These are called “trademarks”. Trademark is a way to tell people that products bearing the “words, logos, etc” are from you.
Once you register your trademark with the USPTO, you put everyone in the U.S. on the notice that you own the trademark.
This makes it easier for you to stop others from selling fake goods/services that pose to be yours.
Average client spends about $710 including all government fees and other expenses to get a trademark registered.
The amount is based on actual billing data for IPfever clients’ trademarks that are registered in the past two years as of writing this article.
B. Product design
You can get “design patent” for the ornamental feature, like the wing-shaped sleeves.
Once you patent the design, you get a legally sanctioned monopoly for the design in the U.S. for more than a decade.
Getting a design patent can be a tedious and expensive process. However, for industrial design, it’s often the only option.
Average client spends about $4,020 including all government fees and other expenses to get a design patent.
The amount is based on actual billing data for IPfever clients’ design patents that are issued in the past five years as of writing this article.
C. It’s all in the making.
Manufacturing techniques,
special treatments,
textile printing method,
special construction,
and more
When people say “patent”, they mean “utility patent”.
If you developed a new product, it’s likely you invented something. In other words, unless you copied someone else’s goods/services without a single improvement, there is something you can patent.
Nevertheless, it is important to understand that patent doesn’t protect a product as a whole. It rather protects a specific feature of the product. Sometimes, the patented feature is so minor that others can outcompete you without it, making the patent useless.
Average client spends about $7,600 including all government fees and other expenses to get a utility patent.
The amount is based on actual billing data for IPfever clients’ design patents that are issued in the past five years as of writing this article.
Of course, there are more ways to protect your IP, but the above three should give you a head start.
Some people mistake a patent as a comprehensive protection for a certain idea or product. Well, a smartphone is said to be covered by 250,000 patents. It should tell you how narrow a patent can be.
Does that mean it is easy to get patent?
For a surprise to someone, the answer is “yes,” but I didn’t say it’s cheap.
For a product development, creative steps are essential even if you are imitating another product. You don’t know how they built it, so you re-create the manufacturing steps after reverse-engineering. In so doing, you’ll have to go through trials and errors, and then you end up with a better, or sometimes worse, article.
Well, if the difference is on the better side, you might want to get it patented. Even if it’s on the worse side, you can still get a patent. I know it goes against your intuition, but legally speaking, “utility” means that it has a use, not necessarily a beneficial one.
So, a minor tweak in manufacturing process and a tiny new feature in your product can be patented.
Why then, do people speak so highly of patent?
To get a patent, you will need help from patent professionals. And they are expensive.
While it is easy to say that patent grants you exclusive rights in certain steps or features, disputes regarding the steps and features will be always very technical and to the minute details.
A patent has to be very clear as to what extent the patent owner has exclusive rights. And for that, patent law has developed in a way that having a law degree will not quite make you cut out to be a patent practitioner. An attorney with an engineering degree can sit for a patent bar administered by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which has notoriously low pass rates. The result: it costs many thousands, even up to hundreds of thousands, of dollars to secure a patent.
It is not to say there is always positive correlation between cost and value. But, in reality, you wouldn’t invest in something unless it justifies the cost. Issued patents are there because at least someone believed the value would exceed the cost.
How do you measure the value of a patent?
There are many factors including the size of potential market and consumer demand, but most patent professionals agree that it essentially depends on how difficult it is to “design around.”
Let’s say you make a new product that goes viral. Consumer demand skyrockets, and you have legally sanctioned monopoly, assuming you got the patent. Your competitors would look at your product, and the first thing they would think about is how to make a similar item that is not infringing your patent right.
We call it designing around a patent. If your competitors can easily design around your patent, the value of your patent is, of course, not so much.
Patent practitioner tries to make your patent hard to design around.
To get a patent, you will need to explain your tech to the extent anyone has ordinary skill in the art can reproduce the tech. Further, you will need to claim what exactly is the scope of your patent right.
