Intellectual Property
Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents, and Other IP
Defining Intellectual Property
“Intellectual property” (frequently shortened to “IP”) means an idea that you brought to life. It could be a recipe that you made, a poem you wrote, a logo you designed, or a movie you directed. All of these things are “intellectual” because they are products of thought, brainstorming, or mental exertion. Most of all, they are all “property” because they can be owned, bought, and sold, just like ordinary personal and real property. One of the biggest differences between intellectual property and other forms of property is the intangible nature of intellectual property. While you can own intellectual property, it is difficult to hold. For example, you can hold the goods on which a trademark is placed, but you are not holding the trademark. The trademark is a representation of the quality (or lack thereof) of a business’s goods or services. Symbols can be used as shorthand for that quality, but destroying that symbol does not destroy the trademark—it will only destroy the goods to which the symbol is affixed. Likewise, if you think of a new invention and then build it, destroying what you built does not erase the idea of the invention from your memory. Real property (land) can be touched, and personal property (wallets, phones, jewelry) can be held. You can touch manifestations of intellectual property, but you cannot touch intellectual property itself.
Identifying Intellectual Property
There are several different types of intellectual property. Trademarks, copyrights, and patents are often the most familiar types, and they all serve different purposes.
Trademarks
Trademarks act as source identifiers, meaning they indicate the entity providing certain goods or services. The purpose of using trademarks as source-identifiers is to enable marketplace competition. Think of your favorite restaurant. It may have good pricing, great food, or excellent service. Without trademark law, other restaurants would use the same name and logo as your favorite restaurant in hopes they could benefit by associating with the food service qualities you love. Under this scenario, copycats have no reason to improve if they can acquire customers through deceit, and quality restaurants have little reason to maintain their quality if their customers keep getting taken. Trademark law fixes this. When consumers have the ability to distinguish one provider of goods from another, they can make informed choices about which provider deserves their purchase. In turn, providers are incentivized to improve their goods or services offerings or live with the consequences of failing to do so.
Copyrights
Copyright law protects non-functional works of authorship. This includes a myriad of things, including music, paintings, sculptures, photographs, maps, and even architectural drawings and building plans. As long as your work of authorship is original, it is eligible to receive copyright protection. If your original work of authorship is fixed in a tangible medium, it does receive copyright protection. Copyright law covers a broad selection of copyrighted works. Including those previously mentioned, it covers compilations of data, computer code, and all audiovisual works (including Instagram Reels and TikToks). Many of these types of copyrighted works have their own subcategories of legal precedent that can be significantly complicated and difficult to understand, music copyright law being one. No matter the form of the copyrighted work, ownership gives the owner the right to control several things about the work, including whether it can be reproduced, distributed, or used to created derivative works. The basis for copyright law’s existence is in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
Patents
Patent law protects inventions. The foundation for patent law is also in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Patent law is meant to enrich the public. It does so by providing patent protection—the exclusive right to prevent others from making, using, or selling an invention—to inventors who disclose their inventions in patent applications to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In return for disclosing how their invention functions and how it is made, inventors are allowed to exploit their inventions (and recoup the costs they incurred in making them) for 20 years. At the end of that period, the inventor is theorized to have received his profit, and the public has gained an understanding of a new technology that it can use to build new devices. Inventions span several educational disciplines, such as mechanical and electrical engineering, and some are even biological or botanical in nature. No matter the subject area, drafting and prosecuting a patent application requires great skill and a special type of attorney—a patent attorney—who is licensed with the USPTO to prosecute patent applications. Patent litigation, however, does not require involvement of a patent attorney.
Others
Trademarks, copyrights, and patents are not the only forms of intellectual property. Trade secrets are a form of intellectual property that many companies find extremely valuable. They can be a secret recipe or other peculiar knowledge that gives a company its competitive advantage. Personal likeness is another form of intellectual property that refers to one’s image, typically a celebrity’s or a prominent athlete. Domain names are also an important form of pseudo-IP that owners often guard vigorously.
Protecting Intellectual Property
We provide comprehensive intellectual property protection that can be summarized with three words: prosecute, utilize, and litigate.
Prosecute
Trademark prosecution is the process of seeking trademark registration with the USPTO, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), or the federal trademark office of another country. A trademark will receive several benefits by virtue of registration with the USPTO. However, the USPTO conducts a substantive review of every trademark application it receives. That review encompasses simpler issues regarding whether the correct owner has been identified in the application, and more complex things such as whether a particular mark is legally entitled to federal registration in the first place. The USPTO’s substantive review results in office actions rejecting hundreds of applications daily. An experienced law firm can help an applicant understand the likelihood of an applicant’s success, provide strategies for effective application drafting, and conduct legal research and brief writing to overcome the substantive issues identified in office actions. We assist with the entire trademark prosecution journey, from application to registration.
