Brand and Nine Legal Issues Related to Patent-1

8/14/2019 Brand and Nine Legal Issues Related to Patent-1

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Brand and Nine Legal Issues

Related to Patent, Trademark,and Copyright


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Protecting your Brand

When establishing your branding andensuring the protection of your brand,

you inevitably deal with legal issues.

When you do, keep three key points inmind.


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First

Your brand is best protected when youcomprehensively cover all your bases:

copyright, patent registration, and

trade marking of your name andsymbols.

Don't just focus on one or two; you

need to take care of all three.


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Second

You need to aggressively protect yourpatents and copyrights; be thorough

with contracts, ensure secrecy, and

keep on top of legal filings.


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Third

Move quickly, because yourcompetition is just around the corner;

if you have something to protect,

register it as soon as possible.


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Protecting your Product or

business Brand Protecting your product or business brand,

one of the most fundamental aspects of yourmarket presence, is not something thatshould be taken lightly or ignored.

From the very beginning of your business,you need to create and maintain a solidintellectual property (IP), patent, andcopyright strategy that protects your ownbrand while keeping you safe from

accusations of infringement by others. So, how do you go about securing your

business brand and other IP via copyright,patent, and trademark? Here are tips on ninekey legal issues you need to take care of.


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Nine Legal Issues


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Protecting Your Patents

Patents can cover any sort of physicalproduct or invention, development

process, or piece of software

technology. Though patents do notproperly qualify as part of an IP and

trademark/branding framework, they

are related.


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Rule 1: Main tain trade secrecy

Stay quiet about your pending patentsand intellectual property developments.You don't need to force anyone whoenters your office into signing a non-

disclosure agreement (NDA), but you doneed to maintain a controlled system ofinformation flow that allows developmentdetail to filter down only to those whoactually need to know. Sensitiveinformation should be kept secret untilyou have a patent pending or in effect.

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Rule 2: Enfo rce formal ownersh ip

agreements fo r IP

Create a formal contract agreement amongyou, your product developers, and otherfounders or partners of your businessventure. Ensure that a clear agreement existson who gets what ownership stakes in anypending patents and how intellectual propertywill be divided among all those included.Furthermore, enforce clear contractual claimson any pending IP or patents so that yourdevelopers can't later claim partial ownership

without prior agreement.


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Rule 3: Patent your invent ions

and IP as soon as possib le Patent your IP and inventions as quickly as

you can. Initially, to save money, don't worryabout international patents, just focus ondomestic protection and save yourself the

money until it becomes a more pressingissue if you grow internationally. An excellenttemporary protection strategy is the"provisional patent"actually, a "provisionalapplication for patent"which allows you totemporarily protect your IP and inventionswith much less bureaucratic hassle whileyou're waiting for a formal patent approval.


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Trademark Registration

Trademark protection is the core of aneffective branding protection strategy;

it is what covers all of your business

specific logos, trademarks, and wordsor phrases.


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Rule 4:Do a c learance search

You must find out whether a symbol,logo, catchphrase, brand name, or imagethat you want to trademark is not alreadytrademarked. Attempting to trademark it

without first running a check is merelygoing to waste valuable time and money.You can use a clearance search servicethat offers to do search for a fee, or youcan simply take care of the processyourself by visiting the Patent andTrademark Office's Trademark ElectronicSystem (TESS).

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Rule 5:File a trademark

app l icat ion and pro tect your

brands Once you know that your brand identity itemsare free of third-party claims, go ahead andfile for trademark registration.

While your trademark application is windingits way through the bureaucratic process,protect yourself by assigning a TM or SMmarker to any pending trademarks; the SM is

used for service-based trademarks, and theTM for product based registrations.

Your formally registered trademarks can belabeled with an (R) to denote full

ownership.


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Rule 6:Cover al l your b rand

bases Even some larger companies with established brand

registrations forget to protect and register brand derivativessuch as social media tags and possible online names.

Even if you have a registered trademark for your brand, you

should also make sure that social media tags with that namebelong to you and that you've registered all the principaldomain suffixes for your brand name or catchphrase online.You don't want someone establishing a website with yourbusiness name and using it to give you a bad reputationsomehow.

If you have your trademark already registered but someonehas stolen the name as part of a domain name or socialmedia tag, you can sue in court but will first have to establishproof the your registration was made before the other partyset up the domain name or tag. Otherwise, you venture into

murky legal ground.


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Rule 7:Establish a clear IP

l i cens ing protoco l

This step applies to trademark, copyright, andpatents as well. You need to establish strictlydefined procedures for how you will or will not

license use of your IP to third parties. If you enterinto licensing or franchising contracts with othercompanies or vendors, make sure that thefinancial and legal conditions of your partnership

are firmly cleared on paper and have been draftedor at least reviewed by legal professionals.

A big part of this step is setting up clear limits onwhat can and cannot be done with your trademark

and IP in general; establish what it's allowed, and


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Legal Issues of Copyright and

Brand Identity

Copyright can't be ignored if we'retalking about legally protecting brand

identity; it is going to represent to the

world what a very large part of whatyour business is about. Although many

people think of copyright as being

something that belongs more tomusicians and book authors, its

impact on your business brand has

the potential to be just as important.


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Legal Issues of Copyright and

Brand Identity

A big part of establishing your reputation vis--vis clients and the public lies in promotingyourself as an expert in your field. In somecases, that might mean distribution of written

information such as blog posts, websitecontent, guides, instructions, and informationpackages that demonstrate your expertise. Allof those written works are part of your brandname identity and business reputation; theyneed to be copyrighted if you don't wantothers to steal your work for their own self-promotion or personal profit.

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Rule 8:Mark you r ownersh ip

offic ial ly and unoff ic ially

For any written material that youpublish, you need to note your

ownership of with a small copyright

marker or the word "copyright" alongwith the year of publication. Having

done so as an on-the-fly measure, you

should also register all of your morevaluable copyrights with the Copyright

Office via its application process.


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Rule 9:Clearly define

copyr igh t ownersh ip If your written materials, such as blog

posts, website content, and otherbusiness promotional materials are beingwritten by third parties, make sure a

contractual agreement exists betweenyou and them to clearly establish yourcompany as the copyright holder. Suchan agreement can save you headachesdown the road if those you've hired towrite material for you decide to use it fortheir own purposes and fight you in courtyou if you try to intervene.

Brand and Nine Legal Issues Related to Patent-1

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