This document provides an overview of intellectual property concepts for startups including trademarks, copyright, and the importance of protecting ideas. It defines trademarks, copyright, and trade dress and explains why they should be registered with the USPTO. The document also discusses leveraging intellectual property, types of agreements to protect IP, when a lawyer is needed, social media and IP issues, and provides useful links for intellectual property information.
3. What the heck is this legal
mumbo jumbo and why do I
care?
4. How Do You Define An Idea?
i·de·a [ahy-dee-uh, ahy-deeuh]*
noun
1. any conception existing in the mind as a result
of mental understanding, awareness, or activity.
2. a thought, conception, or notion
3. an impression
4. an opinion, view, or belief
5. a plan of action; an intention
*idea. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/idea (accessed: February
20, 2015).
7. TRADEMARK™ ® Trademarks identify the source of the goods or
services of one party by distinguishing them
from those of others
Trademarks can be phrases, colors, sounds,
graphics, and even smells
The use of TM represents that you claim
trademark ownership in the mark preceding it,
but it isn’t necessarily registered
The use of SM shows that it is a trademark
which describes a service
The use of the ® means that the trademark is
registered with the USPTO
8. WHY REGISTER MY
TRADEMARK WITH THE
USPTO?
™ ®
You are entitled to exclusive use of the
trademark throughout the United States for
your particular category of goods or services
You can prevent others from using a trademark
which is identical to yours for the same type of
goods or services
You can prevent others from using a trademark
which is confusingly similar to yours for the
same type of goods or services
9. TRADE DRESS
The characteristics of the visual appearance
of a product or its packaging that signify to
the consumer the source of the product.
12. PROTECTING YOUR IP
• Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
• Confidentiality Agreement
• Independent Contractor
Agreement
• Work For Hire Agreement
• Employee Handbook
• Written Policies
Ideas are modes of thought that represent objects to the mind. Descartes used this definition when explaining the larger theory of thought. But the definition of an idea is an evolution of thought, and can include anything such as inventions, innovations, social movements, and legal and financial instruments – really, for startup purposes, it is anything that helps make a business what it is.
You can do takedown demands through iTunes, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc for accounts opened under a registered trademark
Who owns the copyright – creator of the work owns the copyright, regardless of who paid for the work to be created.
Two exceptions – (1) work for hire (by employee in the scope of employment, or specifically commissioned as part of a written agreement); or (2) copyright was transferred in writing