Utilize
Utilization generally focuses on using, maintaining, and licensing intellectual property rights. Using intellectual property improperly could destroy one’s rights in it altogether. For example, failing to use a trademark, or improperly using a trade secret, could destroy the rights connected to them. Maintaining intellectual property by making required government filings is also crucial. For trademarks, Declarations of Use, Declarations of Incontestability, and Applications for Renewal should or must be filed with the USPTO to maintain the trademark registration. Licensing is also an important way to utilize intellectual property by granting others to make use of it. Licensing can grant increased prominence and revenue to the licensor. An experienced law firm can audit and improve its clients’ intellectual property use, maintain their intellectual property portfolios, and act on their behalf in drafting and reviewing licensing agreements. We can help with these things.
Litigate
Litigation is the process of resolving a legal dispute between two or more parties. The involved parties are either enforcing or defending the legal rights they believe they possess. Litigation typically involves the filing of a lawsuit in a state or federal court, but neither of these things are necessarily true. Litigation can occur before the USPTO’s Trademark Trial & Appeal Board for a trademark opposition or cancellation proceeding, before an ICANN Approved Provider for a domain name dispute, before the Copyright Royalties Board for a copyright rate-setting dispute, or before an arbitrator for virtually any dispute. We know intellectual property, and we know your rights. We can fight for you.
Defining Intellectual Property
“Intellectual property” (frequently shortened to “IP”) means an idea that you brought to life. It could be a recipe that you made, a poem you wrote, a logo you designed, or a movie you directed. All of these things are “intellectual” because they are products of thought, brainstorming, or mental exertion. Most of all, they are all “property” because they can be owned, bought, and sold, just like ordinary personal and real property. One of the biggest differences between intellectual property and other forms of property is the intangible nature of intellectual property. While you can own intellectual property, it is difficult to hold. For example, you can hold the goods on which a trademark is placed, but you are not holding the trademark. The trademark is a representation of the quality (or lack thereof) of a business’s goods or services. Symbols can be used as shorthand for that quality, but destroying that symbol does not destroy the trademark—it will only destroy the goods to which the symbol is affixed. Likewise, if you think of a new invention and then build it, destroying what you built does not erase the idea of the invention from your memory. Real property (land) can be touched, and personal property (wallets, phones, jewelry) can be held. You can touch manifestations of intellectual property, but you cannot touch intellectual property itself.
Identifying Intellectual Property
There are several different types of intellectual property. Trademarks, copyrights, and patents are often the most familiar types, and they all serve different purposes.
Trademarks
Trademarks act as source identifiers, meaning they indicate the entity providing certain goods or services. The purpose of using trademarks as source-identifiers is to enable marketplace competition. Think of your favorite restaurant. It may have good pricing, great food, or excellent service. Without trademark law, other restaurants would use the same name and logo as your favorite restaurant in hopes they could benefit by associating with the food service qualities you love. Under this scenario, copycats have no reason to improve if they can acquire customers through deceit, and quality restaurants have little reason to maintain their quality if their customers keep getting taken. Trademark law fixes this. When consumers have the ability to distinguish one provider of goods from another, they can make informed choices about which provider deserves their purchase. In turn, providers are incentivized to improve their goods or services offerings or live with the consequences of failing to do so.
Copyrights
Copyright law protects non-functional works of authorship. This includes a myriad of things, including music, paintings, sculptures, photographs, maps, and even architectural drawings and building plans. As long as your work of authorship is original, it is eligible to receive copyright protection. If your original work of authorship is fixed in a tangible medium, it does receive copyright protection. Copyright law covers a broad selection of copyrighted works. Including those previously mentioned, it covers compilations of data, computer code, and all audiovisual works (including Instagram Reels and TikToks). Many of these types of copyrighted works have their own subcategories of legal precedent that can be significantly complicated and difficult to understand, music copyright law being one. No matter the form of the copyrighted work, ownership gives the owner the right to control several things about the work, including whether it can be reproduced, distributed, or used to created derivative works. The basis for copyright law’s existence is in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
Patents
Patent law protects inventions. The foundation for patent law is also in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Patent law is meant to enrich the public. It does so by providing patent protection—the exclusive right to prevent others from making, using, or selling an invention—to inventors who disclose their inventions in patent applications to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In return for disclosing how their invention functions and how it is made, inventors are allowed to exploit their inventions (and recoup the costs they incurred in making them) for 20 years. At the end of that period, the inventor is theorized to have received his profit, and the public has gained an understanding of a new technology that it can use to build new devices. Inventions span several educational disciplines, such as mechanical and electrical engineering, and some are even biological or botanical in nature. No matter the subject area, drafting and prosecuting a patent application requires great skill and a special type of attorney—a patent attorney—who is licensed with the USPTO to prosecute patent applications. Patent litigation, however, does not require involvement of a patent attorney.