The scope sets the boundary of your patent right, so it tells others if their products would infringe your patent. Further, others will try to find out if they could design around your patent.
It is a critical aspect of patent prosecution because you, as an inventor, can claim the boundary of patent right.
Of course, you have to persuade the USPTO, or the patent examiner, that your claim is not overreaching. Overreaching patent scope might unjustifiably call a common practice in the industry patent infringement. So, when you claim broadly, the USPTO will be reluctant to grant a patent.
Last words
So, the real question is if your invention would make a “good” patent that is worth of your money.
When you run a business, there is a chance that one day you receive a letter claiming that you are infringing someone else’s trademark or patent rights. It’s commonly called a “Cease and Desist Letter.”
Sending a Cease and Desist Letter (“C&D letter”) is a legitimate practice of enforcing one’s intellectual property (“IP”) rights. When you have an IP right, you should actively enforce it. It is a common practice to send a C&D letter to give a notice to related parties about possible infringement, and it also serves as a means to establish a communication channel between parties.
What to do when someone claims you’re violating their IP rights?
1. Not all C&D letters are the same.
It usually starts with a strong language about your wrongdoing, penalties, and of course they always say they have a solid case against you. They often set a deadline in their terms and threaten you with a lawsuit.
Sometimes they do complete a comprehensive analysis before sending out a letter, but they could simply rely on nothing more than a hunch. That’s why they are often written in vague and generalized terms. They can draft one and start sending to everyone they know.
On the other hand, the recipients often panic because they get this out of the blue. You’d be surprised by how many entities are only seeking settlements. They can’t risk going to a trial because it might set a bad precedent. In other words, they know they’d lose if they go to trial.
2. You should consult with people around you.
Getting a lawyer for defending against a sham assertion of infringement sounds very expensive. Also, when you go to a lawyer, he or she might simply say “Oh, I can help you settle this case.”
That’s, in many cases, the safest, simplest, and most cost-effective thing to do. But that’s not always true.
There is a good chance that someone you know has received the same letter before, or they at least know someone who has. Ask them how it went. The infringement analysis is almost always more intricate than what the C&D letter says.
3. Find experts next.
Ultimately, you have to find someone who knows what’s going on to really understand what’s going on. IP professionals can tell you how much you are in trouble, what are your chances to be served with a summon, how you can avoid further infringement, and so on.
If it’s patent related issues, you should find a patent attorney. Patent attorneys are licensed attorneys who are registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. They passed a state bar (so they are presumably competent to represent you in legal matters) and a separate examination administered by the USPTO about the patent law (so they know the patent law). There are patent agents, non-lawyers who are registered with the USPTO, but they are more focused on helping you get a patent.
For trademark issues, there is no certification or license. In theory, any lawyer can represent you in trademark law matters. However, not all lawyers are equally competent. So, here’s a litmus test I suggest. If they simply say, “I can draft a reply or get a settlement offer for you”, then you might want to find another lawyer. You want someone who can tell you what’s really going on before even considering those options.
Have you been to a Burger King restaurant in Mattoon, Illinois? I mean the other Burger King restaurant. There is a restaurant called Burger King, which has nothing to do with Burger King franchise.
While there’s innovative product like iPhone, most new products are improved versions of old products.
Patent protects both.
It really doesn’t matter whether your invention makes people’s lives better or not.
For example, there is a famous case of a “fake juice dispenser”. The dispenser by its appearance has a tank that contains liquid juice. But inside, the dispenser has a water tank and a juice powder container as well as a mixing mechanism, all hidden from the plain view. The design enables the juice seller to use powdered juice concentrate that has a longer shelf life while appealing to customers who like the freshness of liquid juice.
Long story short, the dispenser got patent protection.
Patent is often the only way to curb competition.
Patent is a strong legal right. It grants you government-sanctioned monopoly, though for a limited time, over a thing or a way to do something. And moreover it can raise a high bar blocking others from encroaching on your market.
