What is IP?

Intellectual property (IP) is a body of law that allows for protection of creations of the mind. There are many forms of IP protection, but The most well-known are Trademark, Copyright, Patent, and trade secrets.

  • A trademark identifies the source of your goods or services. A trademark can include any word, phrase, symbol, design or a combination of all of these.

    Registering your trademark can help provide legal protection for your brand by giving you the exclusive right to control the use and license of your mark. Having a trademark can also help protect you from fraud and counterfeiting.

    The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the sole federal agency for registering trademarks.

    For more information on how to file a federal trademark, visit the USPTO’s Website.

    For more information on how to file a trademark at the state level, contact your individual state’s trademark office. Find your state here.

  • Copyright protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression. In other words, once you create an original work and make it tangible you have a copyright in that work.

    Works can include musical compositions, sound recordings, books, poems, blog posts, paintings, photographs, illustrations, computer programs, movies, plays, and so much more.

    Although a copyright exists automatically once an original work of authorship is fixed, a copyright owner should register the work with the U.S. Copyright Office to enhance the protections. Registering a work is not mandatory, but for U.S. works, registration is necessary to enforce the exclusive rights of copyright in court.

    Copyright owners have the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, and prepare derivatives of their work. They also have the exclusive right to perform and display the work publicly.

    For more information on how to file a copyright, visit the U.S. Copyright Office.

  • A patent for an invention is essentially a property right the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants an inventor. A patent gives an inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling or importing the invention in the United States.

    There are three types of patents:

    1) Utility patents: may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture*, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement of one of the above;

    2) Design patents: may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture; and

    3) Plant patents: may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.

    *An article of manufacture is a broad term for simply referring to something made by hand or machine.

    For more information on how to file a patent, please visit the USPTO’s website.

  • Trade secrets are intellectual property (IP) rights on confidential information which may be sold or licensed.

    Although this sounds simple and straightforward, this confidential information must have three elements to qualify as a trade secret.

    The information must:

    1. have either an actual or potential independent economic value by virtue of not being generally known,

    2. have value to others who cannot legitimately obtain the information, and

    3. there must have been reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.

    If a trade secret fails to meet any of these three elements, well… then it’s not a trade secret.

    Unlike most other forms of IP, trade secrets are protected without registration and it can be protected for an unlimited period of time, unless it is discovered or legally acquired by others and disclosed to the public.

    There isn’t a central government agency that regulates trade secrets, however, most states will allow you to enforce your trade secret through a misappropriation (infringement) lawsuit. In more extreme cases, federal and some state laws criminalize trade secret misappropriation. The primary federal law that prohibits trade secret theft is the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 which allows the U.S. Attorney General to prosecute a person, organization, or company that intentionally steals, copies, or receives trade secrets.

    For more information on Trade Secrets, you can visit the USPTO’s Website.