Intellectual Property takes many forms, but all have in common one idea: A legal monopoly to protect one's ideas. It may be a product, a brand, a picture, software or other forms, but each form allows the creator to protect that idea from copying and use by others. So, what are the forms of Intellectual Property? There are many.
Patents generally are to protect a product, although they have been extended in recent years to ideas, such as computer software and business ideas. Patent Law has just changed so the handling of patent applications will be modified. The basic procedure is that an idea is submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and goes through a process to determine the originality of the proposed item/idea. Specialized lawyers, admitted to a specialized court, handles these matters.
Trademarks generally describe the name of something, and the goal is to associate the name with the product. Over time there can be various products. Others aren't prohibited from producing the product, say tennis shoes, but can be prohibited from calling their tennis shoes, Nike.
Next time we will discuss other examples of Intellectual Property.
No comments:
Post a Comment