Copyrights
- Filing a Copyright Application
- Fees and Expenses
- Duration of Copyrights
- Recent Changes to the Law
- Copyright Myths
- Comprehensive Searches
- Registering a Trademark
- Maintaining Your Mark
- Adding Classes
- Digital Rights Management
- Website Protections
- Privacy Policies
Publishing Law
- Ghost-Writing
- Work-Made-for-Hire
- 360-degree Agreements
- Future Creative Outlets
- Incorporating Your Business
- Corporate Filings
- Tax Incentives
- Financial Protections
What is Your Intellectual Property Worth?
Intellectual Property, sometimes called IP is something that you own (your property) that you created with your own mind your own intellect. It s a big bundle of rights, which includes copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, and right of publicity. Think of a shopping cart filled with fruit: apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, and kiwis. While all 5 are fruit, each is distinctly different. Each tastes different, smells different, and has a different effect on your body/health nonetheless, they are all categorized as fruit. Think of IP the same way, five types of rights and each protects your property in a distinctly different way. Here's an overview:
Copyrights
A legal form of protection for an "original" work of art that has been reduced to a "tangible" form. Examples of copyrightable work are books (including eBooks), articles, software, downloadable products, program materials, ecourses, speeches, video paks, CDs, and podcasts, to name a few. What can't be protected by copyright are ideas, plain facts, material with no original content, book titles, names, phrases, slogans, procedures in copyrighted work, material without the notice symbol published before March 1, 1989, and anything in the public domain.
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Trademarks
A name, word, phrase, logo, design, or combination of those things that identifies the source of products and/or services. Trademarks provide protection for the consumer, making it easy for you to know where to go in the event of s problem. Some examples are Golden Arches for McDonalds, APPLE for computers, Microsoft for computer software, Windows for operating systems, and the Law & Order theme song just to name a few.
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Patents
A property right given to anyone who invents or discovers a new and useful process, system, method, concept, or any new and useful improvement of an existing invention. Patent protection allows the inventor to exclude anyone from making, using, or selling the item. Examples of items protected by patent are pharmaceuticals, software, plant strains, formulas, and technology.
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Trade Secrets
Any confidential information about a product or service, which gives a company an advantage over their competitors. An example of a trade secret is the formula for Coca-Cola. One major distinction between a trade secret and a patent is that the patent application requires the extensive disclosure of information. A trade secret is secret to all those with a legitimate need to know. Recently, Microsoft changed its business model and became more of an open-source company, converting some of its trade secrets to patents.
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Right of Publicity
A right granted to an individual to control and profit from the commercial use of their name, image, likeness, or persona (identity). This means you can profit from the commercial exploitation of your name/image/likeness, but you can't make money on, let's say Madonna's image without her permission, neither can you claim or suggest that a celebrity endorses your product or service, without their permission. One way this arises is at conferences where meeting want to videotape celebrity keynoters, or where speakers want to videotape their audience members. In order to do so, you absolutely must get there permission.
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