Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights: An overview of intellectual property

Good morning everyone come on I know it's early on a Friday good morning you're here for a purpose and a reason right you want to learn more about intellectual property what it is and how it affects you as small inventors entrepreneurs makers business people you want to make sure that your business your brand your invention everything that you have put your heart and soul into is protected correct so that's why you're here and this morning I'm gonna give you a brief overview of intellectual property the four main areas that go into it now this is not by any stretch of the imagination a deep in-depth involved conversation I only have like 45 minutes if you have questions because you need to understand something please ask that question but be aware that because I only have 45 minutes to cover four major topics I might have to say save it to the end okay my name is Gwendolyn Blackwell please feel free to call me Gwen I'm a supervisory patent examiner here at the office my bio is in the booklet I've been doing this IP thing for approximately 20 years now okay so in order to understand intellectual property which I'll be calling IP you need to realize that it's made up of trademarks copyrights trade secrets and patents now when it comes to patents there are three subcategories of patents and I'll get into those further into the presentation there are utility patents design patents and plant patents yes sir Nathanya, will the slides be available? my voice is in that line yes we will make the slides available to you we will be posting them we will update the invention con webpage and we will post USPTO approved slides then you will have slide presentations for external speakers those slides won't be made available but our USPTO approved slides will be made available Thank You Mathon eeeh for utility and plant patents your protection goes twenty years from date of filing design patents are a little bit different there 15 years from date of issuance that's the protection that you would have if you're able to obtain a patent in one of those areas when it comes to copyrights copyrights are generally the life in the inventor plus seventy years there are some circumstances where the protection is longer but that's more of a usually for those that are small business owners entrepreneurs it's usually seventy years plus life in the inventor excuse me life in the event of plus 70 years I'm trade secrets as long as you can keep a secret you're protected right and then with trademarks it comes down to as long as the markets and continuous use so we're gonna start off with trademarks and when you start up with trademarks Mary gave a great overview of what trademarks are you're supposed to be able to look at a trademark and recognize the source of goods or the service that's associated thereto so when you're thinking about your branding if you haven't already done your trademark that's kind of like how you want to think about it what is my mark conveying about my service or good is anybody that looks at it gonna recognize that when they see this mark it's my product or it's my service and while you don't have to register your trademark we really really encourage that you do so because it gives you the right to enforce nationally and bring legal action into federal courts if someone tries to use your mark okay you're able to use the federal trademark registration symbol which is the R with the little circles you can register your mark with customs which is awesome how many are familiar with Canal Street in New York so what happens on Canal Street for those that know somebody will come up to you and say hey fake beds yes would you like a coach would you like a product would you like such-and-such and they take you somewhere and they say okay well what type of bag do you want and they'll pull out this symbol from a little piece of plastic and slap it on okay so how do I know yeah I saw it but I didn't buy because that's kind of freak goods right so they're cracking down on this New York has been heavy on cracking down in other ports to keep people's trade marked goods from being counterfeited when you register you help them do that it also serves as a basis for for and filing if you want to register your trademark in any other country and it is published in the u.s. trademark database which puts people on notice that that mark is in use so trademarks can be words such as Starbucks can be designs everybody knows I'm still trying to figure out is that a mermaid or a lady holding fish but everybody knows when they see that that that means you're talking about Starbucks can anybody think of any other like popular designs target yes Nike the swoosh right target and the bullet sign one of the things also about trademarks you need to recognize trademarks can also be colors now ladies if you were to receive a Robin blue egg box colored box would you be happy and why is that Tiffin nice gentlemen are you paying attention they can also be smells how many of you remember those plastic shoes from the 80s jelly's it might have been a jelly it might not have been but some of them had a scent to it that sent that bubblegum scent was associated with a particular brand of that plastic shoes that our little girls want it I'll raise my hand I wanted them to but my parents said no they make you fence your feet slutty and stinky so we're not buying them but there was a smell associated with one of those brands and that was trademark so think outside the box don't think necessarily it has to be necessarily a word or design it could also be representative by a color or smell are