Stephen E. Zweig, PhD JD, Patent Attorney
Optimize your intellectual property strategy by using a combination of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. In theory, the different categories of IP (utility patents, provisional patents, design patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets) are distinct. However, in practice, these … Read more
Utility patents are the best way to protect most inventions. But to get one, you have to convince a USPTO examiner that your application is worthy. Utility patents are by far the most common type of patent. Thus, the term “patent” … Read more
Provisional patents, when correctly used, can be used to both quickly and inexpensively attempt to establish that an inventor was first to file. But there can be downsides to taking shortcuts here.
For stronger design patents – less detail can give you broader coverage, so consider turning some solid lines into broken lines. On the surface, design patents – a patent that covers the ornamental appearance of an article of manufacture, seem … Read more
Trademarks may look simple, but they are not. Trademarks are a “use it or lose it” form of IP, and there are a lot of “gotchas” that can trip up the unwary.
Copyright protection requires that a work have at least a minimum amount of human creativity, but the laws are vague as to what this minimum is. Legally, US copyright protection is provided for information (typically preserved in a non-transitory medium) … Read more