefulness
- Design: Any new, original design for an article of manufacture
- Plant: New variety of asexually-produced plant
Could cost thousand of dollars and take a LONG time.
Trademarks
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, or design that distinguishes from other business companies. For instance, the Nike "swoosh" logo identifies only Nike designs.
Before registering the trademark, a search of federal and state databases should be conducted to make sure that other similar trademark doesn't already exist.
Trade Secrets
This is literally a "secret" formula, process, device, or other business information needed that makes an advantage of the business over their competitors.
For instance:
- Soda formulas
- Customer lists
- Computer algorithms
- Survey results
You can't obtain protection by "registering your trade secret because businesses use non-disclosure agreements, restricted access to confidential information, post-employment restrictive covenants, and other security practices to maintain trade secrets."
This is such a great blog post, Tiffany! Well done. You have concisely explained everything we learnt in the most recent class in great detail. You also presented this is material in a fantastic way. Keep this up for your next blog post! Well done once again. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany!
ReplyDeleteNice job going over different types of IP - I like how you go a little bit deeper than just saying what they are, but you go into the different types of them: i.e. the different types of patents. Did you by any chance find an infographic on the different types of patents? if so, that could be cool to include. Just a thought. nice job!
This is an awesome and concise explanation of each form of IP that Ms. Kasznik spoke up. Everything was neatly laid out and I liked how you went above and beyond by talking about the different regulations and standards that apply to each type of IP. Personally, I probably will modify my own post about these IP types because I really liked how you went so in-depth with your research and work.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job summarizing the different types of intellectual property. However, I think you should compare them or add your own insight on top of the research you did to improve your post even more!
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany! This is a great blog post, and you summarize Kasznik's talk very well! I especially like how you organized neatly her points on the 4 components of Intellectual property - Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks, and Trade Secrets. Stellar work!
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