any questions on trademarks okay when it comes to copyrights copyrights protect original works of authorship including literal literary dramatic musical artistic and other works fixed in a tangible medium the thing you need to remember is it needs to be fixed in a tangible medium now our copyrights examined here at the Patent Office Patent and Trademark Office no I'll say look at the slides little slice slice at the Library of Congress that's where trade excuse me copyrights are administered with their registration the USPTO advises the executive branch on IP issues including copyright but the copyrights are not taken care of here that's at the Library of Congress realize that as soon as you put something in a tangible medium when you wrote it you drew it you're an artist you're sculptor it's automatically copy written okay you can use the little C symbol on your works so you're like well why should I register it you should always register your copyright registration which compared it to a trademark and a patent is it's inexpensive seriously inexpensive because it helps you to better protect your copyright okay here are some examples of things that can be copy written and i'ma give an example of why you'd want to register alright how many are familiar with Marvin Gaye I remember when he passed my mom made me play his records all day long yes I said records and you're like well that's not.you know for those that don't deal with record players yes I had to be the one to flip it from side a to side B and make sure that needle didn't scratch something up when he passed away Marvin Gaye's been gone for over 30 years however there have been several court cases due to copyright infringement from other musical artists that his state has brought against them and they have one so when you look at that life Plus 70 years you may think oh that's not much of anything but think about the millions that his estate is getting and fees due to that infringement so if you have something that you think is valuable well anything you do and create is valuable correct because it's yours make sure that you protect it because it's not only for you but your future generations may be able to make sure that they get something from that as well any questions so far one time yes sir no sir you the question was can you make a copyright of your patent patent is a separate area of intellectual property as soon as your patent is published it's out there so it's a different type of protection when it comes to somebody being able to copy a patent that's a different area of infringement it has its rights and then by itself separate from a copyright okay yes if you can wait for the microphone please you I've had several clients ask me about this situation of having to market before they have copyrights and I'm wondering was that a previous law or is that just an old wives tale that you had to do the circle and see before you gave notice you don't necessarily have to do the circle in the sea think about it when I had indicated how a copyright is created as soon as you put it in a tangible medium it's copy written whether you have to see or not now the scene for many people are like oh this is a copyright but anything that you find on the net or you know if you're doing YouTube or something along those lines let's automatically copy written you shouldn't necessarily don't use it without permission right people don't think about that huh it's like oh it's out in the world wide web I am free to use it no not necessarily you're not we have another question over here come on e good morning copyrights just can be enforced within the United States or anywhere there our fourth year in the United States okay so if somebody's copied to work outside the United States and use it outside the United States you cannot basically go after them I'd have to I'd have to look that up because I'm not an expert in the copyright area unfortunately I'm just patents but I can look I'll look that answer up and see if I can help you out a little bit later and we do have a booth outside for copyrights if you have a specific copyright question they can't assist you with that as well are they yes ma'am here good morning I had a question about patents can you choose how long an item can be on and you might have already answered this I thought some patents could last for five years and some could last for an extended period of time what is that decision the protection for a utility and a plant patents are from 20 years from date of filing so whatever your filing date is you get 20 years from that date if if your application issues into a patent for design patents it's 15 years from date of issuance and so that's on our first slide and that should be in the slide that they will be available later online so you can have a visual for that okay are there any other questions okay let's come to one of my favorite parts trade secrets trade secrets is any information that derives economic value from not being generally known or ascertainable so what's the thing about trade secrets they're secret right to your business it can be formulas patterns compilations programs devices methods techniques or processes so one of my favourite trade secrets is Krispy Kreme I love Krispy Kreme Doughnuts especially when the hot sign is on and if you've never had a hot Krispy Kreme donut I'm sorry please immediately find one nearby and have one do you know they now posts online when the hot sign is gonna be on so you don't have to sit around waiting like years pass you can just go grab one and roll away but yes I prefer Krispy Kreme over Dunkin Donuts now the Krispy Kreme recipe is a trade secret do you think of any other