Patents, Trademarks & Copyrights
Our fast-paced, electronic society has only heightened the need to secure ownership of original inventions and works and to protect valuable corporate images, brands and trademarks from being stolen or misused. ShuffieldLowman understands the increased difficulty of protecting intellectual investments and offers innovative solutions to the problems that arise from the rapid progress of technology. The firm regularly assists clients in the procurement of patents and the defense of patent infringement and in the registration and protection of trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, domain names and copyrights, including protection of high-technology assets in the computer and Internet industries. This encompasses emerging legal issues in all facets of digital business enterprise, such as computer and software technology, outsourcing arrangements, electronic commerce, electronic publishing and digital entertainment.
Additionally, our team of experts acts as counsel to creators and users of intellectual properties by establishing protective measures to maximize investments, licenses and agreements, including when not to register trademarks. This also encompasses working with creators on building their brand and business. The firm offers intellectual property litigation services, as well, in federal and state courts when infringement issues occur.
Patents
The best way to safeguard an invention is to consult a knowledgeable and experienced U.S. registered patent attorney, who can advise on the scope of legal representative required and the patentability of the invention.
While patent law is complex, here’s a basic explanation. Any person who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent,” subject to the conditions and requirements of the law. The word “process” is defined by law as a process, act or method, and primarily includes industrial or technical processes. The term “manufacture” refers to articles which are made, and includes all manufactured articles. The term “composition of matter” relates to chemical compositions and may include mixtures of ingredients as well as new chemical compounds. These classes of subject matter taken together include practically everything which is made by man and the processes for making the products.
Trademarks
A trademark includes any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods. In short, a trademark is a brand name. A service mark is any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce, to identify and distinguish the services of one provider from services provided by others, and to indicate the source of the services. You can establish rights in a mark based on legitimate use of the mark. However, owning a federal trademark registration on the Principal Register provides several advantages.
Copyrights
Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of “original works of authorship” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. The 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies of the copyrighted work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, or to display the copyrighted work publicly. The copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing. For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description; it would not prevent others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the machine .
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