Patents, Trademarks & Intellectual Property
Deborah T Leary, Manager
Chester F. Carlson Patent & Trademark Center
Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County
115 South Avenue, Rochester NY 14604
Do I need a patent?
Intellectual Property:
An introduction to protecting your ideas
Definition of intellectual property
IP is a broad descriptor that includes original works by authors, musicians, artists and inventors. These works can be protected in a number of ways.
Protectors of intellectual property
Copyright
Trade Secrets
Trademarks
Patents
Copyright - a function of the Library of Congress
Protects "original works of authorship" that are fixed in a tangible form of expression
Is automatically secured when a work is created
Registration creates a public record
Protection lasts for the author’s life plus 70 years
Trade secrets
A formula, pattern, device or compilation of information that is used in business
Gives the business an advantage over competitors who do not know it
A famous example is the formula for Coca-Cola
Trademarks
A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others.
A service mark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product.
Trademark rights
Rights arise from:
Actual use of the mark, OR
Filing of a proper application to register a mark in the Patent and Trademark Office
Rights can last indefinitely
Term is 10 years, with 10 year renewal terms
Patents
A patent is a property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor “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” for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.
The history of patents is the history of American technology
Patent term
20 years from the date of application, subject to payment of maintenance fees
Maintenance fees due 3½, 7½, and 11½ years after the original grant
Be sure that you can market your invention!
What can be patented?
Utility patents are provided for a novel, nonobvious and useful:
Process
Machine
Article of manufacture
Composition of matter
Improvement of any of the above
What cannot be patented?
Laws of nature
Physical phenomena
Abstract ideas
Literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works (these can be Copyright protected)
Three kinds of patents
Utility patents - granted for a useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.
Design patents - granted for a new, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture. The appearance is protected.
Plant patents - granted for a new, asexually reproduced plant.
Why do a patentability search?
Only new ideas are patentable
The application process is expensive and fees are nonrefundable!
You can save money by looking for the time bombs that are hiding out there.
Prior art
To find out if your invention is eligible for a patent, you must search for all previous public disclosures of “prior art”.
An average search takes 13 hours!
Look for prior art in
Catalogs
Journals
Newspapers
Sales literature
On the Internet
Previously issued U.S. Patents
Published patent applications
For more information about the Chester F. Carlson Patent & Trademark Center, go to: www.libraryweb.org/carlson Tel. 585-428-8110