Others
Trademarks, copyrights, and patents are not the only forms of intellectual property. Trade secrets are a form of intellectual property that many companies find extremely valuable. They can be a secret recipe or other peculiar knowledge that gives a company its competitive advantage. Personal likeness is another form of intellectual property that refers to one’s image, typically a celebrity’s or a prominent athlete. Domain names are also an important form of pseudo-IP that owners often guard vigorously.
Protecting Intellectual Property
We provide comprehensive intellectual property protection that can be summarized with three words: prosecute, utilize, and litigate.
Prosecute
Trademark prosecution is the process of seeking trademark registration with the USPTO, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), or the federal trademark office of another country. A trademark will receive several benefits by virtue of registration with the USPTO. However, the USPTO conducts a substantive review of every trademark application it receives. That review encompasses simpler issues regarding whether the correct owner has been identified in the application, and more complex things such as whether a particular mark is legally entitled to federal registration in the first place. The USPTO’s substantive review results in office actions rejecting hundreds of applications daily. An experienced law firm can help an applicant understand the likelihood of an applicant’s success, provide strategies for effective application drafting, and conduct legal research and brief writing to overcome the substantive issues identified in office actions. We assist with the entire trademark prosecution journey, from application to registration.
Utilize
Utilization generally focuses on using, maintaining, and licensing intellectual property rights. Using intellectual property improperly could destroy one’s rights in it altogether. For example, failing to use a trademark, or improperly using a trade secret, could destroy the rights connected to them. Maintaining intellectual property by making required government filings is also crucial. For trademarks, Declarations of Use, Declarations of Incontestability, and Applications for Renewal should or must be filed with the USPTO to maintain the trademark registration. Licensing is also an important way to utilize intellectual property by granting others to make use of it. Licensing can grant increased prominence and revenue to the licensor. An experienced law firm can audit and improve its clients’ intellectual property use, maintain their intellectual property portfolios, and act on their behalf in drafting and reviewing licensing agreements. We can help with these things.
Litigate
Litigation is the process of resolving a legal dispute between two or more parties. The involved parties are either enforcing or defending the legal rights they believe they possess. Litigation typically involves the filing of a lawsuit in a state or federal court, but neither of these things are necessarily true. Litigation can occur before the USPTO’s Trademark Trial & Appeal Board for a trademark opposition or cancellation proceeding, before an ICANN Approved Provider for a domain name dispute, before the Copyright Royalties Board for a copyright rate-setting dispute, or before an arbitrator for virtually any dispute. We know intellectual property, and we know your rights. We can fight for you.
Clients Who Trust Us
Defining Intellectual Property
“Intellectual property” (frequently shortened to “IP”) means an idea that you brought to life. It could be a recipe that you made, a poem you wrote, a logo you designed, or a movie you directed. All of these things are “intellectual” because they are products of thought, brainstorming, or mental exertion. Most of all, they are all “property” because they can be owned, bought, and sold, just like ordinary personal and real property. One of the biggest differences between intellectual property and other forms of property is the intangible nature of intellectual property. While you can own intellectual property, it is difficult to hold. For example, you can hold the goods on which a trademark is placed, but you are not holding the trademark. The trademark is a representation of the quality (or lack thereof) of a business’s goods or services. Symbols can be used as shorthand for that quality, but destroying that symbol does not destroy the trademark—it will only destroy the goods to which the symbol is affixed. Likewise, if you think of a new invention and then build it, destroying what you built does not erase the idea of the invention from your memory. Real property (land) can be touched, and personal property (wallets, phones, jewelry) can be held. You can touch manifestations of intellectual property, but you cannot touch intellectual property itself.
Identifying Intellectual Property
There are several different types of intellectual property. Trademarks, copyrights, and patents are often the most familiar types, and they all serve different purposes.
