By: Michael J Foycik Jr.
June 8, 2013
The author is a patent attorney with over 28 years experience in patents and trademarks. For further information, please email at IP1lwyr@gmail.com, or call at 877-654-3336.
Getting a trademark is a great idea, but things may not be that simple. There are some misconceptions that can cost time, money, or even loss of rights.
One common misconception is that a registered trademark is necessary to have enforceable trademark rights. We are all familiar with registered trademarks – the kind with the ® registration symbol. But, trademark rights normally arise from actual use, even for unregistered trademarks. State courts can enforce such rights arising from actual use, even in the absence of a federally registered trademark. No registration, no problem – sometimes.
Getting a registered trademark requires filing a trademark application. Choices need to be made right at the start: actual use or intent-to-use; type of goods/services; logo or word mark. These choices can have profound consequences. Even the U.S. Trademark Office recommends having an experienced trademark attorney help with those choices – you'll see the warning for that in the online trademark application filing forms and elsewhere.
Actual use sounds better than intent-to-use. Maybe so - unless there is a conflict with another trademark filed on an intent-to-use basis. Then, surprisingly, the owner of the intent-to-use to application is permitted to introduce evidence of events that show an intent-to-use that has occurred before the application's filing date. The actual-use applicant does not have the same rights. Such evidence of intent-to-use can be scant: a mere mention at a business meeting, or an order for design of the mark, for example. This is peculiar to federal trademarks; state courts can apply their own standards and might well decide specific cases differently.
Choice of goods/services is important: more is better, right? Not so fast. Listing multiple catergories is all good and well, until you have to prove actual sales. Sure, a Statement of Use might work with the U.S. Trademark Office, but at a cost: forfeiture of rights if untrue. When it comes time to enforce your trademark rights against an infringer, it may become necessary to have proof of use in specific categories of goods. Listing a few categories of goods is fine, and once you get your trademark registered your future use in other categories will allow you to file further trademark applications for those additional uses.
Read More >> http://internationalpatentservice.com/Costly-Misconceptions-About-Trademarks.html
Showing posts with label Trademarks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trademarks. Show all posts
Costly Misconceptions About Trademarks
By: Michael J Foycik Jr.
June 8, 2013
The author is a patent attorney with over 28 years experience in patents and trademarks. For further information, please email at IP1lwyr@gmail.com, or call at 877-654-3336.
Getting a trademark is a great idea, but things may not be that simple. There are some misconceptions that can cost time, money, or even loss of rights.
One common misconception is that a registered trademark is necessary to have enforceable trademark rights. We are all familiar with registered trademarks – the kind with the ® registration symbol. But, trademark rights normally arise from actual use, even for unregistered trademarks. State courts can enforce such rights arising from actual use, even in the absence of a federally registered trademark. No registration, no problem – sometimes.
Getting a registered trademark requires filing a trademark application. Choices need to be made right at the start: actual use or intent-to-use; type of goods/services; logo or word mark. These choices can have profound consequences. Even the U.S. Trademark Office recommends having an experienced trademark attorney help with those choices – you'll see the warning for that in the online trademark application filing forms and elsewhere.
Actual use sounds better than intent-to-use. Maybe so - unless there is a conflict with another trademark filed on an intent-to-use basis. Then, surprisingly, the owner of the intent-to-use to application is permitted to introduce evidence of events that show an intent-to-use that has occurred before the application's filing date. The actual-use applicant does not have the same rights. Such evidence of intent-to-use can be scant: a mere mention at a business meeting, or an order for design of the mark, for example. This is peculiar to federal trademarks; state courts can apply their own standards and might well decide specific cases differently.
Choice of goods/services is important: more is better, right? Not so fast. Listing multiple catergories is all good and well, until you have to prove actual sales. Sure, a Statement of Use might work with the U.S. Trademark Office, but at a cost: forfeiture of rights if untrue. When it comes time to enforce your trademark rights against an infringer, it may become necessary to have proof of use in specific categories of goods. Listing a few categories of goods is fine, and once you get your trademark registered your future use in other categories will allow you to file further trademark applications for those additional uses.