Let’s say you invented a method in which you make a sandwich while wearing a thimble, and this way, you can make your sandwich miraculously delicious.
Now, if there is no known method or record in which you make a sandwich using a thimble, you can probably get that method patented. I know it’s far-fetched; someone probably made a sandwich or two while wearing a thimble in the past. Nonetheless, if nobody did, this invention is quite innovative, right? It’s certainly not an improvement of traditional sandwich recipes.
Now, for 20 years, nobody can make sandwich with a thimble without your permission. How does this work in a real life? Well, as soon as people learn about this (getting a patent means your method is no longer a secret), they will start making sandwiches with a thimble at home, and there is no way you can monitor everyone’s kitchen to enforce your right. Nonetheless, if it’s a sandwich shop, you can probably do something about it. And more importantly, you will have monopoly on thimbles for sandwich-making because anyone who markets a thimble for sandwich-making will indirectly infringe your patent.
Then, competitors will try to design around your method. If the thimbles work because of certain physical attributes, there could be other ways to achieve similar effect. That involves reverse-engineering and some research effort. After all, they might come up with a better way.
To prevent this, you want to keep inventing or improving your method. By keep inventing, I mean you should try to patent new ways to make sandwiches. On the other hand, if there is improvement, you should consider patenting the improvement as well. When you have so many ways to make sandwiches patented, then your competitors will feel like it’s easier to just pay you licensing fees or just leave the market. Improvement on your old invention makes other alternatives less efficient and thus less appealing.
Two lessons from the above hypothetical.
Your invention needs not be new. A thimble? I definitely remember seeing my grandma using it. There’s always a way to patent (and thus protect) your thing.
You need to keep inventing or improving. Stay forward-looking. Unless you keep working on it, others will find a way to circumvent it.
This article contains
fictional scenarios that include facts and legal issues that are created for an
explanatory purpose. Any of those facts and legal issues including legal
conclusions may not be true when applied to your case. Please seek a legal advice
or counsel if you need any help.
In past articles, we discussed how to name your products and register the names with respect to a trademark protection.
To briefly summarize, we discussed the followings.
1. Most of all, you need a good name for a trademark.
Avoid any name that is similar to competitor’s.
Do not use a generic name that is commonly used in the industry.
If possible, you try minting a term that describes your product.
2. If you anticipate a possible trademark infringement,
registration is a must.
Search the internet using internet search engines like Google for any taken names out there.
You can also use USPTO’s Trademark Electronic Application System to register your trademark by yourself.
Don’t forget to pay maintenance fees once every 10 years.
Let’s see how it works out in the business environment.
1. Antique Metal Zig-zag Hair Band
Mike has been in the beauty supply industry for 15
years. He experienced sales and retail management to a good extent, so he is
good at forecasting consumer trends and popularity of new items.
He realized at some point that zig-zag hair band is a
next it-item for 2018. He did some research and found out zig-zag hair bands
available in the market are mostly made of plastic. Based on this, he came up
with a premium zig-zag hair band with oil-rubbed bronze finish.
He had a Chinese supplier mass-produce the product and
has been receiving increasing number of orders for the product, which he named
“Antique Metal Zig-zag Hair Band”. It is about to become a huge success, and
then he finds out a wholesale is selling “Antiquity” Metal Zig-zag Hair Band,
replacing Antique with Antiquity, with basically an identical product as they
are produced in the same manufacturing line.
Q: How expensive would a lawsuit be?
A: It will be decided by hours. In certain areas of the law,
attorneys offer a legal service for a contingency fee, but trademark
infringement is not one of those special circumstances. The legal bill will be
largely dependent upon the hours your attorney spends for a lawsuit including
following up court proceedings, negotiate with your opponents, and so on.
Q: How long does it take to get an injunction?
