When most people think of creative expression, they naturally envision the work of individual authors, artists, poets, singers, and musicians. In fact, these works only comprise the classic examples of copyright subject. Less obvious, however, is the multitude of everyday business components that lend themselves to copyright protection.

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, the potential valuation of a company lies not just in its physical assets but is based to a great extent on its ability to develop and capitalize upon a steady stream of new ideas and creativity. In this regard, important creative components of a business including sales brochures, advertising, solicitation letters and emails, instruction manuals, architectural and engineering drawings, pictures, photographs, paintings, graphical images, web-site designs, computer software, music, and sound recordings can all be protected under copyright law.

Copyright protection generally lasts for 70 years and protects the original expression of an idea, whether literary, artistic, commercial or otherwise. It is used to protect original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Some examples of original works that may be protected with a copyright have been given above.

Under current law, copyright protection attaches to a work whether the copyright owner registers the work with the U.S. Copyright Office. However, registration is required before an infringement lawsuit can be filed. Also, registering a copyright within three months of the work’s first publication entitles the owner to statutory damages and attorney fees in an infringement action. Copyright registration is inexpensive and it is advisable to register any work believed to be of value.

The owner of a copyrighted work has the exclusive right to reproduce the work, prepare derivative works based upon the work, distribute copies of the work to the public, perform the work publicly, and display the work publicly. One significant disadvantage of copyright protection, however, is that “independent creation” is a valid defense to an infringement action. In other words, a defendant can avoid liability as long as he or she can show that they did not copy

Have Questions About Copyrights or Copyright Law?

If you would like to speak with an attorney about your particular situation, please do not hesitate to call our office.
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Imagine how horrible it would be for a common criminal to impersonate you and steal what’s rightfully yours. What’s worse, imagine that same criminal committing other crimes using your name. Imagine the humiliation and embarrassment.

Every day in America, millions of business owners like you take steps to protect themselves from identity theft. Perhaps you shred your bank statements and keep your Social Security Number under lock and key. You delete suspicious emails and change your computer’s password every week.
But what have you done to protect your business name?

One of the most valuable assets your business has is its good name — your brand name. Contrary to popular belief, incorporating your business DOES NOT protect your company name. I had to break this news to a client of mine recently. He had incorporated in Florida. And he was shocked to discover that the state of Florida had allowed another company to incorporate with a name that was almost identical to his company’s. Unfortunately, he hadn’t bothered to trademark his company name… allowing a competitor to use a confusingly similar variation after he had worked hard to establish his own business.

When you’re starting a business, trademark protection is probably one of the last things you want to think about. That’s why I’ve put together a brief free report on the ins and outs of trademarks. As an entrepreneur, I know you’re busy . . . So the report is a quick, easy read.

Get out FREE Report Now

Download the free report today to learn:

• The difference between trademarks, copyright, and service marks
• An overview of basic trademark law
• The four different types of trademarks
• The benefits of federal registration
• The pitfalls of failing to protect your trademark
• And more.

And when you download this free report, you’ll also receive a voucher for a free consultation regarding trademark rights for your company name or brand identity.

Just how valuable is intellectual property like brand and product names? If you’re just starting out, you may have very little brand equity. But as your business grows, so does your brand’s value. The McDonald’s brand is valued by Businessweek at 29 BILLION dollars. eBay is worth $7 billion, and Google, $17 billion. That’s not the value of the businesses (equipment, buildings, inventory and the like). Just the brands.

And if these companies don’t take the necessary legal steps to protect their corporate assets, they could lose them to a competitor.

Let me tell you a sad, but true story to illustrate my point . . .
Recently, I took a phone call from the owner of an online kayaking equipment retailer. (Of course, I can’t reveal his name.for reasons that will become clear in a moment. But for now, let’s call him Joe) I could hear the frustration and fear in his voice. There was a touch of anger too (and frankly, after what he’d been through, I’d certainly be furious.)

Joe had spared no expense in creating buzz for his company’s online debut. He’d paid thousands of dollars to an ad agency to create a catchy slogan and develop an entire advertising and marketing campaign. He hired a fancy PR firm (spending thousands more) to create public relations buzz — news releases, media kits, the whole thing.

But when it came to protecting his company’s name, Joe decided to do it “on the cheap.” He surfed around online and discovered a trademark filing service that promised him a 70% savings over what an attorney would charge. And because this well-known service promised to “check” the information provided prior to a filing, Joe signed up immediately. He figured the service would notify him if there was any problem securing a trademark on his expensive new slogan. He was about to find out—the hard way—that the only thing they “checked” was spelling and consistency in the application form!