trade secrets coca-cola is the most famous one right KFC not anymore it's not out people might want you to think is out hahaha but no coke has kept that formula around for years decades over a century you know they took the coke out of it but the rest of the recipe is basically the same you know and there's been a lot of people that have tried to copy it think about it that's how we have Pepsi that's how we have RC that's how we have all those generic off-brand colas that you can get easily at the dollar store but the coke recipe is what it is the protection stems from common law and from the 1800s and all states have some sort of trade secret protection and most of the laws are based upon the Uniform Trade Secrets Act one of the great things that happened was in 20 million 2016 it was signed into into law the defense a secret Act and what it did is it allowed those who felt like their trade secret had been improperly attained to have a federal course of action so they could go into federal court to bring their case ok so how are they useful it's a way of doing something better than somebody else or how you feel is better than somebody else and keeping it a secret and you don't have to disclose it it can also give you a competitive advantage with regards to customer lists product formulations and search algorithms did y'all know that the search algorithm for Google is a trade secret right you don't think about that right I mean how many many times have you heard go Google that do you hear go Bing that go Safari it hit that Internet Explorer and try it that way no it's very important because Google has some really really good searches correct and actually the way that they protected is those stood the the those that created it was part of their graduate program so in order for them not to disclose that they kind of dropped out so if y'all learn graduate programs I'm not saying drop out but I'm saying sometimes that's what people do in order to protect their trade secret because they feel it has that much value okay and because trade secrets are secret there's really no set term for protection so long as you do what protect your secret so you wonder how can you lose the trade secret if you're doing everything that you can protect your secret and sometimes it comes to failure to take adequate steps to prevent disclosure so if you have a secret recipe that everybody is saying oh my goodness this is so good are you just gonna leave that recipe said now for anybody to find it are you gonna lock it up somewhere are you gonna talk about your business your secret business plans or what you consider a trade secret to your company in a public place are you gonna talk about it without having a non-disclosure act in place if you're trying to shop your business as long as no you're gonna do everything that you can to protect it and if you must talk about something in order to get some type of funding or financing then make sure you protect yourself with a very strong NDA okay so another way to lose it is an owner or owners closure so if you don't protect it with a non-disclosure agreement and then you just go talk about it well you just lost your trade secret all right if someone reverse engineered it they bought your product or they try to figure it out what was going on well that's a way to lose your trade secret or independent development somebody comes up with your idea product your secret independent of you that's another way to lose it now the first two are things that you can control the second - not necessarily so you kind of leverage do I want to keep this a secret or see if I can get some protection under other areas of intellectual property any other questions so far now we come down to the good stuff so what is a patent a patent is the right to exclude others from making using selling offering for sale or importing the claimed invention it is for a limited term as I had discussed before its territorial protection is only in the territory for which is granted there is no such thing as a worldwide patent in the Americas the United States is bordered by Canada on the north and Mexico on the South right I did a detail in Detroit and from my office window Canada was right across the river from the Detroit River from where our office is located and so it was a simple bridge ride to get into Canada and some people will believe that Oh fine my you know I live in Michigan I live in Detroit I live right there I see Canada every day and they file an application and they'll be like oh I got protection there cuz it's right there right I can see it this is all the Americas know if you get a patent in the United States the patent is only good in the United States if you want protection in Canada you have to file in Canada Mexico you have to follow Mexico please remember there is no such thing as a worldwide patent if somebody comes up to you and tells you I can get you protection all over the world run don't walk there is no such thing okay yes sir a wo is a white bowl World Intellectual Property Organization and a wo document is not is not a patent what it is is it's a patent application publication so it's put out there about 18 months or so after filing what white PO is is and this is kind of going in the weeds a little bit so I have to give a very high overview there is a method through the patent cooperation treaty PCT as a ministered by white PO that allows one to take their patent application go through this process under the patent cooperation treaty and get their application into a format that they can then take that one application and file it in those countries that are signed on to the patent cooperation treaty once you file in those