A: This is a non-registered trademark, so you will first
prove that you own the trademark. This involves whether the opponent have used
the trademark prior to your use, among other things. Later on, it will
ultimately come to a finding of likelihood of confusion among consumers
regarding two trademarks. Another difficulty in this situation is that you
cannot claim an exclusive use of the “Metal Zig-zag Hair Band”. Even an
exclusive use of “antique” can be contested at court. As there are
many legal issues, legal actions may cost you more than thousands of dollars.
Q: How likely we prevail?
A: The knockoff at issue has not only a similar name but
also an identical packaging, color, style, and so on. As long as we can prove
that we have priority (e.g. we used it first), we will likely prevail.
2. Bear Tooth Hair Band
Mr. Lee has entered the field of beauty supply at his
late career, but his previous job at a retail service company made him aware of
the importance of trademark.
Just like Mr. Kim, he also foresaw a zig-zag hair band
trend this fall and had “Bear Tooth” trademark registered with the
USPTO via an Intend-To-Use Application. He thought the crooked shape of bear
tooth would suggest a zig-zag shape of a hair band. He had no idea what
material to be used, but later he noticed that Antique’s oil-rubbed bronze
finish products are received very fairly in the retailers. He placed an order from
a Chinese supplier.
The product was only launched in July, but in a few months,
customers started looking for “bear tooth hair band” since the name
was very catchy. Not long after, people started to call any zig-zag hair band
made of metal “bear tooth”. In turn, many retail stores are
displaying and selling Antique and Antiquity products as if they are all Bear
Tooth Hair Bands.
Q: What can be done legally?
A: Bear Tooth is a registered trademark of Mr. Lee, so any
use of the name to sell a similar product is unlawful. You can send letters
asking for cooperation, and if a retail store continues to use the trademark
illegally, then you can bring a lawsuit.
Q: What would be a legal cost for lawsuit?
A: In this case, the trademark is registered with the USPTO,
and the infringement is clear and obvious. More than likely, the retailers will
cooperate upon receiving letters. Therefore, the cost would be attorney’s fee
for drafting a cease and desist letter plus administrative cost including
postage and handling, which could run a few hundreds of dollars.
Q: What about similar names like Black Bear Tooth? What can
be done?
A: Thanks to the ITU Application, the trademark is
registered with the USPTO by now. There is no need to prove priority as it is
given by the fact that the trademark is registered. You can just let retailers
know of the registration and proceed with other legal measures such as
injunction prohibiting import. After the acknowledge of registration, any
profit made through illegal use of your trademark becomes recoverable upon
trademark infringement lawsuit. There is very little incentive to continue
illegal use of a trademark for retailers and distributions alike.
What about the retail store owner’s liability?
Q: Can a retail store advertise and sell another product as
Bear Tooth Hair Band?
A: Of course not. It is a trademark infringement. Bear Tooth
is a registered trademark of Mr. Lee. He
has an exclusive right to commercially use the name. Technically, no one can
use Bear Tooth mark on a hair band packaging, retail display, brochures,
advertisements without Mr. Lee’s consent. Of course, you can use the mark in
association with the original Bear Tooth Hair Band. However, you may not place
another product in a section you marked with Bear Tooth mark. This would lead
your customers to believe any product in the section is Bear Tooth products,
which results in a trademark infringement. Not only civil liability but also
criminal penalties can be imposed based on the intent of using the mark.
Q: If I had no idea about the trademark infringement, am I
okay?
A: There is no intent requirement for trademark
infringement. On the other hand, you may be subject to a lesser punishment if
you did not know about it. Often, trademark owners will send letters to retail
stores regarding a trademark infringement. If the retail owners keep infringing
trademark after receiving the letters, they cannot later argue that they did
not know. Knowingly violating other’s trademark rights will make you liable for
all loss of profit for the trademark owner plus other damages.
Q: How do you know what is a trademark of others?