So, having spent thousands of dollars to create and market his company (and its spiffy new slogan), Joe was shocked to receive a Cease & Desist letter from a competitor—just weeks before his marketing campaign was set to launch. The other kayaking equipment company was monitoring Joe’s trademark filing and threatening to file suit should Joe’s company use the slogan in the marketplace. Why? Because, Joe’s slogan was confusingly similar to the one used by the other company.

As you can imagine, Joe called the online trademarking service in a panic. He was devastated to discover that all the service did was “process the paperwork,” and they advised hire a trademark attorney. (Which is, of course, what he should have done in the first place.)

A proper search and opinion by an attorney prior to filing for the trademark would have identified the potential problem long before Joe spent a dime to develop his marketing and PR campaigns. Sadly, by the time I heard from Joe, it was too late. There was nothing I could do to help him. He had to scrap all the marketing materials, news releases and advertisements that featured the now-abandoned slogan and start from scratch.
Trademark logo samples

So, how much did Joe “save” by hiring a “document preparation and filing service” instead of an attorney? Only about $600. (Ironically, that’s less than Joe was prepared to spend on a single print ad.)

How much did it cost him? It was easily a five-figure mistake!

Joe found out the hard way that obtaining a federal trademark on your company’s name, brands, slogans, logos, Internet domains, or other identifying marks is the only way to legally protect your company against confusingly similar uses by competitors. It’s the only real way to prevent a competitor from committing “corporate identity theft.”

What’s more, federal trademark protection entitles you to use of the “®” symbol to identify your goods or services. And federal registration can also entitle you to higher damage payments and other remedies should you need to protect your trademark in a court of law.

And speaking of damages, what have you done to ensure that your company name and product/service names don’t infringe on another owner’s trademarks? (At least Joe was lucky that his competitor sent him a Cease and Desist letter instead of just suing him!)

You can avoid potential civil fines and damages for trademark infringement by searching the records of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office before you start your new business. Before you hire a logo designer, invest in printing, signage, advertising and other expenses, be sure that no one else has already registered your business, product, or service names.

I cover all this in Protecting Your Trademark Rights. It’s free report that could save you thousands. And remember, you’ll also receive a voucher for a FREE Consultation on protecting your company or product brand names.

Another one of my clients (I’ll call her “Jona Davis”) could really have used a copy of our Free Report. She thought she could protect her business by simply registering every domain name that was similar to the name of her company. (For the sake of argument, let’s call it “NewStartup.com.”) In addition to the “dot-com” extension, Jona registered the.net,.org,.biz,.us,.mob,.info and.TV extensions.

I thought there was no way anyone could trample my company’s good name,” she told me. “I figured, at $9 a year for each extension, registering the domain names is a bargain compared to getting a trademark filed.”

Somehow her “dot-net” domain name slipped through the cracks and expired without her noticing. She came to us when she discovered that a competitor had snapped up the expired domain name before she could renew it.

One of the first things I asked: “Did you file for a trademark to protect the domain name?” That’s when she explained that registering all those domain names was “a lot cheaper than hiring an attorney” to file a trademark application. So I asked her bout the new extensions that are available-like dot-cn, com.cn, ne.cn and others. “And have you registered all the variations of your domain name that are available?” Just off the top of my head I thought of . . .

• New-Start-Up.com or NewStart-Up.com or New-Startup.com
• New-Start-Ups.com
• NewestStartUps.com
• Newest-Start-Ups.com
• Fresh-Start-Ups.com
• NewBornStart-Ups.com

“And what about the .net, .biz, .org and other extensions for any of the above variations?”, I asked. When her face fell, I had my answer.

Registering a domain name only prevents a competitor from using that EXACT domain name. (At least, until you forget to renew it.) But there’s no limit to the number of “creative” variations of your domain name your competitors can register—leaving your business completely vulnerable.

A federal trademark would have prevented Jona’s competitors from using the IDENTICAL trademark, as well as any confusingly similar variations. (You still may want to get a few other domain variations for good measure, but you don’t have to go crazy if you have the federal registration.)

The truth is, domain names cost you money each and every year, whereas a federal trademark is forever. And you only have to deal with periodic renewals and other filings every five or ten years. Jona learned the hard way that her “cheap” solution was hardly a bargain.

It’s so easy to avoid the mistakes that both Jona and Joe made. Learn more in our free report,Protecting Your Trademark Rights By John Rizvi, P.A. — The Idea Attorneys®

Regards,
John Rizvi, Esq.
Board-Certified Patent Attorney
John Rizvi, P.A. — The Idea Attorneys®
Email John Rizvi directly.