other countries for the national stage that's when your application will be examined what WIPO does is for those applications that are filed under PCT it kind of gives you a preview of what you may or may not see when you do choose to file it in one of those member countries so it's not it's not a patent that will give you the rights to exclude others from making using or selling your invention it is an it is a more formalized route to take your application it's more easily file it in other countries the wo document is just the publication of an application but it's not a patent itself does that help we can talk some more after if you have any more questions okay so the government grants the property right in exchange for disclosure of the invention it's like a quid pro quo in the United States we will give you this amount of time two weeks have exclusive rights to your invention to keep others from making using selling or importing it and in return you're going to give us a nice little detailed way of how to make your product or what it's made of or how to use it however you claim your invention in the United States the proper a patent is a property right granted by the government to an inventor as I indicated earlier it gives you the right to exclude others from making using selling offering for sale your invention throughout the United States or importing something that could be your invention counterfeit wise kind of like when I was talking about branding and trademarks into the United States for limited time and then you have to tell us how you did it there are three types of patents there is a utility patent which is a new and useful process machine article manufacture or composition of matter or any useful improvements thereof so when we're talking about a utility patent we're talking about let's suppose the chairs that you're sitting in how to make those chairs the materials that go into those chairs those will be utility patents a design patent on the other hand goes to how something looks so again using the example of your chair it's not how it's made or what goes into it is how it looks so it goes to the design it's an ornamental type of patent and then a plant patent is whoever invents or discovers and essentially produces any distinct and new variety of plant me may think oh well this is like just flowers along those lines but is actually deeper than that how many I like potatoes I like mashed potatoes fried potatoes sliced potatoes I mean I'm sorry I'm having a moment here with potatoes because I like potatoes a lot but if anybody knows potatoes are eat vegetables correct and they can be very very sensitive to ground temperatures so if there was a potato brand that was invented asexually that kind of it wasn't as sensitive to ground temperatures that could potentially be a plant pattern okay any other questions so far yes sir we have a question over here I am good morning will you define the patent as something that is the right to exclude others and the problem for single inventors is that to discover how to dissipate others from by a for enforcing this because we are no method of enforcing our inventions our patents upon somebody who illegally uses it it's only done when you discover that somebody else is using it does the Patent Office play any role in the enforcement of this unfortunately the Patent Office does not deal with enforcement we're only with the prosecution meaning we'll grant you a patent but once the patent is granted we have nothing else to do with that patent process we do not go into enforcement I highly suggest that if you find yourself in that situation that you discuss that with a good patent attorney that may be able to help you or tell you which way you need to go in order to hopefully get the other person from stop using your product you're welcome a question here and then a question there you I know about the patent part of no enforcement from the USPTO but we've all been to the movies and see the warning that the you know if you copy a movie or a book you know the FBI knocks on your door just just for everyone else here and I'm not sure myself but when you say that the Patent Office doesn't enforce a patent but when it comes to copyright and for and is that warning of a big fine or prosecution by the FBI so we have three ways for a product so trademark and copyright can be you can go through or the FBI gets involved but not a pattern I just want to be clear there's no warning on a patent that if you copy this the FBI is going to knock on your door but a copyright or a trademark infringement is that a little different when it comes to enforcement the patent trademark office in the Library of Congress hello hello the United States Patent and Trademark Office as well as the Library of Congress we're not in the jobs of enforcement the notice that you see at the movies that you're talking about with the FBI that notice is a notice that they're just putting out there you know that if you copy somebody's patent they can come after you if you copy your copyright they can come after you your trademark they can come after you it just comes to how certain industries want to put their notice out to say if you copied is the FBI is coming for you we have nothing to do with that FBI is a completely separate Department of the government and we don't coordinate with them to enforce anybody's rights with regards to their intellectual property that is completely on the owner of the intellectual property you oh okay you you yes you you I'm not completely sure how that enforcement side works because we don't necessarily deal with that with regards to trademarks and patents it puts the notice out there to stop