Peter D. Aufrichtig, Esq.

 Intellectual Property clients look and sound like all other clients

 Functional  Ornamental  Commercial  Artistic

 Patents on inventions  Trademarks on branding  Copyrights on music, videos, writings, sculpture and other forms of expression

 is a grant of a property right to the inventor  US Patents are issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office  US Patents are effective only within the United States, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions

 Any new and useful ◦ machine ◦ process ◦ article ◦ composition of matter  Or any new or useful improvement thereof

Design patent

 An Invention

 Useful  Novel  Non-Obvious

 Utility patent application  Provisional patent application

$

 Pros ◦ Relatively Inexpensive ◦ Faster ◦ Don’t have to meet formal filing requirements ◦ Get a “patent pending” ◦ Secrecy ◦ Protects ability to file in US utility patent and foreign applications for one year  Cons ◦ Cannot sue for infringement until utility patent application filed and issued

 Formal requirements  Examination  Prosecution  Issue patent

 Word  Name  Symbol  Used in trade with goods or services to indicate the source and to distinguish them from the goods of others

 Distinctive  Non-Descriptive

 2 stages ◦ Quick knockout search through PTO website ◦ Thorough 2 nd level search

 If search is cleared, move on to registration  Intent to use Trademark application is filed  Once mark is used in commerce, registration can be obtained if it receives reg. approval

 Trademarks prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark on similar goods.  Do not prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a different mark.  Trademarks generally do not prevent others from using the same mark for different goods

 a form of protection provided to authors of “original works of authorship” as they are fixed in any tangible medium of expression

 The copyright protects the expression of an idea rather than the idea itself

 literary works  musical and dramatic works  pictorial, graphical, and sculptural works

 motion pictures and other audiovisual works  sound recordings  computer software

 reproduce the work in copies  prepare derivative works based upon the work;  distribute copies of the work to the public by sale or other commercial transfer

 perform the work publicly  display the work publicly  in the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission

 Simple  Inexpensive  Not required for protection  Required for litigation

 Patent ◦ 20 years from filing  Trademark ◦ As long as it’s used  Copyright ◦ A very, very long time