High quality, well managed Intellectual Property can be a valuable asset if you take the appropriate measures to protect it. However, not all Intellectual Property is created equal.  Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets can be distinct assets of your Company. The value of any one of these four basic legal protections for Intellectual Property varies greatly and can be affected more by advertising, marketing, perception, and bias than the pure technology incorporated into the product, system, enterprise, or persons.  Selecting and pursuing the right IP strategy is critical to the success of your enterprise. Your investors and shareholders expect you to have secure rights in the goods and services you provide: your valuation depends on it.

Copyright is a property right in an “original work of authorship that is fixed in a tangible medium of expression.”  Works of authorship include literary works; software and computer programs; musical works; dramatic works; and pictorial, graphical, and sculptural works. That means everything from computer code and data to website design and images.   

To receive copyright protection, the work must be “fixed” and must be “original.” 

• A work is “fixed” when it is in a form that is sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration.

• The originality requirement is a low threshold and will be sufficiently original when the work is something more than trivial or insignificant.

• Copyright law provides for aggressive protection and serious remedies for infringement.

Ideas, concepts, procedures, methods, facts, and the like are not entitled to copyright protection.

A significant asset of any company is its name, logo and brand.  This is usually the first thing a consumer, investor, and the public in general.  These assets are protected by securing a Federal Trademark Registration.  A “trademark” includes any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination thereof to identify and distinguish goods and to indicate the source of the goods.   A “service mark” identifies a service rather than a good, for example, “online retail services featuring the goods of others” a.k.a. Amazon®. The primary function of a trademark and service mark is to identify the origin of goods in commerce.  Trademarks provide quality assurance to consumers.  A trademark induces the owner to maintain a consistent level of quality and allows consumers to rely on it. Our world is filled with brands every day from your STARBUCKS® coffee in the morning thru your use of your Apple® computer, driving in your FORD® auto, and enjoying a  fine  DUCKHORN® wine with dinner.

A utility patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or process that provides, a new way of doing something or offers a new technical solution to a problem.  A patent does not “allow” the owner the right to use the invention but provides the owner the right to “exclude” other from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the invention without the patent owner’s consent.  Validity of patents can be used to protect new, novel, and non-obvious inventions.   Methods, processes, and devices can all be protected. 

Patents on software, under current state of law, are difficult to obtain and even more difficult to enforce. The life of a typical patent is 20 years from the filing date of the application.  Moreover, patents require a disclosure of the essential elements of the invention and in expanding for the future.  A design patent can be used in protecting ornamental, non-functional, and design features of a product.  Examples of design patents are ornamental designs of jewelry, furniture, and computer icons.  A utility patent can be used in protecting a new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter.  Examples of a utility patent are pharmaceuticals, stereos, or computers.

Design patents can be a useful tool in protecting the ornamental design aspects of a product. These patents are much less expensive to obtain and can be a very valuable asset and a useful tool in protecting  your investment.

High quality, well managed Intellectual Property can be a valuable asset if you take the appropriate measures to protect it. However, not all Intellectual Property is created equal.  Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents, and Trade Secrets can be distinct assets of your Company. The value of any one of these four basic legal protections for Intellectual Property varies greatly and can be affected more by advertising, marketing, perception, and bias than the pure technology incorporated into the product, system, enterprise, or persons.  Selecting and pursuing the right IP strategy is critical to the success of your enterprise. Your investors and shareholders expect you to have secure rights in the goods and services you provide: your valuation depends on it.

Trade secrets are confidential business information that provides an enterprise a competitive edge.  Trade secrets encompass manufacturing or industrial secrets and commercial secrets.  Trade secrets include sales methods, distribution methods, consumer profiles, advertising strategies, lists of suppliers and clients, and manufacturing processes.  Computer programs, software and other non obvious aspects of your product or system  can be protected as trade secrets. Trade secrets are protected without any procedural formalities, such as registration, and can be protected for an unlimited period of time.  For a trade secret to exist, the information must:

1. be secret, i.e. not generally known or readily accessible to the public;

2. have commercial value; and

3. have been subject to reasonable steps to keep the information a secret. The unauthorized use of such information by persons other than the holder is regarded as unfair practice and a violation of the trade secret.

An example of trade secret is an enterprise develops a process for the manufacturing of its products, which allows the enterprise to product its goods in a more cost-effective manner.  This process creates a competitive advantage over its competitors and the enterprise would want to prevent the competitors from learning about this process.  The enterprise would make sure that only a limited number of people within the enterprise know about the secret and makes it apparent to those people that it must stay confidential.