Daily Legal Help

Here are a few ways in which San Francisco intellectual property lawyers can protect you.

Patent

Patents protect ideas (or processes or products). It takes a long time to procure one and is an expensive business. However, this works to protect the owner of the patent from future claims of ownership of the same idea.

Patents are valid for a limited period, after which the idea becomes free for others to use. They are also awarded for a certain geographic area – and in today’s global environment, a really BIG idea may need to be protected worldwide.

Copyright

Acquiring a copyright is the way to protect written works such as books, software, or even music. However, a copyright only protects the intellectual property from being duplicated, as in the case of software products. On the other hand, a person can take “inspiration” from an idea belonging to someone else, tweak it a bit, and get away with it, scot free. Don’t we see that happening all the time?

Trademark

A trademark protects a property that is used to make a company or product marketable – for example a brand name or logo. In case of the use of generic sounding names, trademarks protect the visual rendition but not the name itself.

Other Examples:

• Prevention of the theft of trade secrets, although this can be quite difficult to achieve

• Non disclosure agreements that prevent employees or vendors from divulging confidential or sensitive information to others

It must be noted that protection of intellectual property rights is a specialized legal science by itself, and you will need to engage the services of an IP lawyer to take care of your interests. Be sure not to overlook them.