the counterfeits at the border so with regards to customs they do have a list and they do try to make sure that counterfeit goods are not allowed to come into the country but with any intellectual property you have you need to be kind of like diligent in making sure that you're aware of what's in the marketplace or what's going on and if you do see someone that looks like they're copying your intellectual property to put them on notice as soon as possible and then to get whatever agencies involved if there is an agency that could be involved involved whether you're doing it through an attorney whether you're in the court system or what-have-you okay yes thank you according to the current law the intellectual property is granted for the first-to-file but not necessarily the first two inland so there's a big debate going out there that this is working against the garage inventor and it a try to give that Vantage to the big corporations so I myself do not understand this so can you give us some comments and you we want it you would give me that good question this early in the morning right again when it comes to enforcement you need to be diligent the question about first-to-file versus first-to-invent can be an issue that's just being completely honest it can be an issue if you find yourself in that situation there are mechanisms here at the office that you can use on my side of where I am in prosecution that's not something that we necessarily deal with when it comes to whether someone first was the first to invent it or they you know somebody else beat them to the office but there is something that you can do I will have to talk to you a little bit later about that because I can't remember completely the mechanism offhand oh okay is that okay sir okay and I'm I have about eight a few more slides to go going back to your discussion regarding design patterns can you tell us a little bit the difference between design patterns versus trade dress and what is it appropriate to go with which route what do you mean by trade I'm not familiar with a dress so um my understanding is that trade dress is similar to design it's kind of like a restaurant and it has an outline of like a certain colors and looks right so that is the type of design but it's it's I don't know that's why I was asking the question because I understand it's it there's an overlap but when is it appropriate to go with one or the other I'm not familiar with trade dress don't deal with that too often I will say that when it comes to the design patents that's when you take your design of whatever your product is you submit an application to the office and they do a search the exam the design examiner's do a search to determine whether the design that you have is out there whether or whether your design is an obvious novel and non-obvious if it's found that that's the case then they'll grant you a patent and you'll have exclusive use of your design for about 15 years from data filing for example who remembers the spinners on wheels you know the basketball player is pretty well he had a lot of design didn't he had a lot of different design patents just on different patterns on the hubcaps you know and so he marketed that sold it made a lot of money but that protection is only good for a particular amount of time I'd have to go a little deeper into research about the trade dress to be able to give you the difference between the two if you want to talk afterwards we can do that as well yes with the shape like their cookies that's shaped like a peanut and that design for that cookie that shape of that cookie can be trade dress so you want to you know kind of like a trademark for a shape yeah so different elements of it so that people can readily identify a cookie at a distance at a certain shape the Nutter butter cookies that's what I'm talking about yeah so if you saw that peanut you puts all that peanut shape cookie you know that's a Nutter Butter or it should be a Nutter Butter so with that definition it comes to the it comes to that is kind of like a trade mark type thing that as long as you're using it somebody else can't come in so there there's a difference it whether or not someone should do a trade dress versus a trade excuse me a design patent or do a utility versus a design or what-have-you it all comes down to what is it you're trying to protect and how long you want to have that protection you know do you think that this is only going to be something that's good for a short amount of time or do you think this is something that could endure much longer than the 15 or 20 years that you may get from the Patent Office so that's the way that you have to kind of look at it when you're thinking about your IP portfolio for your business what is the best method of using intellectual property to protect my different levels of my business yes yeah a famous example is the coca-cola bottle which we all recognize as a trademark you see that shape and you know that it's coke but if you go all the way back to the beginning it was registered as a design patent so it expired so technically somebody could take that shape and use it to sell something that is decidedly not similar to coca-cola and the coca-cola company in principle should not be allowed to stop them but what did they do they morphed it from they they they said oh well now this is so recognizable we claim it as our trademark therefore we can keep using it in perpetuity to associate in the mind of consumers our brand as a source of liquid refreshment and world peace right and and Santa Claus and everything good in the world with that shape even though originally it was a design patent I believe and so you know you might say