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If you are imaginative and creative, you may have produced or developed something unique and worth protecting from plagiarism or duplication. When you invent a useful product, write a novel or musical score, or settle on the perfect phrase or logo to define your business, you want to ensure that you control the use and production of that asset and reap the monetary rewards.
Innovations derived from the human mind are called intellectual property (IP). People who infringe on your work can significantly impact your financial and business success when they use your logo to confuse customers, or they record your song or make a movie from your book without paying you for it. That is where Lomnitzer Law comes in. A Wellington intellectual property lawyer could assist you in registering and defending your assets as needed.
Intellectual property is divided into three primary groups: patents, copyrights, and trademarks, which protect creative ideas, artistic expressions, and inventions. An inventor or business must register their idea with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in order to make their ownership over that property official. Alternatively, the U.S. Copyright Office of the Library of Congress oversees copyrights for creative materials expressed in a tangible form. To discuss a project and strategize its protection, contact a Wellington intellectual property attorney.
Patents are divided into three categories. The most common, the utility patent, protects inventions that are useful and unique, improvements on existing products, industrial techniques, and computer program upgrades, such as artificial intelligence (IA), which continues to evolve.
Design patents protect the way something functional looks instead of works. Some examples include:
Plant patents are the third category and only protect plants that reproduce on their own. An IP attorney in Wellington could work with someone to determine which type of patent their invention falls into and how to properly register it with the USPTO.
A copyright protects creative work, such as literature, art, film, education, photography, or music. It gives the copyright holder the right to copy, adapt, display, perform, or distribute the work, as well as the sole right to license it out to a third party. Copyright law originated after printing presses became widely used in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. Famous works were reproduced and sold cheaply by competitors and payments to authors for fresh work were significant. To control rampant pirating, copyright laws evolved.
Registering for copyright is fairly quick and inexpensive, and the benefits are numerous. Having a work registered sends a signal to others not to reproduce it or make obviously derivative works that infringe on the artist’s original ideas. If infringement does occur, a lawyer could go to court to protect this intellectual property.
Trademarks are names or images that brand products and services. Consumers will repeat a memorable phrase, hum a product jingle, and buy items with a logo they recognize and admire. Business names are also trademarked, which informs a consumer that they should expect the same level of quality that that business is associated with. Anyone using a trademarked name or logo without permission could be effectively taking money from the rightful business and potentially hurting their reputation in the process.
A Wellington attorney could also help register trade secrets, closely held formulas for things like perfumes or restaurant recipes, or a unique production method.
Innovation and creativity have defined American ingenuity since the country’s beginnings. You are free to invent, write, paint, and sing songs about anything you conceive. Let us help you protect what you have created. You should have the right to control your creations, sell that right, or license it as you determine; and if someone pirates your work, you should have an avenue to stop them.
To stop infringers in their tracks, and to protect your work from the time it debuts into the culture or marketplace, call Lomnitzer Law. Your work is important and our Wellington intellectual property lawyers can help protect and defend it.
Our services also include IP protection and contract negotiation in the entertainment world, legal counsel with regards to internet law, and various corporate litigation and contract resolution services.
