Patent, Trademark, and Copyright In contemporary world, no business asset is more valuable than Intellectual Property. From the time of the conception of your business you invest in its name, logos, trademarks, and bylines. They can be as valuable as the reputation and profit levels. • Are you in a creative business? Designers, illustrators, painters, software engineers, writers, authors can all create works with long lasting value. • Are you an inventor? How do establish proof of ownership of your invention? • Attend this workshop and learn: • Whether or not you need protection for your intellectual property. Regular businesses often should be protecting their brand via copyright & trademarks • Which methods are appropriate to your situation? • What processes are involved? • How much you can do yourself and at what point a lawyer might be needed? • The timelines involved? By investing a few hours in this workshop you will have up-to-date information on a key issue that you should address to decide if you need to protect or enhance the value of your business for any intellectual property that you have developed. Speaker: Divya Khullar Mr. Khullar is a registered patent attorney and owner USAPatents.com. Experienced in intellectual property (patent, trademark, copyright), litigation, licensing and transactional matters, Mr. Khullar has represented clients in intellectual property, patent, trademark, domain dispute, and copyright dispute litigation. His technical fields of expertise comprise informatics, medical devices, electrical/electronic engineering, software development, image processing, and medical physics. For more information contact Divya Khullar at www.usapatents.com

1. By
Divya Khullar
USAPatents.com

2.  What is intellectual property?
 Intangible Asset of a business
 What constitutes intellectual property?
 Patent, Trademark (Internet Domains), Trade Secret,
Copyright.

3.  Can I file my own IP or DO I have to hire an
ATTORNEY
 YOU HAVE TO HIRE ME 
 NO – There is no such requirement that you hire an
attorney?

4.  What is a Copyright?
 Property rights to the Authors of “original works of
authorship”
 Literary, Dramatic, Musical, Artistic and certain other kind of
works.

5.  Copyright owner has exclusive right to:
 Make copies;
 Derivative works of original;
 Distribute copies to the public
 Sale, Rent, Lease, or Lend;
 Perform the work publicly
 Literary, musical, dramatic, audiovisual works;
 Display the work publicly; and
 Perform the work publicly by means of digital audio
transmission (sound recordings).
 Integrity

6.  Who Can Claim Copyright?
 Authors
 Work made for hire
 Authors of a joint work are co-owners

7.  If I sell my a book, manuscript, painting, CD, DVD
do I loose my copyright?
 Mere transfer of ownership of any material object that
embodies a protected work does not of itself convey any
rights in the copyright.

8.  What cannot be Copyrighted?
 Work that cannot or have not be fixed in a tangible form.
 Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or
designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation,
lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents
 Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts,
principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a
description, explanation, or illustration.

9.  Do I have to register my copyright?
 NO
 Copyright is created as soon as you manifest the work.
 Advantages
 Legal
 Cannot file a law suite if registration/pre-registration not done.
 Constructive notice to the entire world.
 Treaty: Protection in other countries
 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
 Berne Convention
 Practical
 Peace Of Mind

10.  How long does a copyright lasts
 Before January 1, 1978
 95 years from their publication date.
 After January 1, 1978
 Individual:
 Life of the author + 70 years
 Joint Work:
 Life of the last surviving author + 70 years.
 Corporate work/work for hire:
 95 years from publication or
 120 years from creation which ever occurs earlier

11.  Resource
 www.copyright.gov/

12.  What is a trademark?
 Anything used by owners to identify goods/Services.
 Trade + Mark
 Goodwill of your Business

13.  Kinds of trademarks?
 Trademarks;
 Service marks;
 Certification marks;
 Collective marks;
 Trade Dress

14.  Do I have to file for a trademark?
 NO
 Your trademark is in effect as soon as you start using it in trade.

15.  Why should I obtain a trademark?
 Constructive notice nationwide;
 Geographic limitation with non-registered trademarks.
 Evidence of ownership of the trademark;
 Jurisdiction of federal courts may be invoked;
 As a basis for obtaining registration in foreign countries; and
 U.S. Customs Service to prevent importation of infringing
foreign goods.

16.  Other practical advantage
 Attorney will conduct trademark search prior to filing
for a trademark.
 Know if your mark is already registered or is in use in the
trade.
 Investment of time and money in branding and promoting
your mark
 Describe your product ("goods and services")

17.  What is trademark infringement?
 Similarity in the overall impression created by the two marks;
 Similarities of the goods and services involved;
 Strength of the plaintiff's mark;
 Evidence of actual confusion by consumers;
 Intent of the defendant in adopting its mark;
 Physical proximity of the goods in the retail marketplace; and
 Degree of care likely to be exercised by the consumer.

18.  Resource
 http://www.uspto.gov/

19.  What is a Patent?
 Property right granted by the Government of the United
States of America to an inventor
 “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or
selling the invention throughout the United States or
importing the invention into the United States”
 Limited time
 In exchange for public disclosure of the invention

20.  Who can apply for a patent?
 Actual inventor(s).
 Inventor(s) can SELL or ASSIGN
 Employee/Contractor agreement

21.  What can be patented?
 A. Utility patents
 B. Design patents
 C. Plant patents

22.  What can be patented?
 A. Utility patents
 1. A new, nonobvious and useful:
 Process;
 Machine;
 Article of manufacture; or
 Composition of matter.
 2. Improvements of any of the above.

23.  What can be patented?
 B. Design patents
 new and non-obvious
 ornamental designs
 for articles of manufacture.

24.  What can be patented?
 C. Plant patents
 Invented or discovered
 asexually reproduced,
 distinct and new varieties of plants,
 including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found
seedlings,
 other than a tuber propagated plant or
 a plant found in an uncultivated state.

25.  What cannot be patented?
 Laws of nature;
 Physical phenomena; and
 Abstract ideas which are not useful (such as perpetual motion
machines)
 Offensive to public morality.
 Medical Procedures (35 U.S.C. § 287(c)): when a medical procedure
is found to be a “MEDICAL ACTIVITY,” that procedure, although
patentable, is not enforceable.

26.  How long does patent protection last?
 A. Utility & C. Plant Patents
 20 years from the date the inventor first applies for the patent,
 Subject to the payment of appropriate maintenance fees.
 B. Design patents
 14 years from the date the patent is issued.
 No maintenance fees are required for design patents.

27.  How long does it take to get a patent?
 Timeline
 Filing date
 18th month publication deadline & Examiner assigned
 Office actions and response

28.  RESOURCE
 USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office)
 http://www.uspto.gov

29.  What is a trade secrets?
 Common sense definition
 Trade + Secret
 Confidential Information
 Classified Information

30.  Legal definition
 (1) information;
 (2) reasonable measures taken to protect the information; and
 (3) which derives independent economic value from not being
publicly known.
 Example?
 Coca-Cola

31.  How do I get trade secret
 Non-compete and Non-disclosure contracts
 Employees/Contractors/Collaborators
 Vendors or / Licensees
 Laws
 State Laws: Uniform Trade Secrets Act (46 States)
 Federal Laws: Theft/Misappropriation of a trade secret is a federal crime.

32.  Why get a patent? Can I keep my idea/invention a
secret?
 YES you can keep the idea a secret
 Practical Consideration
 3rd party
 Independently duplicating the secret information
Reverse Engineering
 Independently develop

33.  What is a patent?
 Idea/Invention, new & useful
 What is a Trademark?
 Goodwill of your business
 What is a Copyright?
 Authors original work

34. Divya Khullar
E-mail: Dkhullar@USAPatents.com
USAPatents.com