Tweet

Intellectual Property – The 3 Branches: Copyrights, Patents & Trademarks

Written by: Shannon Moore

Article Overview: When you hear the phrase intellectual property, what do you think of? How can something that exists in your mind be considered property? Are your ideas your property similar to that of your house or car?

Intellectual Property – The 3 Branches: Copyrights, Patents & Trademarks

When you hear the phrase intellectual property, what do you think of? How can something that exists in your mind be considered property? Are your ideas your property similar to that of your house or car?

Simply put, no, your ideas are not something you can solely own. After all, if ideas were never shared in the marketplace, where would we be? Imagine if Bill Gates had never shared his ideas about the new BASIC programming language that he and Paul Allen developed…would Microsoft exist? How would that have impacted our world today? Let's take it back even further: what would life be like if Louis Pasteur had never shared his ideas about heat treatment, what we now call pasteurization? The sharing of ideas has brought us to where we are, good and bad.

So, what is intellectual property?

Intellectual property is those ideas fixed in a form. That is, it is NOT the idea itself but rather how it's presented. It's also the laws set up to register, manage and govern those presentation of ideas. That can be a bit hard to wrap your mind around so let's look at some examples from the three branches of intellectual property: copyrights, patents and trademarks.

Copyrights:

Copyrights can be obtained for things of an artistic nature. This includes, of course, poetry, films, sculptures, music, fiction, etc. But can also include things that may not necessarily seem "artistic" in the general sense of the word. Copyrights can also be obtained for advertising copy, games, software programs and blueprints, to name just a few.

Patents:

Patents are protection for inventions as well as significant improvements to already existing inventions. Inventions are mostly thought of as things like Edison's electric lamp or phonograph. There are three distinct sections within the patent realm – utility, design and plant. Utility patents protect the invention in its utilitarian sense (i.e. how it functions and how it's used) whereas design patents protect the invention in its ornamental appearance. Let's go back to Edison for an example: he obtained a utility patent for his electric lamp as well as a design patent for the look/design of the electric lamp.

Trademarks:

Trademarks can be names of products or services, logos, slogans, packaging and even sounds and smells. In essence, a trademark can be almost anything that is used to identify a particular product or service. Registering a trademark grants the owner exclusive rights to the mark within the specified industry. Of course, it's necessary to research the mark comprehensively prior to filing to ensure that there is no possibility of infringing upon another party.

Summary

In a nutshell, those are the three branches of intellectual property. The free flowing of ideas has been and will continue to be important to our world development. Of course, protecting those representations of those ideas of yours, whatever form they take, can be just as important. Would Bill Gates be the richest person in the world if he had not secured all of his intellectual property rights?

Let your ideas flow…but be sure to protect your intellectual property!

Related Articles
  PATENTS, TRADEMARKS AND COPYRIGHTS
  Federal Requirements
  Using Trademarks and Patents Together = Double Protection for your Business
  Trademark Your Clothing Line
  Protecting Your Ideas

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Is this copyright infringement? - Hi TheAnonymousMan, From the resources you've provided, it looks like I'll just have to take my own set of pictures at live tennis events for my site. But The Canadian Intellectual Property Office's [i:1smac7qr]A Guide To Copyrights[/i:1smac7qr] states that "The Copyright Act provides that any 'fair dealing' with a work for purposes of private study or research, or for criticism, review or news reporting is not infringement. However, in the case of criticism, review, or news reporting, the user is required to give the source and the author's, performer's, sound recording maker's or broadcaster's name, if known" (6). So if I wanted to report news on Maria Sharapova or make a comment about her, would using an image from her official website be ok if I simply attached a link back to her site (i.e. I gave credit to wherever I got the image)?
How Well Protected Are The Patent Holders? - Intellectual property laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. And it is such that the acquisition, registration or enforcement of the rights must be pursued or obtained separately in each territory of interest. Intellectual property in law is a general term for various legal entitlements. The holder of this legal entitlement is generally entitled to exercise various exclusive rights. Intellectual property laws are designed to protect different forms of subject matter, in this case a Patent. A patent may be granted for a new, useful, and non-obvious invention, and gives the patent holder an exclusive right to commercially exploit the invention for a certain period of time, typically 20 years from the filing date of a patent application. Patents, trademarks, and designs rights are sometimes collectively known as industrial property, as they are typically created and used for industrial or commercial purposes. Various schools of thought are critical of the term “intellectual property”. Some characterise it as intellectual protectionism. From the perspective of economics, intellectual property is a temporary monopoly on the use or exploitation of that Patent, supported by legal enforcement mechanisms. There is a debate going on every where that intellectual property laws truly operate to confer the stated public benefits, and whether the protection they are said to provide is appropriate in the context of innovation derived from such things as traditional knowledge and folklore, and patents for software and business methods. Manifestations of this controversy can be seen in the way different jurisdictions decide whether to grant intellectual property protection in relation to subject matter of this kind, and the divide on issues of the role and scope of intellectual property laws. Most exclusive rights are the right to sue an infringer, which has the effect that people will approach the patent holder for permission to perform the acts to which the patent holder has exclusive right
how much for a franchise fee? - Dear Colleague There is no easy answer to this question. Things to consider: [list=] The sizeof the Franchise Clent base Expected Turnover Intellectual Property costs (recoup) Number of Franchises Number of employees Original Set up costs Franchise admin costs An example: A franchise that I was involved in setting was to a simple "lawn mowing/home repair" franchise. The Franchise included national/local advertising - preparation of client lists - general admin - central accounting etc The Franchise involved 300-500 clients - and an annual turnover of about $300,000 . The annual franchise fee was $30,000. Hope that this gives you some idea Take care Ian[/list]
Re: Template of Service Agreement/Contractor Agreement - Shimmy- I, too, would be happy to share my template contract for a service provider. But beware, a template agreement may not be sufficient to properly address your needs. Some key differences between Employees and Service Providers: 1. Tax Status. Employers are responsible for withholding tax on employee's earnings. Independent Contractors are responsible for reporting their income/taxes. There is a significant reporting burden and liability associated with this. 2. Confidentiality/Intellectual Property. Often times, employee handbooks will specify an employees confidentiality obligations and many states impute a duty of loyalty. Contractors are under no such obligations absent a written agreement. Same thing for IP/Creative works. The copyright Act draws a sharp and significant distinction between employees and contractors when it comes to ownership of creative works. 3. Liability for tortious acts. Generally an employer is liable for the tortious acts of its employees under the theory of respondeat superior. An entity hiring a contractor may/may not be liable, but without a written agreement for the contractor to indemnify/defend the hiring entity, their may be little recourse against the contractor. There are many other subtle differences too numerous to mention. I hope you find this helpful.
Legal due diligence - It seems like you've gotten a lot of advice on how to "value" your prospective venture. But here is something else to keep in mind: do the legal due diligence. 1. What type of structure is it? Corporation, LLC, etc? Is it in "Good Standing?" 2. Does the business have any written contracts, if so with whom? (E.G. advertisers, vendors, employees) 3. Who owns the intellectual property? Copyrights to content, trademarks? 4. How is revenue generated? How do the sellers want to be compensated? Are they willing to do an earn-out? 5. Are there any lawsuits pending or threatened? These are just a couple ideas....


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Online Business Ideas: A Look At Various Options

Email Marketing Made Easy #11 - Avoiding Spam

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.