A: Registered trademark owners can use ® mark to notify the public of
their rights. Even if not registered, TM is available for marking any
trademark. Beware that because TM mark does not require registration, it can be
abused for marking non-trademarks as trademarks.
Let’s compare the two scenarios.
Antique Metal Zig-zag
Bear Tooth
Trademark
“Antique” and “metal” is generic terms for the
material and design.
Weak
trademark rights
“Bear Tooth” is a unique, suggestive term for the
product.
TM
rights immediately available
USPTO Registration
None
Need to prove your rights
Intent-to-use Application
ITU provides priority
Similarity of Marks
Antiquity Metal Zig-zag is very similar to Antique
Metal Zig-zag
Other
factors like color, font, and design are considered.
Black Bear Tooth is just a black Bear Tooth.
Obvious
infringement
Legal Action
Unlikely to succeed without a substantial time and money
Affordable options available: letters, reporting to law enforcement,
etc.
When a product becomes a success, it is rather expected that
similar products start to crowd the market. Nonetheless, it is forbidden by the
law that second comers to deceive consumers with a confusingly similar mark or
product package.
As we saw in the above Bear Tooth scenario, a good planning
of trademark protection often helps more efficiently dealing with any
infringement activities.
Zara, which is a
Fast Fashion brand like Forever 21, boasts that it takes only 10 to
15 days for an initial product design to reach their retail stores
through international manufacture and logistics. In this fast-paced
environment where a product can be copied within a few days and mass
produced, a superb product design and packaging warrants only half
the success.
Turning a
customer satisfaction from a superb quality and brand into a
repurchase requires marking of the product with a unique and legally
protected name. Such name is called a trademark, and it includes not
only brand names and product names but also logo images, patterns,
phrases, colors, and so on.
Then, how you
decide what to use as a trademark? In this article, brand and product
names are discussed.
1. Try to Stand Out from Competition
If your beauty supply store is named “ULTA”
or “SEPHORA”, you are clearly in trouble. Likewise, you
should avoid choosing a name that creates a confusion among consumers
even if it is newly minted by you. “Rihanna’s Beauty” is
a good example of such confusing tenor.
To prevent this
kind of trouble, you must conduct a market research beforehand. By
far the most effective and economical way is using internet search
engines. You can use Google, Naver, and so on to scheme through names
and marks that are used in your relevant market.
Avoid names that
are similar to existing ones, and you should not use an identical one
to other’s trademark at no circumstance.
2. Avoid Generic Names
Those words and
phrases commonly used in your field of expertise lack the potential
to be a good trademark.
Words such as
“3X”, “16-inch”, “Braid”, “Ghana”,
and “Pageboy” are general terminologies referring a number
of goods in a single package, hair length, product type, hairdo, and
so on. These general terminologies must be preserved for a free use
among all commercial actors, and the trademark law accordingly limits
trademark rights in such cases. Hence, you should not use generic
terms unless it is necessary.
Oftentimes, using
a general term is easy to memorize and facilitates a quick
understanding of the characteristics of goods, but there are
different ways to achieve the same.
For example, iPad, a tablet computer from
Apple, Inc., uses the word “pad” to depict a “tablet
computer”. Despite being a common word referring to a book of
thin sheets, a “pad” was not associated with a tablet
computer at the time.
This is how you
should go when you are considering a common word for your trademark:
distancing from its original meaning or using an untraditional
spelling.
A billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk
established a construction company specialized in tunneling, the
Boring Company, in which boring means digging a tunnel. At the same
time, it could also mean a company that are not interesting, poking
some fun.
3. Unique Wording that Describes Your Product
When it comes to
a Samsung smartphone Galaxy Note, the word “note” denotes
that this particular type of smartphone has a bigger screen and
includes a stylus pen. Again, “note” was a terminology that
mobile computer industry did not find a common use, so this could be
a good choice.
To explain
further, let’s use an imaginary wig product, 100% Hand-tied Human
Hair Pageboy Lace Wig as an example.
