What do we learn?
a.
What is
intellectual property and its importance?
Ø What is
intellectual property?
·
Intellectual
property: any product of human intellect that is intangible but has value in the
marketplace.
·
Called “intellectual” property because it is the
product of human imagination, creativity, and inventiveness.
Ø Importance
·
Traditionally: businesses have thought of their physical
assets, such as land, buildings, and equipment as the most important.
·
A company’s intellectual assets are the most
important.
Ø What
intellectual property to protect?
·
If the intellectual property is directly related to
the firm’s competitive advantage.
·
If the intellectual property has value in the market
place.
Ø What are the
common mistakes in regard to protect their intellectual property?
·
Not properly identifying all of the intellectual
property.
·
Not fully recognize the value of their intellectual
property.
·
Not legally protecting the intellectual property that
needs to be protected.
·
Not using the intellectual property as part of the
overall plan of success.
b.
4 key forms of
intellectual property
1.
Patents
·
Patents: a grant from the federal government conferring the rights to exclude
others from making, selling, or using an invention for the term of the patent.
·
patent
does not give its owner the right to make, use or sell an invention.
·
3
basic requirments:
1.
Useful: it must have utility.
2.
Novel: it must be different from what has come before.
3.
Not obvious: it must not be obvious to a person of ordinary skill
in the field.
·
3
types:
1. Utility
patents: New or useful
process, machine, manufacturer, or composition of material or any new and
useful improvement there of. ( duration: 20 years from the date of the original
application)
2. Design
patents: Invention of
new, original, and ornamental design for manufactured products. (duration: 14
years from the date of the original application)
3. Plant
patents: Any new
varieties of plants that can be reproduced asexually. (duration: 20 years from
the date of the original application)
·
Business
method patents: A business method patent is a patent that protects an invention
that is or facilitates a method of doing business.
·
Who
can apply for patent-> the inventor of the business.
·
6
steps:
1. Make sure the invention is practical.
2. Determine the type of application to file.
3. Hire a patent attorney.
4. Conduct a patent search.
5. File a patent application.
6. Obtain decision from the government patent and
trademark office.
·
Patent
infringement: Takes place when
one party engages in the unauthorized use of another party’s patent.
2. Trademarks
·
Trademark: any word, name, symbol, or device used to identify the source or
origin of products or services and to distinguish those product or services
from others.
·
provide
consumers with useful information.
·
4
types: (Renewable every 10 years, as long as
the mark remains in use)
1. Trademarks: Any word, name, symbol, or device used to identify
and distinguish one company’s goods from another. (ex: del, nokia)
2. Service
marks: Similar to
trademarks, used to identify the services or intangible activities of a
business, rather than a business’s physical products. (ex: amazon.com, eBay)
3. Collective
marks: Trademarks or service markets used by the members of a
cooperative, association, or other collective group. (ex: international
franchise association)
4. Certification
marks: Marks, words, names, symbols, or devices used by a
person other than the owner to certify a particular quality about a good or
service. ( ex: ISO 9000)
·
What
is protected under trademark law?
o
Words
o
Numbers
and letters
o
Designs
and logos
o
Sounds
o
Fragrances
o
Shapes
o
Colors
o
Trade
dress
·
Exclusion
from trademark protection
o
Immoral/
scandalous matter
o
Deceptive
matter
o
Descriptive
marks
o
Surnames
·
3
steps:
1.
Select
an appropriate mark.
2.
Perform
a trademark search.
3.
Create
rights in the trademark.
3.
Copyrights
·
Copyright: a form of intellectual property protection that grants to the owner of
a work of authorship the legal right to determine how the work is used and to
obtain the economic benefits from the work.
·
What
is protected by a copyright?
o
Literary
works.
o
Computer
softaware.
o
Pantomimes
and choreographic works.
o
Musical
compositions.
o
Dramatic
works.
o
Pictorial,
graphic, and sculptural words.
·
Exclusion
from copyright protection
o
The idea- expression dichotomy: The main exclusion is that copyright laws cannot
protect ideas.
·
How
to obtain copyright?
o
Copyright
protection can be enhanced by attaching the copyright notice, or “copyright
bug” 
to something.
to something.
·
Copyright
infringement: occurs when one
work derives from another or is an exact copy or shows substantial similarity
to the original work.
4.
Trade
secrets
·
Trade secret: any formula, pattern, physical device, idea,
process, or other information that provides the owner of the information with a
competitive advantage in the marketplace.
·
include
marketing plans, product formulas, financial forecasts, employee rosters, logs
of sales calls, and similar types of proprietary information.
·
Qualification
of trade secrets:
o
Not
known outside the company.
o
Known
only inside the company on a “need-to-know” basis.
o
Safeguarded
by stringent efforts to keep the information confidential.
o
Valuable
and provides the company a competitive advantage
o
Was
developed at great cost, time, and effort.
o
Cannot
be easily duplicated, reverse engineered, or discovered.
·
Trade
secret protection methods
o
Physical
measures:
§ Restriciting access
§ Password protecting computer files
§ Maintaining logbooks for access to sensitive material
§ Labelling documents
§ Maintaining logbooks for visitors
§ Maintaining adequate overall security measures
o
Written
agreement: a firm should ask their employees to sign nondisclosure and
noncompete agreements.
c.
What is the
intellectual audit and its 2 primary reasons.
·
conducted to determine the intellectual property a
firm owns.
·
2 reasons for conducting an intellectual property
audit:
o It is prudent
for a company to periodically determine whether its intellectual property is
being properly protected.
o To remain
prepared to justify its valuation in the event of a merger or acquisition.
·
Process of Conducting an Intellectual Property Audit:
1.
Develop an inventory of a firm’s existing intellectual
property. The inventory should include
the firm’s present registrations of patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
2.
Identify works in progress to ensure that they are
being documented and protected in a systematic, orderly manner.
