Intellectual Property Law: A General Overview
Intellectual Property (IP) law is a crucial aspect of the modern economy, safeguarding the creations, manner of communication, and innovations that drive progress. This blog aims to provide a comprehensive and clear overview of IP law, its importance, various forms, protection strategies, and commercialization aspects, as well as rules in the USPTO and around the world to consider and keep in mind as you move your business forward. This field is dynamic, so there will be no shortage of topics and issues to consider. What is Intellectual Property? IP refers to certain creations of the mind that are committed to… [read more]
What Is a License?
It’s common for businesses to use intellectual property created by another party. This is accomplished by obtaining a license from the owner. A license is a grant of rights to use someone else’s intellectual property for a term — with a reversionary interest. In other words, there’s a set time frame in which those rights are granted, after which all rights revert back to the owner. When using someone else’s content, it’s critical to obtain a license and to attribute it according to that license. Of course, there are exceptions, like where there is no commercial interest. George Lucas would not sue a… [read more]
Implementing Your Intellectual Property Protection Plan
It’s not enough to simply have an IP protection plan. As you put it into place, it is important to make sure that you revisit that plan, to ensure that it covers the current status of your company and what you are doing. For example, filing for protections may not be the only step you take. If you’re talking to investors, potential contractors, or employees, you can start protecting your intellectual property by having them sign nondisclosure agreements. If you hire contractors, make sure that they assign your business the intellectual property that they’re creating for you. Also, make sure… [read more]
The Way Forward: From Conception to Enforcement of Your IP Rights
It’s never too early to consider protection of your intellectual property or to consider where things stand with your business as you start up or continue forward, grow, and mature. It all starts with the conception of your idea and how you are going to implement it in your business. The next step is figuring out what exactly you have conceived. You may have heard this called an “IP Audit,” but really it is an overall evaluation of what you have, who owns it, and whether it is protected — or even worth protecting. Is it a patentable subject matter?… [read more]
IP Considerations: Why They Are Always Important
There are a number and variety of considerations to evaluate when it comes to intellectual property (“IP”) protections. On a base level, the core issues are what you want to protect and where you want to protect it. From that point, an attorney will want to consider what types of protections would provide the best and broadest coverage, while also weighing those considerations against costs and related concerns. And during that whole time you need to ensure that you actually own or control the IP. In the United States, and around the world, copyrights protect works of creative authorship (e.g.,… [read more]
The Brexit Transition Is About to Begin
On January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom is scheduled to officially leave the European Union. In this post, I wanted to run through how Brexit is going to affect EU trademark filings and registrations. Here’s how things are supposed to play out: Any EU registrations in force on December 31, 2020, will automatically be transitioned to the UK register. They will be granted a UK registration number, which will be identifiable as a transition registration. Once transitioned to the UK register, a mark will maintain the original EU priority and registration dates. The transition process for EU registrations will be… [read more]
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