P.S. Remember, federal trademark protection is the only way to legally protect yourself from trademark infringement by a competitor. Don’t take the chance of losing your hard-earned brand equity. Download the free report today.

P.P.S. For a limited time business owners to downloading the free report are eligible to receive a free consultation tailored to their specific company name or brand identity.

Request a detailed trademark information packet outlining the steps involved in obtaining trademark protection for a new company or product name or brand identity, an estimate of the associated legal fees and costs involved, and a statement of our qualifications and experience in trademark matters.

Inexperienced entrepreneurs often overlook the importance of properly securing rights to their business and product names until it is too late. Sometimes this is due to the overwhelming demands on an entrepreneur’s time during the frenzied pace of the start-up phase of their businesses. Unfortunately, mistakes at these early stages of choosing and protecting names can end up being very costly.

Get started now and proceed directly with a FREE online trademark application request (takes less than 3 minutes to complete):

Fast Free Trademark Application

A Trademark is a Valuable Asset

Trademark law provides the exclusive right to use a mark that serves to distinguish the goods of one person from another. A trademark typically includes a word, phrase, logo, design or even a combination of these. It is used to identify the source of a particular product. A service mark is similar to a trademark except that it is used to identify the source of services. Consumers identify trademarks with a particular quality of goods or services. Trademarks are valuable assets of a business and continuously increase in value as the products or services they represent gain brand recognition and consumer loyalty.

Before launching a new business, product, service, or patented invention in the marketplace, it is important to undertake a comprehensive trademark search and obtain a clearance for your mark. It is not uncommon for a company to invest a considerable sum of time and money promoting a new product or business only to have their marketing efforts made useless because their mark was already in use by another company.

Trademark law protects both trademark owners and consumers. It protects trademark owners by preventing competitors from using a trademark to which they have no rights and to which they are owed no good will. Consumer goodwill is earned by a business over a period of time and trademark law recognizes that it is unfair for a competitor to take advantage of this goodwill without permission. Trademark law is also concerned with protecting the source and quality expectations of consumers. By preventing anyone other than the trademark owner from using the mark as a source identifier, the law protects consumers from deception. Not only can a trademark owner prevent someone from using its exact mark, but marks that are “confusingly similar” to a trademark can also be enjoined.

Unlike rights in a patent or a copyright, a company’s rights in a trademark can last indefinitely as long as the mark is still in use and the registration is renewed regularly.

Trade Names

Contrary to popular myth, a registered trade name is NOT a registered trademark. This is often an area of confusion among entrepreneurs. Registration of a trade name with the Secretary of State does not mean that the trade name is not infringing on another trademark. A trademark clearance search should be conducted to ensure that a trade name is not infringing the rights of others. To obtain nationwide trademark protection, the mark should also be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Washington.

Trademark Protection for Domain Names

The interaction between trademarks and domain names has created a minefield of potential dangers to businesses. Without proper trademark protection, a company’s reputation and goodwill can be “kidnapped” by cybersquatters. A cybersquatter is an individual or business that registers a domain name on the web with the intention of ransoming it for sale. A company with proper trademark protection is protected from cybersquatters. Obtaining a trademark on your company’s name or products helps provide quick and effective recourse to your marks in the event that someone tries to hold your company or product name hostage or unfairly benefit from the goodwill that you have generated. A trademark not only prevents others from using an exact duplicate of your registered mark, but also prevents the use of confusingly similar marks.

Selecting a Trademark

It is important to select a mark that can be registered as a Federal Trademark prior to introducing the business or product name into the marketplace. Businesses should be very careful in selecting a mark so that they retain the ability to obtain registration and prevent others from using their business, service, or product names.

A mark can be classified into one of four categories as being either generic, descriptive, suggestive, or arbitrary. It is important to look at these categories in more detail.

Generic Marks

Trademark rights cannot exist in marks that are considered generic. A generic term is the common ordinary name of a good or service and can never be a trademark. Examples of generic terms include “corn flakes”, “automobile” and “basketball”.

Descriptive Marks

Descriptive marks describe some aspect of the product or service with which the mark is used. Descriptive marks are usually not very good choices for your mark. Trademark protection is only extended to descriptive marks where they have attained a secondary meaning. Secondary meaning is attained when a mark has been used for so long or so exclusively that they do not convey simply their literal meaning in the public mind, but are instantly associated with one source.

Suggestive Marks

Unlike descriptive marks, suggestive marks merely suggest or hint at some quality, aspect, or component of the goods or services with which they are used. A suggestive mark is stronger than a descriptive mark because it does not require the showing of a secondary meaning.