Logos are great: typically a logo is a design plus words. Better than just the plain words, right? Not exactly. A plain, ordinary word mark – once registered – covers variations and logos, and sometimes can even cover translations into other languages. But, again, things are not always simple. A complex logo might be registrable when the word mark by itself would not be registrable, but those situations do not seem to be very common. The word mark is a very good way to go.
Read More >> http://internationalpatentservice.com/Costly-Misconceptions-About-Trademarks.html
June 8, 2013
The author is a patent attorney with over 28 years experience in patents and trademarks. For further information, please email at IP1lwyr@gmail.com, or call at 877-654-3336.
Getting a trademark is a great idea, but things may not be that simple. There are some misconceptions that can cost time, money, or even loss of rights.
One common misconception is that a registered trademark is necessary to have enforceable trademark rights. We are all familiar with registered trademarks – the kind with the ® registration symbol. But, trademark rights normally arise from actual use, even for unregistered trademarks. State courts can enforce such rights arising from actual use, even in the absence of a federally registered trademark. No registration, no problem – sometimes.
Getting a registered trademark requires filing a trademark application. Choices need to be made right at the start: actual use or intent-to-use; type of goods/services; logo or word mark. These choices can have profound consequences. Even the U.S. Trademark Office recommends having an experienced trademark attorney help with those choices – you'll see the warning for that in the online trademark application filing forms and elsewhere.
Actual use sounds better than intent-to-use. Maybe so - unless there is a conflict with another trademark filed on an intent-to-use basis. Then, surprisingly, the owner of the intent-to-use to application is permitted to introduce evidence of events that show an intent-to-use that has occurred before the application's filing date. The actual-use applicant does not have the same rights. Such evidence of intent-to-use can be scant: a mere mention at a business meeting, or an order for design of the mark, for example. This is peculiar to federal trademarks; state courts can apply their own standards and might well decide specific cases differently.
Choice of goods/services is important: more is better, right? Not so fast. Listing multiple catergories is all good and well, until you have to prove actual sales. Sure, a Statement of Use might work with the U.S. Trademark Office, but at a cost: forfeiture of rights if untrue. When it comes time to enforce your trademark rights against an infringer, it may become necessary to have proof of use in specific categories of goods. Listing a few categories of goods is fine, and once you get your trademark registered your future use in other categories will allow you to file further trademark applications for those additional uses.
Logos are great: typically a logo is a design plus words. Better than just the plain words, right? Not exactly. A plain, ordinary word mark – once registered – covers variations and logos, and sometimes can even cover translations into other languages. But, again, things are not always simple. A complex logo might be registrable when the word mark by itself would not be registrable, but those situations do not seem to be very common. The word mark is a very good way to go.
Read More >> http://internationalpatentservice.com/Costly-Misconceptions-About-Trademarks.html
Intellectual Property: Difference Between Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents
By: Sam Mollaei
Considering the complexity of intellectual property law, it is understandable that many individuals like artists, authors, bloggers, journalist, etc. are likely to confuse the terms Patent, Copyright, and Trademark. Often you may hear them speak of “patenting a book” or “copywriting a new gadget”. These are legal terms that are on occasion confused by a lot of people. In this post, you will get to know the difference between:
>> Patent
>> Copyright
>> Trademark
So what is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property is the ownership of tangible and non-physical goods. Since intellectual property is intangible, then it becomes a lot more difficult to protect it as compared to other kinds of property.
A simpler definition of intellectual property is something that is created by an individual’s or professional’s mind. However, intellectual property does not protect the bare ideas; rather it is basically the expression or the symbolic power/recognizability of the ideas that have been protected.
