Your intellect has value once you claim it.
If you’re confused about what kind of economy is driving us into the future (gig, sharing), let me tell you: it’s a knowledge-based one. Businesses are thriving under the rule of highly creative and innovative people. One thing that is fueling this economy is intellectual property.
Companies and individuals can legally protect intangible assets and creations of the human mind. These assets are legally protected and cannot be put to any use without due consent. Intellectual property is the umbrella term under which all such assets are categorized.
If you think monitoring these assets must be a real pain, you would be correct! However, technology like intellectual property management software helps businesses manage databases, automate registrations for new and ongoing intellectual property ownership, and track violations of these rights.
Intellectual property (IP) is the broad description given to intangible products such as inventions, literary works, artistic designs, symbols, names, and images owned by businesses or individuals. These are under legal protections that give creations of the mind the same rights as physical property. Patents, copyrights, and trademarks are all forms of intellectual property.
Implementing and owning someone else’s intellectual property without due consent is a legal violation. Most developed countries have legal measures in place to protect the use of intellectual properties.
Developing and owning intellectual property is critical for businesses seeking to innovate. An increasing number of big and small companies are turning their attention to investing in research and development (R&D) efforts and securing rights to intellectual property. This brings in the need to accurately identify, document, and protect intellectual properties.
Since most IPs are tied in some manner to a company’s products (if corporately owned), an efficient IP strategy will reconcile with the work being done on the businesses’ products. Consequently, intellectual property adds commercial value to the company and enables leaders to scale up ambitiously while balancing innovation.
patents were granted by the United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO) in 2023.
Source: Statista
Hear me out, I’m not trying to categorize the creations of our beautiful minds, but I’d not be telling the whole story if I didn’t mention the big ones.
While intellectual property encompasses most intangible assets, the main types include patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and geographical indications (GIs).
All types of intellectual property form an important part of a company’s asset management strategy and enable people to earn recognition or money for their creations.
Leaders must strike the right balance between the interests of the innovators and other stakeholders to build successful organizations that promote creativity and innovation.
A patent is a government-granted property right to build, sell, and use inventions while disallowing others from doing so. Patents in the US are typically granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and provide inventors with exclusive rights to the invention. Matter categorized as inventions includes designs, processes, or physical machines.
A concept, subject matter, process, or machine is considered eligible for a patent by the USPTO under the following conditions:
Patents can be expensive to obtain and maintain due to recurring yearly fees or patent costs. Anyone can file for a patent, but it is only valid in the issuing country once granted. Therefore, inventors must consult with legal service providers about which regions and markets require patent protection by law. It is also essential to keep in mind that patents usually only last 20 years. After that, it expires and can be subject to duplication.
Example:
In 2015, Airbus acquired a patent for using 3D printing to build aircraft. The technology creates wings, fuselages, and other parts, and it substantially decreases production and shipping costs.
There are three main types of patents that businesses and individuals can file for.
1. Utility patents: New and useful processes, machines, manufacturing articles, and compositions of matter that are discovered fall under utility patents. These expire in 20 years, and regular fees are required for maintenance.
2. Design patents: Original, new, and ornamental designs (industrial designs) are eligible for design patents. Both 2D and 3D features, such as patterns and lines, as well as shapes and surfaces, are included under these industrial design properties. These patents are valid for up to 14 years.
3. Plant patents: Discoveries of new varieties of plants created from non-reproductive plant cells are included under plant patents. The criteria for these state that the plant must be asexually reproducible, and the reproduction must be genetically identical to the original. Plant patents are good for 20 years.
Let’s face it: we’d all claim Beyoncé’s music as our own if we legally could.
Authors, artists, musicians, and creators of unique materials gain exclusive rights to use, copy, or duplicate their work through copyrights. The original owners can legally authorize the creation to anyone through licensing agreements and other means.
Copyrights do not protect ideas, methods, processes, etc. Instead, they provide rights to aspects of ideas that denote expressions, such as titles, names, phrases, slogans, symbols, or colors and lettering.