First of all, there are obvious characteristics of goods that a trademark needs not contain, such as the product type wig.
While 100% Hand-tied and Lace are important features of the product, the wording is a poor choice for a trademark. You can have a much stronger trademark by devising unique phrases such as Artisan’s Lacework, Tied-on-Lace, On-lace-handywork, and so on.
A fanciful name can be used instead of human hair. Keratin, a type of protein found in hair, is already familiar with consumers, and words like natural and organic can set a positive tone for your product.
Pageboy is a style that could be more efficiently and accurately illustrated by a drawing or photo. However, you may develop variety of unique wordings that sets your brand apart from the pack, such as Pagegirl instead of Pageboy and Peige instead of Page. Note, Peige may signal a specific color Beige.
While product
names can tell what kind of product a good is, they should serve as a
source identifier. In other words, consumers should be able to learn
from which manufacturer, distributor, or seller a certain good is
originated.
Ideally, a good
trademark should tell a consumer that the product in her
consideration is this “Artisan’s Lacework – Peige” among
many other Pageboy style 100% human hair hand-tied lace wigs.
4. Tips
Be creative when naming a product. “Kodak” is a word created by its founder to serve as a trademark. Unique and easy to memorize.
A common word has a potential to be a great trademark. Office electronics company “Brother” transformed a common word into a great and distinctive trademark.
You may consider a terminology uncommon in the technical field or a spelling variation. Lyft, a Uber service competitor, uses a misspelled common word “lift” which means giving a ride.
Words or phrases including ARTISAN’S LACEWORK, TIED-ON-LACE, ON-LACE-HANDYWORK, KERATIN, NATURAL, ORGANIC, PAGEGIRL, and PEIGE, appearing in this article, were created to explain relevant legal concepts and may be inappropriate for use as a trademark. All content and information in this article does not constitute a legal counsel or advice at any circumstance.
Although Amazon is reigning in the online retail market, if you compare the annual retail sales figures of 2016, Walmart’s $363 billion in annual revenue overshadowed Amazon’s $77 billion. This is a meaningful success in the offline retail market where many retail giants are fiercely competing.
What in the earth makes Walmart to score such a high annual sales revenue which is more than twice the combined number of (a) $70 billion by Target, a discount store like Walmart and (b) $86 billion by Costco, a membership store like Sam’s Club by Walmart?
Walmart is well known for its rigorous standard for choosing suppliers, efficient logistics and store management, and a simple but effective business principle of serving the customers with a lower price, among others, that are all contributing to the success of Walmart. Surprisingly, it is a less known fact that Walmart played a major role in the retail adoption of barcode technology.
Anyone who remembers the days when barcodes did not exist would easily appreciate how much the barcode technology saves time and effort in sales of goods. Without the Universal Product Code (“UPC”) which was introduced to the retail business by Walmart, barcode could have been just a type of machine-readable code for a proprietary computer system. In parallel, Walmart recently began to require all suppliers to use radio frequency identification (“RFID”) smart tags to display product information on their shipment. Smart tags convey product information over the air more efficiently than barcodes and allegedly improves the flow of the logistics as well as the inventory management in the retail stores. Of course, barcode is not invented by Walmart. Just like smart tags, Walmart is on the side of adopting and utilizing the technology developed by a third party. That is not a surprise considering that standardization leads to cost savings for the entire retail industry and that an exclusive technology developed and adopted by a retailer would not likely benefit the entity in the market competition.
Nevertheless, Walmart is allocating a lot of resources in procuring patents, which is unprecedented in its 50 years of history.
Based on the publication date of patent applications, Walmart applied for only 26 patents for the two-year period from 2012 to 2013 whereas it already applied for 201 patents from 2016 to date. Simply put, patent is a legal right to an exclusive use of a technology invented independently, so the sudden increase goes against the very idea of standardization.