The intellectual property, in this case, is the design of a car that is patented. But not the idea of the car itself. It can be the painting of a beautiful house that is copyrighted but not the idea of the house. The intellectual property is the consumer recognizable logo that has been trademarked but not the idea of the logo. Therefore, the intellectual property only protects how we can express and identify ideas in concrete ways. But not the idea itself.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a device, a symbol, a name that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the particular product or service that will distinguish it from the goods and services of others. The trademark rights that are offered to a company may be used to prevent other businesses from making the same goods or rather from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark.
The trademarks protect any symbol that shows or indicates the source of the origin. While the trademark of a particular company may be very important to the owner of the company, its ultimate purpose is to protect the consumer, by informing them about the origin of the product.
What is Copyright?
The copyright can protect the specific creative expression of an idea that can be through any medium of artistic or creative expression. Examples can be paintings, writings, sculptures, photographs, software, etc. It is generally a form of protection that is offered to the authors of original works of the authorship.
The law gives the original owner the right to reproduce the copyrighted work; that can be both published and unpublished. The copyright will protect the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing.
That is why the description of a car can be copyrighted. But this, however, will not stop others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the car. Copyrights are usually registered by the copyright office of the Library of Congress.
What is a Patent?
A patent for a specific invention is the grant of a property right to the individual inventor that is usually issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The patents purpose is to protect the functional expressions of the idea and not the idea itself.
A machine’s method, composition, and manufacture may all be patented. Therefore, an engineer can patent the design of a nozzle on a spacecraft or the method used in making the spacecraft, etc. However, you cannot patent the broad idea of the spacecraft.
To be specific, the right that is conferred by the patent grant is the language of the statute and the grant itself. This is the right that excludes others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the United States.
What You Need to Know
You need to note that each of the categories is distinct. A product may at times fall into one or more of the categories. A good example is of a software that is covered by both the patent and copyright. Where the copyright will protect the artistic expression of the idea, this is the code itself. While the patent would protect the functional expression of the idea of the software.
Therefore, before you set out to copyright, trademark or patent anything, make sure you get legal advice from a qualified lawyer. He/she will assist you in processing your product or services within the illustrated categories.
Choosing whether to get your work/ invention/creation patented, copyrighted or trademarked can be quite a tedious task. Especially if you do not know how to distinguish one from another. Therefore, the motive of today’s post was to make it clear in the mind of readers what each one of the different methods of safeguarding various types of intellectual properties means and how they are different from each other.
Read More >> https://invoicebus.com/blog/intellectual-property-trademarks-copyrights-patents/?ref=quuu
Considering the complexity of intellectual property law, it is understandable that many individuals like artists, authors, bloggers, journalist, etc. are likely to confuse the terms Patent, Copyright, and Trademark. Often you may hear them speak of “patenting a book” or “copywriting a new gadget”. These are legal terms that are on occasion confused by a lot of people. In this post, you will get to know the difference between:
>> Patent
>> Copyright
>> Trademark
So what is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property is the ownership of tangible and non-physical goods. Since intellectual property is intangible, then it becomes a lot more difficult to protect it as compared to other kinds of property.
A simpler definition of intellectual property is something that is created by an individual’s or professional’s mind. However, intellectual property does not protect the bare ideas; rather it is basically the expression or the symbolic power/recognizability of the ideas that have been protected.
The intellectual property, in this case, is the design of a car that is patented. But not the idea of the car itself. It can be the painting of a beautiful house that is copyrighted but not the idea of the house. The intellectual property is the consumer recognizable logo that has been trademarked but not the idea of the logo. Therefore, the intellectual property only protects how we can express and identify ideas in concrete ways. But not the idea itself.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a device, a symbol, a name that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the particular product or service that will distinguish it from the goods and services of others. The trademark rights that are offered to a company may be used to prevent other businesses from making the same goods or rather from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark.
The trademarks protect any symbol that shows or indicates the source of the origin. While the trademark of a particular company may be very important to the owner of the company, its ultimate purpose is to protect the consumer, by informing them about the origin of the product.
