AKSHAY KSHIRSAGAR
All about Patent and Trademark Law in US
Advocate Akshay Kshirsagar 06th May 22
What is Patent law?
America is the land of innovation. From young age we are thought people are rewarded for good ideas. But idea can be copied or stolen, if it is not protected by law. Patent law protects your idea from getting stolen by other competitors.
Patent law not only protects your business idea but also let you know whether you are violating someone else pattern. Infringement litigation can bankrupt the small business.
In this article, we will go through patent and trademark law type, registration process and how to avoid infringement.
Types of Intellectual Property and when to Use
1. Trademark Law
If you have unique brand name or products or services which can be distinguished.
2. Copyright Law
If you have created a content and you own content authorship, then same can be copyrighted. Copyright protects the final expression and not an idea.
3. Patent Law
If you have an idea which is non-obvious and novelty (That means it should never have been invented) and has some utility
Kinds of Idea Protected under Patent Law
Not all ideas can be protected under patent law. In order to be patented the idea must have Novelty, Utility and Non-obvious.
Novelty – An idea is novel if it was never invented before. That means idea must be new and unique.
Utility – Your idea must be useful which can generate some output. Even though idea has some utility but if it is not generating same utility as it is claimed, then patent will not get registered.
Non-obvious – Ideas should not be obvious existing in nature which can be stored in particular pattern.
Patent should be filed within one year time frame after making the disclosure in public.
Ingredient of Patent
You can search patent database on
http://www.google.com/patents
http://www.google.com/patft.uspto.gov these two website can let you search patent database and let you go through already filed patent. These are patent components below.
1. Title – Title is the idea process in short.
2. Abstract – Abstract is summary of patent mentioning what is this patent about.
3. Description – Description is the details on background of Invention, Brief summary of the invention, brief description of drawings, Detailed description of invention ( details of uniqueness of idea).
4. Patent Citation – These are the patent registration which are closely related to patent filed. These are reference give by patent office.
5. Claims – Claims are usually important part of the patent. Claims helps what part will protected in the patent. These consist of 20 claims which will be protected.
6. Flowchart or Drawings – This helps to determine the process of the pattern and the structure.