Businesses can also own copyrights when employees or independent contractors create work made for hire. The U.S. Copyright Law states that copyright owners possess the following rights exclusively:
To be considered for the copyright of material property, the following requirements must be met:
So when do copyrights expire?
Any work created on or after January 1, 1978, has copyright protection 70 years after the creator’s death. However, for business applications (re: works for hire), the copyright has a life of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation.
Copyright protection is automatic but can be more secure if the author applies for copyright registration. Registered work allows owners to have copyright material on the public record and obtain a registration certificate. The process also makes creators eligible for statutory damages and attorney fees.
When you see the checkmark sign, what do you think of first? Your to-do list or the footwear giant? My bet is on the latter.
Symbols, phrases, words, designs, sounds, and insignias that are recognizable and identifying factors of a business are termed trademarks (goods) or service marks (services). Simply put, a trademark is an intellectual property that legally separates a company from other products and organizations. It is exclusive to the company and cannot be used and copied by another party.
The USPTO also issues trademarks in the United States. Having a trademark does not imply that the company owns the logo or word; rather, it owns the right to decide how said logo or word can be used for business purposes. For this reason, people sometimes confuse trademarks vs. copyrights. It is possible for a design to be protected by a trademark while at the same time being copyrightable as a work of art.
Businesses must remember that it’s easier for unique slogans and designs to qualify for trademark protection rather than long, descriptive phrases. Consumers recall brands more easily when they hear “I’m lovin’ it” rather than “crispy french fries with a tangy ketchup.”
Main benefits of trademark registration:
Four basic requirements for registering a trademark:
Trademarks typically expire after ten years and can be renewed for 10 years. Filing fees are based on several factors, including the type of form and number of classes of goods or services. Companies must clearly represent the mark in mind (and on paper) before application. Browsing the trademark search list to ensure that a similar trademark doesn’t exist is recommended.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines trade secrets as company information that can be leveraged by external parties for economic benefit or competitive advantage, and which is not public knowledge.
Not all confidential information can be termed trade secrets. For example, an organization will put extra effort into protecting its R&D data to avoid the risk of any data leakage.
Information is determined to be a trade secret when:
While laws vary for different nations, common intellectual property law views the unauthorized acquisition, use, and disclosure of trade secrets as a legal violation. IP rights to organizational secrets are protected and cannot be sold or licensed.
Fun fact: NYC is the Big Apple, but Washinton State has geographical IP rights on the fruit. But what does that mean?
Under IP law, goods can possess signs or GIs of a specific origin. Each of these signs has a characteristic that is attributed back to its place of origin. Since product quality is often tied to the place of production, the two have a clear relationship.
Geographical identifications are typically used for these products.
Protecting intellectual property (IP) involves taking legal and strategic steps to safeguard creations, inventions, and branding from unauthorized use.
Here are key methods to protect intellectual property:
Protecting your intellectual property goes beyond filing trademarks and patents. Streamline IP management, ensure compliance, and safeguard your assets more effectively with the right legal practice management software.
When we talk about intellectual property protection, we’re referring to the rights associated with these assets, intellectual property rights (IPR). IPRs must not be infringed upon by people unauthorized to use them or their attached assets.
Intellectual property law provides IP owners the right to prevent others from reproducing, mimicking, and exploiting owned works. However, infringement can occur and is defined differently for each type of intellectual property.
In 2016, the multinational company known for its signature coffee concoctions filed a lawsuit against the Obsidian Group. The former claimed that the defendant was marketing a drink called the Freddocino, similar to Starbucks’ trademarked Frappuccino. The defendant changed the name of its drink to Freddo, but the coffee giant has still not given up. The verdict on the lawsuit is pending to this date.
Almost every company has one or more kinds of intellectual property, ranging from brand colors to logos to more complex assets like patents on programming systems and vital research secrets.
Regardless of the number of IP assets, knowing about local and international laws is imperative when applying for IPRs. Hiring in-house or external counsel and leveraging the right software to record flings and identify infringements can save tons of money and time.
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This article was originally published in 2022. It has been updated with new information. robust