Trademarks
Trademarks act as source identifiers, meaning they indicate the entity providing certain goods or services. The purpose of using trademarks as source-identifiers is to enable marketplace competition. Think of your favorite restaurant. It may have good pricing, great food, or excellent service. Without trademark law, other restaurants would use the same name and logo as your favorite restaurant in hopes they could benefit by associating with the food service qualities you love. Under this scenario, copycats have no reason to improve if they can acquire customers through deceit, and quality restaurants have little reason to maintain their quality if their customers keep getting taken. Trademark law fixes this. When consumers have the ability to distinguish one provider of goods from another, they can make informed choices about which provider deserves their purchase. In turn, providers are incentivized to improve their goods or services offerings or live with the consequences of failing to do so.
Copyrights
Copyright law protects non-functional works of authorship. This includes a myriad of things, including music, paintings, sculptures, photographs, maps, and even architectural drawings and building plans. As long as your work of authorship is original, it is eligible to receive copyright protection. If your original work of authorship is fixed in a tangible medium, it does receive copyright protection. Copyright law covers a broad selection of copyrighted works. Including those previously mentioned, it covers compilations of data, computer code, and all audiovisual works (including Instagram Reels and TikToks). Many of these types of copyrighted works have their own subcategories of legal precedent that can be significantly complicated and difficult to understand, music copyright law being one. No matter the form of the copyrighted work, ownership gives the owner the right to control several things about the work, including whether it can be reproduced, distributed, or used to created derivative works. The basis for copyright law’s existence is in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
Patents
Patent law protects inventions. The foundation for patent law is also in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Patent law is meant to enrich the public. It does so by providing patent protection—the exclusive right to prevent others from making, using, or selling an invention—to inventors who disclose their inventions in patent applications to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In return for disclosing how their invention functions and how it is made, inventors are allowed to exploit their inventions (and recoup the costs they incurred in making them) for 20 years. At the end of that period, the inventor is theorized to have received his profit, and the public has gained an understanding of a new technology that it can use to build new devices. Inventions span several educational disciplines, such as mechanical and electrical engineering, and some are even biological or botanical in nature. No matter the subject area, drafting and prosecuting a patent application requires great skill and a special type of attorney—a patent attorney—who is licensed with the USPTO to prosecute patent applications. Patent litigation, however, does not require involvement of a patent attorney.
Others
Trademarks, copyrights, and patents are not the only forms of intellectual property. Trade secrets are a form of intellectual property that many companies find extremely valuable. They can be a secret recipe or other peculiar knowledge that gives a company its competitive advantage. Personal likeness is another form of intellectual property that refers to one’s image, typically a celebrity’s or a prominent athlete. Domain names are also an important form of pseudo-IP that owners often guard vigorously.
Protecting Intellectual Property
We provide comprehensive intellectual property protection that can be summarized with three words: prosecute, utilize, and litigate.
Prosecute
Trademark prosecution is the process of seeking trademark registration with the USPTO, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), or the federal trademark office of another country. A trademark will receive several benefits by virtue of registration with the USPTO. However, the USPTO conducts a substantive review of every trademark application it receives. That review encompasses simpler issues regarding whether the correct owner has been identified in the application, and more complex things such as whether a particular mark is legally entitled to federal registration in the first place. The USPTO’s substantive review results in office actions rejecting hundreds of applications daily. An experienced law firm can help an applicant understand the likelihood of an applicant’s success, provide strategies for effective application drafting, and conduct legal research and brief writing to overcome the substantive issues identified in office actions. We assist with the entire trademark prosecution journey, from application to registration.
Utilize
Utilization generally focuses on using, maintaining, and licensing intellectual property rights. Using intellectual property improperly could destroy one’s rights in it altogether. For example, failing to use a trademark, or improperly using a trade secret, could destroy the rights connected to them. Maintaining intellectual property by making required government filings is also crucial. For trademarks, Declarations of Use, Declarations of Incontestability, and Applications for Renewal should or must be filed with the USPTO to maintain the trademark registration. Licensing is also an important way to utilize intellectual property by granting others to make use of it. Licensing can grant increased prominence and revenue to the licensor. An experienced law firm can audit and improve its clients’ intellectual property use, maintain their intellectual property portfolios, and act on their behalf in drafting and reviewing licensing agreements. We can help with these things.
Litigate
Litigation is the process of resolving a legal dispute between two or more parties. The involved parties are either enforcing or defending the legal rights they believe they possess. Litigation typically involves the filing of a lawsuit in a state or federal court, but neither of these things are necessarily true. Litigation can occur before the USPTO’s Trademark Trial & Appeal Board for a trademark opposition or cancellation proceeding, before an ICANN Approved Provider for a domain name dispute, before the Copyright Royalties Board for a copyright rate-setting dispute, or before an arbitrator for virtually any dispute. We know intellectual property, and we know your rights. We can fight for you.