What is Copyright?
The copyright can protect the specific creative expression of an idea that can be through any medium of artistic or creative expression. Examples can be paintings, writings, sculptures, photographs, software, etc. It is generally a form of protection that is offered to the authors of original works of the authorship.
The law gives the original owner the right to reproduce the copyrighted work; that can be both published and unpublished. The copyright will protect the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing.
That is why the description of a car can be copyrighted. But this, however, will not stop others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the car. Copyrights are usually registered by the copyright office of the Library of Congress.
What is a Patent?
A patent for a specific invention is the grant of a property right to the individual inventor that is usually issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The patents purpose is to protect the functional expressions of the idea and not the idea itself.
A machine’s method, composition, and manufacture may all be patented. Therefore, an engineer can patent the design of a nozzle on a spacecraft or the method used in making the spacecraft, etc. However, you cannot patent the broad idea of the spacecraft.
To be specific, the right that is conferred by the patent grant is the language of the statute and the grant itself. This is the right that excludes others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the United States.
What You Need to Know
You need to note that each of the categories is distinct. A product may at times fall into one or more of the categories. A good example is of a software that is covered by both the patent and copyright. Where the copyright will protect the artistic expression of the idea, this is the code itself. While the patent would protect the functional expression of the idea of the software.
Therefore, before you set out to copyright, trademark or patent anything, make sure you get legal advice from a qualified lawyer. He/she will assist you in processing your product or services within the illustrated categories.
Choosing whether to get your work/ invention/creation patented, copyrighted or trademarked can be quite a tedious task. Especially if you do not know how to distinguish one from another. Therefore, the motive of today’s post was to make it clear in the mind of readers what each one of the different methods of safeguarding various types of intellectual properties means and how they are different from each other.
Read More >> https://invoicebus.com/blog/intellectual-property-trademarks-copyrights-patents/?ref=quuu
Intellectual Property: Difference Between Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents
By: Sam Mollaei
Considering the complexity of intellectual property law, it is understandable that many individuals like artists, authors, bloggers, journalist, etc. are likely to confuse the terms Patent, Copyright, and Trademark. Often you may hear them speak of “patenting a book” or “copywriting a new gadget”. These are legal terms that are on occasion confused by a lot of people. In this post, you will get to know the difference between:
>> Patent
>> Copyright
>> Trademark
So what is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property is the ownership of tangible and non-physical goods. Since intellectual property is intangible, then it becomes a lot more difficult to protect it as compared to other kinds of property.
A simpler definition of intellectual property is something that is created by an individual’s or professional’s mind. However, intellectual property does not protect the bare ideas; rather it is basically the expression or the symbolic power/recognizability of the ideas that have been protected.
The intellectual property, in this case, is the design of a car that is patented. But not the idea of the car itself. It can be the painting of a beautiful house that is copyrighted but not the idea of the house. The intellectual property is the consumer recognizable logo that has been trademarked but not the idea of the logo. Therefore, the intellectual property only protects how we can express and identify ideas in concrete ways. But not the idea itself.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a device, a symbol, a name that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the particular product or service that will distinguish it from the goods and services of others. The trademark rights that are offered to a company may be used to prevent other businesses from making the same goods or rather from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark.
The trademarks protect any symbol that shows or indicates the source of the origin. While the trademark of a particular company may be very important to the owner of the company, its ultimate purpose is to protect the consumer, by informing them about the origin of the product.
What is Copyright?
The copyright can protect the specific creative expression of an idea that can be through any medium of artistic or creative expression. Examples can be paintings, writings, sculptures, photographs, software, etc. It is generally a form of protection that is offered to the authors of original works of the authorship.