Fanciful or Arbitrary Marks

Fanciful or Arbitrary marks are the most distinctive of all marks and receive the strongest level of protection. Such marks are typically unknown before they become associated with a product. A well-known example of an arbitrary mark is the mark KODAK ® for photographic supplies.

Trademark Searches

A trademark search should be conducted on all state and federal registered trademarks as well as pending trademarks. Depending upon the results of the search, it may be advisable to seek federal registration for your mark. Federal registration provides constructive notice to all potential users of similar marks whether they are aware of your mark. Additionally, a federally registered mark enjoys the presumption that the owner of the mark is the registrant and that the owner is entitled to use of the mark nationwide.

Request a detailed trademark information packet outlining the steps involved in obtaining trademark protection for a new company or product name or brand identity, an estimate of the associated legal fees and costs involved, and a statement of our qualifications and experience in trademark matters.

At John Rizvi, P. A — The Idea Attorneys ®., we concentrate our practice on protecting ideas and identities and are knowledgeable and experienced in practicing before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. If you would like to speak with an attorney about your particular situation, please do not hesitate to call our office.

A patent law allows you to profit from your idea. It gives you the legal right to prevent others from using your idea unless they first obtain your permission and either buy the patent from you or pay you an ongoing licensing fee or royalty payment.

By filing for a patent, you document ownership of an idea similar to the way a “title” does for a car or a “deed” does for real estate. Like other forms of property, patents are valuable assets and can be bought, sold, leased, used as collateral for loans, and even inherited.

Please request a free evaluation of the patentability of your idea by one of our Registered Patent Attorneys. You will also receive a fixed-fee estimate of fees and costs and an information packet outlining the steps involved in obtaining protection for a new or improved product or process.

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Patents Are Essential Assets

Maintaining a competitive edge in today’s “idea economy” requires effectively guarding your intellectual property rights through the use of US patents. The core value of most businesses isn’t in land, equipment, manufacturing facilities, or other physical property. Today, the most valuable assets of many companies are knowledge-based intangible assets such as proprietary know-how and the innovative application of new ideas or methods of doing business.

The first company to capitalize on a new innovation enjoys a lead-time advantage in setting manufacturing, marketing, and distribution channels in place. These advantages, unfortunately, are only temporary. A successful business model is an open invitation to the competition. A patent helps establish strong and effective monopoly rights for your business by erecting legal barriers preventing competition. Without adequate patent protection, it is only a matter of time before existing and new competitors enter your market, steal your idea, and drive down prices.

Protect your ideas with US patent laws

US Patents are essential business assets that can enhance profit margins, contribute to monopoly or licensing revenue, and increase market share and name recognition for your company and its product lines. It is not unusual in technically crowded fields for businesses to protect improvements in known devices with a broad array of patents. These multiple patents are commonly used to leverage negotiations and often lead to cross-licensing arrangements between rivals in the same field.

In its simplest form, a patent is a monopoly granted by the United States Government to an inventor to enable the inventor to exploit the benefits of his creativity. A US patent permits an inventor to exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing an invention throughout the United States without the inventor’s permission. By providing inventors with the security that they will enjoy the fruits of their hard work and ingenuity, patents encourage innovation.

There are different types of US patents available in the United States: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents. A utility patent protects the function of an invention and has a term of 20 years from the date of filing. Design patents, on the other hand, only protect the overall appearance of an invention and have a term of 14 years from the date of issuance. A plant that an inventor has produced asexually (without seeds) may be protected by filing a plant patent. Plant patents have a term of 20 years from the date of filing.

There are certain deadlines that an inventor must meet in order to avoid the loss of patent rights. One of these is that in the United States an inventor must file a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office within one year of the first date on which the invention was offered for sale or made public. Failure to do so will result in a loss of all patent rights. Inventors and entrepreneurs should be careful in revealing a new innovation or business method to a manufacturer or venture capitalist, for example, without adequate legal protection. The terms “offer for sale” and “public disclosure” are interpreted broadly and encompass a wide variety of fact patterns. In many foreign countries, patent rights are lost once a public disclosure or offer to sell an invention is made. As such, you should consult with a Florida Patent Attorney before revealing your invention.

At John Rizvi, P.A., we have dedicated our practice exclusively to securing and preserving the intellectual property rights of our clients. As Registered Patent Attorneys, providing effective legal barriers to competition is the primary focus of our specialized practice. Protecting innovation is our passion. We are The Idea Attorneys®.

Request a free evaluation of the patentability of your idea by one of our Registered Patent Attorneys. You will also receive a fixed-fee estimate of fees and costs and an information packet outlining the steps involved in obtaining protection for a new or improved product or process.

If you would like to speak with a Florida Patent Attorney about your particular situation, please do not hesitate to call our office.