The phenomenon can be understood by taking a closer look at Walmart’s patents. For an example, one of the Walmart’s patents issued in 2017, the U.S. Patent No. 9,470,532, claims an exclusive right to a navigation system that help customers to find goods in a store.
This navigation system provides an assistance to shoppers by (1) allowing customers to input product information they are searching via mobile devices; (2) displaying the location of the product on a store map; and (3) marking locations of comparable or associated goods on their route. Once this technology is commercialized, Walmart could make up for its shortage in the staff on the retail floor, improving shopping experience significantly. That is not to say that this kind of service requires an investment in advanced technology as it only requires common smartphones and inventory management applications readily available to small and midsize businesses. Notwithstanding, for about 20 years, any business who wants to adopt the navigation system in their store would have to obtain license from Walmart or just sit and wait till the patent expires.
There are other examples such as a mobile app validating the age of purchasers of age-restricted items (U.S. Pat. No. 9,665,896) and a system delivering shopping carts upon the request by shoppers via a mobile app (U.S. Pat. Application No. 6,619,546). In sum, Walmart patents of recent involve not the profound principles of science but ideas for a better shopping experience.
These ideas could have been the technology of the future, but with the internet and personal mobile devices, you can bring them to life without dedicated devices or extra infrastructure. Walmart is now expanding its patent portfolio to exclude others from using some of them.
In fact, from a design or packaging idea to a unique placement of goods in retail spaces and a promotional or loyalty program ideas, if it is noble, it has a potential to be patented. Once patented, you can have an edge in retail services and prevent others from misappropriating your own idea.
Often an amazing and groundbreaking idea becomes a mundane thing because everybody is copying it so fast. When you come up with a great idea, you should (1) determine whether the idea can develop into an effective and financially valuable patent, (2) find a way to protect the idea appropriately, and (3) acquire a legal right that can ensure a lasting success.
Patent is an intellectual property right, which is not aimed to boost the economy but intended to advance science and technology. So, many business-minded people will struggle with the basic concept of patent and how it should be used for their business.
On the other hand, patent is recognized as the most reliable and strong intellectual property right in business. You probably heard about its importance even if you really don’t know much.
The hurdle for small businesses in developing a strong patent portfolio is the expense. Does it have to be prohibitively expensive? Well, it doesn’t have to be. The more you know about the patent, the more likely you will find a solution for your business yourself.
Getting a patent is not like having a trademark registered.
If you started using a name, logo, image, or even a sequence of musical notes as a symbol that stands for your product or service, you already have a trademark. Trademark registration is a way to give an affirmative notice to the public that you are using the mark. The registration offers some perks, which are very helpful for your business, but the intellectual property right is not created by it.
On the other hand, a patent right is created when the government issue you a patent because your creative work doesn’t itself create a property right. If you invented something, you have a choice. You can disclose the ins and outs of the invention in exchange for an intellectual property right or just keep it under your sleeve.
You should wisely decide whether you apply for a patent or not.
A patent application usually discloses something you want to hide from the public as the law requires that (usually after 18 months from the application date) your application be published. In other words, everyone in the world will be able to access the disclosed information in the patent application.
If you have a technology that is immune to reverse-engineering and you are confident that you can keep the secret, getting a patent is probably more of a public service than a business move. Of course, there are instances that you want to open your technology to make it an industry standard. In this case, you patent the technology so people can learn about it, and you promise that you won’t withhold this patented technology unfairly (like demanding unreasonable license fees to discriminate your competitors).
On the other hand, if your technology is not immune to reverse-engineering or you know others will soon catch up your progress, you likely need a patent protection. It will deter copycats and protect your business from an instance where someone else is issued a patent for the same technology and sues you. This situation can be also prevented by disclosing your work to the public in advance because the means for disclosure doesn’t have to be a patent application. Though, in this case you’re simply giving up your rights to the invention.
client spends about $710 including all government fees and other expenses to get a trademark registered.
