What is a Patent?
A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute, “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention. Once a patent is issued, the patentee must enforce the patent without aid of the USPTO. U.S. patent grants are effective only within the United States, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions. Foreign patents must be obtained in order to enforce rights in other countries.
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What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms "trademark" and "mark" refer to both trademarks and service marks.
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What is a Trade Secret?
Generally speaking, a trade secret may consist of any formula, pattern, physical device, idea, process or compilation of information. The precise language by which a trade secret is defined varies by jurisdiction. However, there are three factors that are common to all such definitions. First, a trade secret must not be generally known to the public. Second, it must confer some sort of economic benefit on its holder. Third, it must be the subject of reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy. Establishing trade secret protection is therefore starkly different from obtaining other types of intellectual property protection. In contrast to patents, for example, government registration is not required in any way.
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What is a Copyright?
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. Copyrightable works include literary works; musical works; dramatic works; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; sound recordings; and architectural works. Generally, for works that were created on or after January 1, 1978, the term of copyright protection automatically begins from the moment of its creation and endures for the author’s life plus an additional 70 years after the author’s death.
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Patent Sites
United States Patent and Trademark web site
www.uspto.gov
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/
PAIR is the Patent Application Information Retrieval web site where you can find the status of published patent applications and issued patents as well as view and print file histories and check continuity data for related cases.
http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair
Web site to download .pdf formatted patents.
http://www.pat2pdf.org
Espace is the European Patent Office’s website. This website offers world wide patent searching.
http://ep.espacenet.com/
Japanese Patent Office website
http://www.jpo.go.jp/
Web site to check if maintenance fees have been paid for a U.S. patent.
https://ramps.uspto.gov/eram/patentMaintFees.do
Web site to check assignment information regarding patents and published applications.
http://assignments.uspto.gov/assignments/q?db=pat
European Patent Office patent file histories.
http://www.epoline.org/portal/public/registerplus
U.S. patent file histories (for a fee - if not available on USPTO's Public PAIR site).
http://www.patents-etc.com/OrderForm.html
Patent Official Gazette (most recent 52 weeks) of patents issued that week, expired or reinstated patents, reissue applications, reexaminations, service by publication, certificates of correction and summaries of final decisions by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/
Trademark Sites
Web site to check the status of pending and registered trademarks.
http://tarr.uspto.gov/
Web site to search the USPTO's trademark databases.
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=login&p_lang=english&p_d=trmk
Document retrieval web site to view and print trademark filings, i.e., Office Actions, Responses, etc.
http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/tow
Web site to view documents from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Proceedings.
http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/
State trademark registration forms for intrastate commerce within Michigan.
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/CIS_Form_600_2459_7.pdf
Web site to view assignment information regarding trademarks.
http://assignments.uspto.gov/assignments/q?db=tm
Trademark Official Gazette (most recent 5 issues).
http://www.uspto.gov/web/trademarks/tmog/
Copyright Sites
The Library of Congress’ web site on copyrights.
www.copyright.gov
Copyright Society of the USA
www.csusa.org
General Law Sites
Federal Drug Administration’s web site on generic drugs.
http://www.fda.gov/cder/ob/
Supreme Court’s website on court decisions
www.supremecourtus.gov
Federal Register
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html
Legislation (bills, public laws, committee reports, congressional record)
http://thomas.loc.gov
Miscellaneous Sites
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
www.m-w.com
Online encyclopedia
www.wikipedia.com
Intellectual Property Owners Association
www.ipo.org
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
www.wipo.int
Wacky patent of the month.
http://www.colitz.com/site/wacky.htm
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