Intellectual Property Litigation and Laws – What an Inventor or Designer Needs to Know to Protect Their Ideas
What is Intellectual Property Litigation?
Intellectual property litigation is a vast body of federal and state laws used for securing and enforcing legal rights. They protect creative property such as music, paintings, drawings, film, photography, inventions, and designs. Think of Intellectual property litigation as an umbrella term. It includes patent law, trademarks, and copyrights. These laws allow people to design, create and invent. People need not fear their works being copied by others.
Trademarks
Trademarks are used to protect symbols, names, and slogans used to identify goods and services. Nike, Apple and thousands of other visible companies have logos and slogans to help consumers identify products. A trademark benefits both the owner and the consumer. They are very valuable to the owner by protecting the name or logo, grants them national ownership of the name or logo and protect other parties from claiming them.
A trademark, however, ultimately protects the consumer. It does this by informing a consumer where goods or services originate. Trademarks protect consumers from confusion and harm by knowing where the product they are using originates. These markings help consumers quickly identify products they like and allow them to avoid the products they don’t.
Copyrights
Copyrights protect creative expression. They apply to writing, movies, photographs, software and other intellectual and artistic expressions. To qualify for copyright, an intellectual or artistic expression must meet specific requirements, such as originality and creativity. A copyright symbol © and date are common, but, not mandatory and most last for a person’s lifetime plus 70 years.
Patents
Patents do not protect an idea. Patents protect the method, design or process of an idea. Patents give inventors the right to use their product to sell or to transfer to someone else to make a profit. Patent rights are valid for up to 20 years. Patent protection is denied in the event an invention is not useful, unoriginal or morally offensive.
Right of Publicity
A collection of state laws protect your name and image from unauthorized use. The extent of protection varies from state to state. Florida law protects a person’s name, portrait, photograph (still or moving pictures) and likeness.
Florida’s Right of Publicity Statute
“No person shall publish, print, display or otherwise publicly use for purposes of trade or any commercial or advertising purpose the name, portrait, photograph, or another likeness of any natural person without the express written or oral consent.”
Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are confidential business, commercial, manufacturing or industrial secrets which offer competition. Formulas, processes, designs, and methods used by a business that is unknown about can provide an economic advantage for the company using them. These trade secrets are protected without registration to avoid unfair competition.
Paul J. Burkhart
If you have created, designed, invented or obtained the rights to something unique that needs to be protected under Intellectual Property laws, Paul J. Burkhart, and his experienced team can help, with trademarks, copyrights, and patents to ensure your design, invention and protect your interests.
Intellectual Property Attorney Palm Beach Gardens
Our team assists both individual and business clients with all their legal needs, including business and Corporate Transactions, Business/Commercial and Civil Litigation, Real Estate, Intellectual Property, Family Law, and Estate Planning matters. We are a full-service private law firm ready to assist you with any request, large or small. Call 561-880-0155 or visit our website.
Law Offices of Paul J Burkhart, PL
Business litigation and business contracts
800 Village Square Crossing
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
Phone: (561) 880-0155
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