Class 22: Intellectual Property (chapter 9 pt. 2)

Why should ideas be protected?

Protection of product and process improvements allows a company to build/keep technical advantage

What are ways to protect intellectual property?

• Patents

• Copyrights

• Trademarks

• Trade secrets

What is a patent?

An exclusive property right to an invention

What are the types of patents?

• Utility Patents

• Design Patents

• Plant Patents

What is a utility patent used for?

• New product or process!

• Process, machine, article of manufacture, composition

  of material, or any new and useful improvement

• Good for 20 years

• ex) drive unit located between rear wheels

What are design patents used for?

• How something looms rather than operates

• New, original, and ornamental design of an article of

  manufacture

• Good for 14 years

• ex) hand held dust devil

What are plant patents good for?

• Discovering, inventing or otherwise creating new

  varieties of plants

• Good for 20 years

What is the criteria for patentability?

• New!

• Needs to be useful

• Non-obvious to someone skilled in the area

How are patent rights established?

• If the first to conceive makes a reasonable, diligent effort to reduce the invention to practice, they will receive the patent, even if someone else actually reduces to practice first.

• Early disclosure is required.

• Good records are critical!

What does disclosure mean?

• Documentation of the conception of an invention

• No specific requirement about the form of

  written disclosure

• Primary purpose is to prove the date of conception

What are different types of disclosure?

• Full, formal disclosure to Technology Transfer Manager

• Bound laboratory notebooks with third party corroboration

• Completion of Disclosure Checklist

• All should include drawings, sketches, images to fully

• describe

• Disclosure should be witnessed (2 persons)

What is joint inventorship?

• Two or more people that have contributed to the inventive acts of an invention.

• Group research often results in joint inventorship, however, it is critical to document evidence of joint inventorship in laboratory notebooks.

How must the date of conception be documented?

• Make numbered and dated comprehensive sketches and written description of the concept.

• Sign and date all documents with the inventor and two witnesses who are:

  • not the inventor

  • can fully understand the idea

  • expected to be around years later to testify in court if necessary

Legally speaking, what are some rules when using labratory notebooks?

• Keep a primary record of invention in numbered, bound laboratory notebooks.

• Pages skipped or not completely filled in by writing have a line drawn through the unwritten portion(s).

• Contemplated or planned experiments are written out as precisely as possible, with results recorded as soon as they are obtained.

• Each page is initialed and dated by the person who directs the experiments

• By following these rules, a complete and timely record of the experimental work, in a manner which is legally recognized as “highly probative evidence” will be obtained.

What is document diligence?

• Record progress (or failure) using lab notebooks and project reports

• At least once a month, all of the inventors and two technically competent witnesses should sign and date the entries.

• Always use actual dates... never backdate or predate

What is patent infringement?

• When the invention covered by the patent is used without the permission of the inventor during the time that the patent is in force.

• Patent owner has the right to sue the infringer in the federal courts and collect compensation for past infringement should cause the infringer to cease and desist in all infringing activity.

What are trademarks?

• A distinguishing symbol, design, mark or word used by a manufacturer or provider to identify his product or service from his competitors

• ex) Kleenex

  • not always new and novel like a patent

  • marketing thing

What is a copyright?

• A grant, by the United States, to an author for the right to exclude others (for a limited time) from reproducing his/her work.

• Automatically granted if someplace on document or work the

  words “Copyright” (© or Copy.), name of copyright

  owner/author, and origination date appear

• Stops somebody from using your work

• Legal avenues are small

What are types of copyrights?

• Literary works

• Musical works

• Dramatic works

• Choreographic works

• Pictorial/photographic works

• Motion Pictures/Videos

• Sound Recordings

• Software (can be patented instead)

What are trade secrets?

• Confidential technological and commercial information

• No precise definition but require:

  • Secret

  • Substantial

  • Valuable

• Something not generally known in the trade or industry

• No time limitations, no registration required

• ex) Coca-Cola recipe

• **Not a legal way of protecting something