Our Areas of Focus
The following are the primary types of Intellectual Property:
Patents
A patent is an intellectual property right granted by the Government to an inventor “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling or importing the invention in a country”, for a limited time, usually 20 years, in exchange for public disclosure of the invention.
Utility patents are granted for inventions that discover any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. Design patents are granted for inventions of a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.
Copyrights
A copyright is protection provided by the Government for “original works of authorship” including music, books, art and other intellectual works whether they are published or unpublished. It allows the owner the right to control the performance, display, copying, distribution, derivation, sale of the copyrighted material.
Trademarks
A trademark is a brand name. A trademark or service mark includes any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination, used or intended to be used to identify and distinguish the goods/services of one seller or provider from those of others, and to indicate the source of the goods/services.
Trade Secrets
A trade secret represents information that is not generally known or cannot be easily derived and usually provides a corporation some advantage over its competitors. It can be in the form of a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information.
