Overview of IP Protection
Mechanisms in the United States
Presented by: Daniel Waymel
UT Dallas – August 2013
Outline
• Patents
– Overview
– Types
• Copyrights
• Trademarks and Servicemarks
• Trade Secrets
Patents - Overview
•A Patent is “to exclude others from making,
using, offering for sale, or selling the invention
throughout the United States or importing the
invention into the United States" [1]
•Requirements:
– Invention must be: new, nonobvious, and
useful[1]
– Description must be adequate, clear, and in
definite terms[1]
Patents - Overview
Steps to Acquisition:





(Optional) File for a Provisional Patent
Allows for “patent pending” mark and time
to file for a non-provisional patent[4]
Expires 12 months after submission
File for a Non-Provisional Patent
Patents - Overview


Patents are held in the name(s) of the original
inventors, but the rights may be owned by an
individual or company
Patents must be enforced by the patent
holder without aid of the USPTO
Patents - Types

Utility Patents



“invention [or composition or new and useful
improvement] of a new and useful process,
machine, manufacture, or composition of
matter”[2]
Typically last for 20 years after grant
Design Patents


“new, original, and ornamental design for an
article of manufacture”[2]
Typically last for 14 years after grant
Patents - Types

Plant Patents



“new and distinct, invented or discovered
asexually reproduced plant including cultivated
sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found
seedlings, other than a tuber propagated plant
or a plant found in an uncultivated state”[2]
Typically last for 20 years after grant
Reissue Patents
– “correct an error in an already issued utility,
design, or plant patent”[2]
Patents - Types

Defensive Publication


Issues in place of a normal patent this “offers
limited protection, defensive in nature, to
prevent others from patenting an invention,
design, or plant”[2]
Statutory Invention Registration

Introduced in 1985-1986 to replace the
Defensive Publication and offers similar
protection
Copyrights


“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unpublished”[4]
Grants “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”[4]
Copyrights



For works created on or after January 1, 1978,
they are automatically protected for the lifetime
of the creator plus an additional 70 years.
For joint works, the duration is through 70
years after the last surviving creator's death.[5]
For commissioned works, the duration is either
“95 years from publication or 120 years from
creation, whichever is shorter”[5]
Copyrights

No registration or application is required for
copyright protection, protection is automatic
from the time of creation.
– Registration is encouraged for ease of
enforcing copyrights however.
Trademarks and Servicemarks


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.[3]
A servicemark is the same as a trademark
except that it identifies and distinguishes the
source of a service rather than a product.[3]
Trademarks and Servicemarks

Registration with the federal government is not
required but is encouraged as it grants several
benefits:[3]



Public notice of the holder's claim to the
trademark
Presumption of ownership nationwide
Exclusive rights to use the trademark in
conjunction with the good/services listed in the
registration
Trade Secrets

Protects any IP

Lasts until the information is divulged



No formal steps to obtain this protection –
don't tell
Any company or individual can implement this
protection
No enforcement of this protection (excepting
laws governing actions that might be taken to
obtain another's trade secret, such as theft)
References






[1] http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/patents.jsp#heading-2
[2]
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/patdesc.h
tm
[3] http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/definitions.jsp
[4]
http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/general_info_con
cerning_patents.pdf
[5] http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf
[6] http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp
Contact
Daniel Waymel
daniel.waymel@utdallas.edu
http://www.utdallas.edu/~dxw113730