Read More >> https://invoicebus.com/blog/intellectual-property-trademarks-copyrights-patents/?ref=quuu
Considering the complexity of intellectual property law, it is understandable that many individuals like artists, authors, bloggers, journalist, etc. are likely to confuse the terms Patent, Copyright, and Trademark. Often you may hear them speak of “patenting a book” or “copywriting a new gadget”. These are legal terms that are on occasion confused by a lot of people. In this post, you will get to know the difference between:
>> Patent
>> Copyright
>> Trademark
So what is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property is the ownership of tangible and non-physical goods. Since intellectual property is intangible, then it becomes a lot more difficult to protect it as compared to other kinds of property.
A simpler definition of intellectual property is something that is created by an individual’s or professional’s mind. However, intellectual property does not protect the bare ideas; rather it is basically the expression or the symbolic power/recognizability of the ideas that have been protected.
The intellectual property, in this case, is the design of a car that is patented. But not the idea of the car itself. It can be the painting of a beautiful house that is copyrighted but not the idea of the house. The intellectual property is the consumer recognizable logo that has been trademarked but not the idea of the logo. Therefore, the intellectual property only protects how we can express and identify ideas in concrete ways. But not the idea itself.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a device, a symbol, a name that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the particular product or service that will distinguish it from the goods and services of others. The trademark rights that are offered to a company may be used to prevent other businesses from making the same goods or rather from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark.
The trademarks protect any symbol that shows or indicates the source of the origin. While the trademark of a particular company may be very important to the owner of the company, its ultimate purpose is to protect the consumer, by informing them about the origin of the product.
What is Copyright?
The copyright can protect the specific creative expression of an idea that can be through any medium of artistic or creative expression. Examples can be paintings, writings, sculptures, photographs, software, etc. It is generally a form of protection that is offered to the authors of original works of the authorship.
Read More >> https://invoicebus.com/blog/intellectual-property-trademarks-copyrights-patents/?ref=quuu
Startup Companies and Trademarks, an Attorney's View
By: Michael J Foycik Jr.
April 27, 2013
The author is a patent attorney with over 28 years experience in patents and trademarks. For further information, please email at IP1lwyr@gmail.com, or call at 877-654-3336.
An important decision facing new startup companies is what to do about trademarks. The question is, should they apply for a federal trademark registration. The answer to that depends very much on the goals for the startup.
If the goal of the owner of the startup company is to succed and then sell at a profit, then a federal trademark is essential. Think about it from the perspective of a buyer: without a trademark, that buyer cannot get the goodwill of the startup company. That goodwill includes such things as name recognition by customers, and loyalty all those dealing with the existing company. But, without official trademark rights, the buyer may not have exclusive rights to the use of the trademark, and imitators could flourish.
Some startups need investors, and investors are more comfortable when they see rights owned by the startup. After all, what are they investing in, if not intellectual property rights of some kind? Those rights commonly are from a good trade name or trademark. Other such IP rights can include trade secrets, patents, or copyrights.
Read More >> http://internationalpatentservice.com/Startup-Companies-and-Trademarks-an-Attorney-View.html
April 27, 2013
The author is a patent attorney with over 28 years experience in patents and trademarks. For further information, please email at IP1lwyr@gmail.com, or call at 877-654-3336.
An important decision facing new startup companies is what to do about trademarks. The question is, should they apply for a federal trademark registration. The answer to that depends very much on the goals for the startup.
If the goal of the owner of the startup company is to succed and then sell at a profit, then a federal trademark is essential. Think about it from the perspective of a buyer: without a trademark, that buyer cannot get the goodwill of the startup company. That goodwill includes such things as name recognition by customers, and loyalty all those dealing with the existing company. But, without official trademark rights, the buyer may not have exclusive rights to the use of the trademark, and imitators could flourish.
Some startups need investors, and investors are more comfortable when they see rights owned by the startup. After all, what are they investing in, if not intellectual property rights of some kind? Those rights commonly are from a good trade name or trademark. Other such IP rights can include trade secrets, patents, or copyrights.
Read More >> http://internationalpatentservice.com/Startup-Companies-and-Trademarks-an-Attorney-View.html
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