2019 Small Business Resource Guide 2019 Small Business Resource Guide | Page 28
L E GA L
LEGAL
TRADEMARKS,
PATENTS &
COPYRIGHTS
As an entrepreneur or aspiring small business owner, one of the most
significant considerations that may come to mind is how to protect your work.
What steps should you take to ensure that someone else couldn’t lay claim to
what your product or service? Does a patent, copyright or trademark apply?
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website provides a clear distinction
between these three types of protection:
Patents Copyright
A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right
to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and
Trademark Office. It provides the patent owner with the
right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the
patented invention. Generally, the term of a new patent
is 20 years from the earliest date on which the application
for the patent was filed in the United States (not including
the provisional patent application, if any). There are three
types of patents including Utility Patents, Design Patents,
and Plant Patents. Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors
of “original works of authorship” including literary, dramatic,
musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works fixed
in a tangible medium, both published and unpublished.
The 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner
of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the
copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to
distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted
work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, or to
display the copyrighted work publicly.
Trademarks and Servicemarks Intellectual Property Rights (Overseas)
A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or device that is used
in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and
to distinguish them from the goods of others. A servicemark
is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and
distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product.
The terms “trademark” and “mark” are commonly used to
refer to both trademarks and servicemarks. A trademark
can be registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office
by filing a trademark application, indicating your “intent to
use” the mark in commerce. Since the rights granted by a U.S. patent extend only
throughout the territory of the United States and have
no effect in a foreign country, an inventor who wishes patent
protection in other countries must apply for a patent in each
of the other countries or in regional patent offices. Almost
every country has its own patent law, and a person desiring
a patent in a particular country must make an application
for patent in that country, in accordance with the
requirements of that country. Similarly, local laws
apply to trademark, copyrights, and other forms
of intellectual property in each jurisdiction.
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Texas Regional Office
207 South Houston St., Suite 159 | Dallas, Texas 75202
469-295-9000
[email protected]
www.uspto.gov
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