Intellectual Property (IP) can be broken down into the following categories: patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.

A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Generally, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. U.S. patent grants are effective only within the United States, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions. Under certain circumstances, patent term extensions or adjustments may be available. The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention. Once a patent is issued, the patentee must enforce the patent without aid of the USPTO. There are three types of patents: 1) Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof; 2) Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture; and 3) Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.

A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or device that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms “trademark” and “mark” are commonly used to refer to both trademarks and servicemarks. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. Trademarks that are used in interstate or foreign commerce may be registered with the USPTO. The registration procedure for trademarks and general information concerning trademarks can be found at basic facts about Trademarks.

Copyright is a form of protection provided to 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 or phonorecords 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. Copyrights are registered by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.

A trade secret is defined as: “all forms and types of financial, business, scientific, technical, economic, or engineering information, including patterns, plans, compilations, program devices, formulas, designs, prototypes, methods, techniques, processes, procedures, programs, or codes, whether tangible or intangible, and whether or how stored, compiled, or memorialized physically, electronically, graphically, photographically, or in writing if: (A) the owner thereof has taken reasonable measures to keep such information secret; and (B) the information derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable through proper means by, another person who can obtain economic value from the disclosure or use of the information.” See, 18 U.S.C. § 1839

Trade secret misappropriation means: (A)acquisition of a trade secret of another by a person who knows or has reason to know that the trade secret was acquired by improper means; or (B)disclosure or use of a trade secret of another without express or implied consent by a person who— (i)used improper means to acquire knowledge of the trade secret; (ii)at the time of disclosure or use, knew or had reason to know that the knowledge of the trade secret was— (I)derived from or through a person who had used improper means to acquire the trade secret; (II)acquired under circumstances giving rise to a duty to maintain the secrecy of the trade secret or limit the use of the trade secret; or (III)derived from or through a person who owed a duty to the person seeking relief to maintain the secrecy of the trade secret or limit the use of the trade secret; or (iii)before a material change of the position of the person, knew or had reason to know that (I)the trade secret was a trade secret; and (II)knowledge of the trade secret had been acquired by accident or mistake.

The purpose of intellectual property rights is to encourage new creations, including technology, artwork, and inventions, that might increase economic growth. Some advantages of IP rights include: Provides exclusive rights to the creators or inventors. Encourages individuals to distribute and share information and data instead of keeping it confidential. Provides legal defense and offers the creators the incentive of their work. Raises company valuation especially useful when seeking venture capital funding. Provides a measure for company valuations during mergers and acquisitions. If licensed effectively, may provide owners with valuable cash flow into their business. A strategic patent portfolio serves as a deterrent to a patent aggressor in your industry (whereas a carefree approach to patent filings is a waste of financial resources and time).

As you begin to learn more, it will allow you to make better decisions for you and your company. Frankly, building your familiarity in this field will also allow you to better engage with your patent counsel. The Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA) produces modules on intellectual property protection and enforcement in five languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian. These modules cover all areas of intellectual property protection which include trade secrets, patents, copyrights, trademarks, geographical indications, enforcement and trade.

A patent grants an owner a right to exclude others from making, using, selling, or offering to sell the same inventions as that claimed in the patent. If you are a new business entering a market, there are benefits to carving out a portion of the market that you may exclude others from. Additionally, emerging technology companies seeking venture capital funding may find it easier to obtain funding with patent filings.

A utility patent can take from 2-6 years. However, there are options to speed-up the process where on some occasions a utility patent may be obtained within a year. A design patent is a shorter amount of time. Some design patents reach issuance within 1-2 years.

There are two portions to consider: (1) Government filing fees; and (2) legal fees. A patent application is subject to the payment of a basic fee and additional fees that include a search fee, an examination fee, and issue fee. Depending on your application, there may also be excess claims fees. Fees vary depending on the type of patent application that you submit: Filing, Search, and Examination Fees Attorneys fees will vary depending on complexity of the invention. As general guidance I offer the following rough estimations to clients: Utility Patent filing (medium complexity): $10,000 Office Action response (medium complexity): $3,500 Design Patent filing (medium complexity): $3,000

Feel free to connect with the Inventors Assistance Center, which provides patent information and services to the public. It is staffed by former supervisory Patent Examiners and Primary Examiners who are available to answer questions.

Because Makor Law prides itself on offering personalized IP services, without the ‘one size fits all’ transactional approach that you find in big law, we often have limited bandwidth to handle new matters. However, please do not be discouraged and simply reach out. We are always happy to meet new people, and if we cannot handle, we will make the appropriate referrals.

Yes, we can help with that. We have a network of buyers and sellers. However, it would be crucial to implement a thorough analysis of your specific business’s patent landscape and current patent portfolio prior to purchase or sale of patent assets. For more detailed information on this process, visit the USPTO's website.

Personalized IP Counseling. Our first priority is to take the time to understand your business. In our initial conversations, we want to learn about why you are doing what you’re doing, what are you ultimately trying to achieve, and how others are approaching the problem you are solving, for example. Once we have a solid understanding of your business objectives and the competitive landscape, we work to create together with you a patent development plan. High-Quality Legal Counseling. Because we service a select number of clients, we are able to dedicate a significant amount of attention to our clients' unique circumstance and matters.

Makor is a forward thinking and technologically advanced law firm with the old fashion client relationship philosophy. Given that our practice is centered around personalized counseling, we value relationships with our clients. We take time to get to know each of our clients, no matter the size. We need to understand you and your story so we can provide the best service possible.

It’s important to understand the goal of your business. That is, will you be manufacturing/selling the products yourself or do you plan on licensing out the technology? Are you in a crowded field with scores of competitors, some of which have litigious tendencies? Based on your business goals/implementation tacitic, do you plan to use patents for defensive or offensive purposes? It is important to flesh out these sorts of questions prior to developing any sort of patent development plan.