well is that this or is it that the ultimate answer is ideally it's all of the above and to the fullest extent thank you so much I only have a few more minutes to get through the rest of the slides so if you have any questions please hold them until the end and I will be available to answer any questions that I can so when the role of the patent system is used to protect inventions encourage innovation promote commercialization and the application of the invention basically when you put your patent out into that your invention out to the world and it gets patented someone's gonna look at it and they say I could do that better I mean I'm just being honest you will get your exclusivity it will take some time to in order to improve or what have you but it didn't it encourages innovation think about it how many times have you seen something and you're like I could do that better I could make it faster I could make a smaller and then you're like oh there's a patent on it let me go look at the patent okay this is the process of making it or these are the materials I can use biodegradable materials that's gonna be cheaper and you know if the overall net effect will be cheaper that's what patents do they help to encourage innovation and commercialization so why should you get one it will help you gain entry into and deter others from entering a particular market patents are like property you can use it to attract inventors it can be used as a marketing tool how many times have you seen patent pending or we have a patented invention when you hear that you think oh well if they have a patented invention that's something that's not necessarily out there all right so you're like oh let me go try that because this is unique it can be inserted against an infringer so if someone tries to use your invention you take your patent and say haha no you cannot I have a patent on it and it's still enforceable it can be used as collateral like I said it's property and it can create revenue because people will believe and people will see that you have a patented invention so your invention is unique and they should they would want to buy into your your company potentially who can apply those that invented mention a sickness are obligated S&E so if somebody funded your research funded you being able to make the invention and you said okay I will give you a partial stake in this or a whole stake another person was sufficient proprietary interest that runs some loops similarly along the same lines once you get your patent you can license it so that others can use it and you get royalties back off that licensing you can enforce it you use it yourself and you use it to keep others from being able to use your invention you can use it as a basis to be more innovative to create more competition or you can sell it you don't have to keep it some people get patents and they decide they don't want to go into that market and they decide to sell their patented invention I love this slide because it puts into view with one item all the different types of intellectual property that could be obtained on that item everybody is familiar with cell phones while this particular example is to Apple think broadly that it could be any type of product so when it comes to the Apple brand the Apple phone the trademarks you have with the logo the iPhone and the software iOS and Safari think about it if you're you if you here iOS or Safari who are you thinking about Apple Apple products cuz there's anybody else have a Safari search engine no patents the utility patents that are on this particular device are in the hundreds potentially thousands this is just some that are listed there's patents on the semiconductor circuits that could be the method of making the circuits the materials that go into the circuits how the circuits are put into the phone the touchscreen itself have you ever thought about what goes into a touchscreen it's not just a piece of glass it could be a polymer it can have multiple layers on it the way that it's made you have tensile compressive stresses within a glass layer itself the properties that are used the materials that are used so when it comes to the touchscreen don't think oh we're talking about one type of patent is multiple and I can go on and on the reason there's question marks at trade secrets cuz it's a trade secret if we knew it wouldn't be a secret right so when you think of your invention your product your service what have you your company think about think about it outside the box don't just think oh I get this one patent recognize that if you have an invention a product it can be multiple patents on that one thing anything that you do for your business could be potentially copy written if it's put in a tangible medium think about your branding your trademarks your trade dress about all of it as an intellectual property portfolio that you must build for your business say thank you so very much for your attention this morning and as I said I'll be available to answer questions for a little bit I'll be around during the day I'm also doing one-on-ones later this evening so enjoy the rest of your day enjoy tomorrow and I hope you get a lot of information that you're able to go back and use to help build your brand build your business and be successful!

Channel: USPTOvideo

Views: 43,496

Keywords: InventionCon, invention, inventors, innovation, patents, trademarks, invent, USPTO, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, Virginia, entrepreneurs, small business, government, federal, overview, copyrights, intellectual property, IP

Id: nXyCyWg6x98

Length: 43min 16sec (2596 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 21 2019