SCORE Minnesota

Protect Your Intangible Assets

April 15, 2010

I am always looking for valuable information, insights, and resources for small businesses to use in my articles for the SCORE blog. To that end, I have asked other SCORE members to send me any material they believe would help small businesses succeed. After sending me the links to several published articles, a SCORE colleague asked me about whether or not we had the legal right to the use another author’s copyrighted material on our blog. That got me thinking about how important it is for business owners to protect their intellectual property such as trademarks, patents and copyrights. So, I decided to do some research and write an article about it.

My purpose in this article is not to provide legal advice because I am not an attorney. However, I do want to raise your awareness about the importance of protecting your intangible assets. If you have specific questions on how to protect your intellectual property you will need an attorney who specializes in Patent, Trademark and Copyright Law. You can locate one online at Martindale-Hubbell or ask for a referral.

Since most companies have logos, I will start with Trademarks. Trademarks provide relatively low-cost legal protection for intellectual property such as your business name, logo design, tag line or catch phrase. You must apply for a federal trademark or its companion the service mark. Trademarks are not the same as patents or copyrights. Although there are similarities, they serve different purposes.

A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device used in business to indicate the source of goods, i.e. your business, and to distinguish those goods or services from those sold by another business. A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. For more information contact the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

While the Internet has made applying for a trademark more accessible there are a host of potential pitfalls and wrong turns that could undermine your efforts. If you don’t know how to create a trademark that can stand up to legal challenges, your efforts will be for naught.  As an example, the application requires that goods or services are categorized. Misunderstanding these categories and filing too broadly or too narrowly can sabotage your trademark and cause problems later on. Seeking help from a qualified trademark attorney will help prevent such problems.

Patents for inventions grant inventors the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale or selling the same invention. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is the most authoritative source of information.

Copyrights are more difficult to define. Copyrights offer legal protection to authors of original works, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. Wikipedia has a definition of the United States Copyright Law. To register a copyright, go to the Library of Congress website.

While doing my research on the topic of copyrights, I came across a great source of information in a LinkedIn group, Copyright Matters, a subgroup of the Blog Zone. Here is an excerpt..

..I have heard some crazy things regarding copyrights that I believe are untrue and I would like to deal with this these first.

1. I can copy and use anything on the net without permission as long as I give credit and a link to the source. I believe this is like saying that I can copy all the digital music or movies I want as long as I give credit to the source… or the same thing with books or pictures/images. Obviously, that would not be true, so what makes web/blog content any different?

2. I can copy and use any content without permission which is delivered by RSS feed as this means people want me to use it. I am not sure where this comes from but it is like saying you can use anything delivered by the mailman or paper boy. Certainly you understand this is not true.

3. If it does not say that it is copyrighted or use the copyright symbol than we are free to copy and use it without permission. Also not true. Of course, stating it is copyrighted and using the symbol strengthens a case but it is not mandatory.

So is there ever a time when I can use material without permission?
Yes, the “Fair Use” exception (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use ) of the copyright laws allows you to use material in an abbreviated form for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. And of course you will need to give credit to the source and a link back to the source where possible is certainly a common courtesy.

Knowing something about intellectual property law (IP) can help you protect your intangible assets with trademarks, patents, and copyrights, adding significant value to your business. This knowledge can also help you avoid costly lawsuits from infringing on the intellectual property rights of other companies. To make sure you are on solid legal footing with regard to intellectual property it is always best to consult with an attorney specializing in Trademark, Patent, and Copyright law.

To learn more about how to start, operate and grow a successful business contact SCORE by clicking the link on the right to the office nearest you or click here to request free face to face counseling.

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Susan Fronk, St. Paul SCORE
View more posts by Susan Fronk

Filed under: Advertising,Branding,Business Planning,Entrepreneurship,Marketing,Start-Up

Tags: Copyright, copyright symbol, fair use exception, federal trademark, intangible assets, Intellectual Property, Patents, service mark, Trademarks