What Is...
A PATENT?In general, a U.S. patent is the government grant of a temporary term of exclusivity—20 years from the filing date of an application—in exchange
for the public disclosure of the invention. The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal administrative agency charged
with the examination of patent applications and the granting of patents. A patent application may be for a utility, design, or plant patent.
With respect to a utility patent, the patent application may be provisional or nonprovisional. With a provisional application, an applicant can
preserve a filing date for prior art purposes and delay the examination process. A provisional application automatically lapses one year from its
filing date but may be used as the basis of a priority claim so that a nonprovisional application can obtain the benefit of the earlier provisional
application filing date.
During the examination process of a nonprovisional patent application, the USPTO is likely to issue various office actions in which the examiner sets forth the rationale as to why the invention does or does not meet the conditions for patentability set forth in Title 35 of the U.S. Code and Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
A TRADEMARK?
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, design or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, which identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods or services of one party from those 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. The basic concept behind trademarks is to prevent unfair competition.
Under the Lanham Act, a person who obtains a federal registration that predates another person's use of the same or a confusingly similar mark has superior rights to use the registered mark throughout the United States. A federal registration is constructive notice that the registrant has the right to use the mark throughout the entire country and can prevent others from using the same or similar mark anywhere in the U.S.
More information about patents and trademarks is available at www.uspto.gov. If you need answers to specific questions or want to know more about filing patent and/or trademark applications, please contact us at 303-301-2650 or send an email to info@alawfirmpc.com.
A COPYRIGHT?
Copyright protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. Copyright law ensures that the copyright owner has that exclusive right to: reproduce the work, prepare derivative versions of the work; distribute copies of the work, perform the work publicly, display the work publicly, or authorize others to do any of these acts.
Copyright is formed at the time the copyrightable work is created in a fixed form. However, only those works registered with the U.S. Copyright Office within three months of "first publication" are entitled to the full range of copyright infringement remedies.
More information about copyrights is available at www.copyright.gov. If you need answers to specific questions or want to know more about registering a work as copyrighted, please contact us at 303-301-2650 or send an email to info@alawfirmpc.com.
