In today’s marketplace, many of the most valuable assets held by individual business owners and companies alike come in the form of intellectual property. Within our firm, D. Bradley Poe offers a wide range of intellectual property services to our clients including the prosecution of patent applications and the registration of trademarks and copyrights.

PATENT PROSECUTION

From the initial evaluation of your idea to the granting of a patent, our firm will guide you through every step of the process in obtaining patent protection for your invention. We have experience in prosecuting patent applications domestically through the United States Patent and Trademark Office as well as internationally.

The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, “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.

There are three types of patents:

1) Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof;

2) Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture; and

3) Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.

In most cases, a non-provisional application for a patent will be made to the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office and includes:

(1) A written document which comprises a specification (description and claims), and an oath or declaration;

(2) A drawing in those cases in which a drawing is necessary; and

(3) Filing, search, and examination fees. Applicant must determine that small entity status is appropriate before making an assertion of entitlement to small entity status and paying a small entity fee. Fees change each October. The fee schedule is posted on the USPTO Web site.

The USPTO assigns an examiner to the application who then examines the application and claims contained therein. The examiner will then respond with an office action stating whether or not a patent is granted and the reasoning behind the decision. Depending upon the stance taken by the patent examiner, a reply (or number of replies) will be sent to the examiner in order for the application to be approved and the applicant to be granted a patent.

Generally, the term of a new patent is twenty (20) years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States. U.S. patent grants are effective only within the United States, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions. Under certain circumstances, patent term extensions or adjustments may be available.

TRADEMARK PROTECTION

Our firm can assist you in obtaining both federal and state protection for your trade marks and service marks. We can evaluate your current mark or one that you are creating from scratch. We assist our clients in performing searches, tailored to their individual needs and expectations, of both federal and various state trademark databases in order to advise them on the availability of protection for their particular mark. We then register the marks with the appropriate government entities. We have experience in obtaining both federal and state trade mark and service mark protection as well as renewing and managing the registered marks of our diverse clientele.

We assist our clients in examining their marks, searching for similar marks in the applicable mark databases, and comparing client marks to existing marks to increase the likelihood that registration will be granted by the government examiner. From drafting the application for trademark protection and fulfilling mandatory renewal provisions, to the assignment of the trademark in the sale of a business, our firm is able to provide the full gamut of legal expertise with your trademark.

Trademark registration is available at both the federal and state level.

Federal Protection

The law providing federal trademark protection in the United States is codified in 15 U.S.C. §1501, et al. A person seeking federal protection of a mark may either be currently using the mark in commerce or have a bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce. The mark may be a trademark, service mark, collective mark, or certification mark.

Once a mark is registered with the federal government, the symbol ® may be placed after the mark. Each federal registration has a duration of ten (10) years, subject to filing an affidavit of continuing use. With continued use and renewal, a trademark can be maintained indefinitely.

Tennessee Protection

The Tennessee Trademark Act of 2000 allows for the registration of trademarks and service marks. Differing from federal trademark law, the trademark or service mark must be currently in use before application for registration of the mark can be made.

Under the Act, a trademark is defined as any word, name, symbol, or device or any combination thereof used by a person to identify and distinguish the goods of such person, including a unique product, from those manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods, even if that source is unknown. The symbol ^TM may be placed after the trademark to indicate that it has been registered in Tennessee.

A service mark is defined as any word, name, symbol, or device or any combination thereof used by a person, to identify and distinguish the services of one (1) person, including a unique service, from the services of others, and to indicate the source of the services, even if that source is unknown. Titles, character names used by a person, and other distinctive features of radio or television programs may be registered as service marks notwithstanding that they, or the programs, may advertise the goods of the sponsor. The symbol ^SM may be placed after the service mark to indicate that it has been registered in Tennessee.

Once a mark is accepted and registered by the State of Tennessee, protection for the mark is provided for a period of five (5) years. Subsequent five (5) year periods of protection must be applied for by the mark owner and entered by the State.

We also assist our clients in obtaining trademark protection in other states.

COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION

In the United States, the federal government offers copyright protection for “original works of authorship” in a variety of categories, including but not limited to literary, musical, and pictorial works. These works may be published or unpublished.

Under 17 U.S.C. 106, an “owner of copyright” has “exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;

(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;

(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and

(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.”

A work that was created after on or after January 1, 1978, enjoys automatic copyright protection for the life of the author plus seventy (70) years. In the case of two or more authors, the seventy (70) years begins upon the death of the last surviving author.

Though copyright protection is automatically granted upon the work being created (fixing in a tangible medium), registration of the copyright has many benefits. Among these are establishing a public record of the copyright, allowing the owner of the copyright for works of U.S. origin to sue for copyright infringement, and the ability of a copyright owner to be awarded statutory damages and attorney’s fees, subject to meeting certain requirements.

We help our clients leverage their intellectual property rights by registering their copyright with the federal government. We also assist our clients in transferring ownership of their copyright to other parties. Because copyright is treated as any other personal property right, transfer of the copyright is governed by state laws and regulations that apply to the ownership, inheritance, or transfer of personal property. Contract law and business law also come into play. By offering a full range of services here at Cordts Law, we can handle all of your copyright legal needs.

Disclaimer:
The information contained on www.cordtslaw.com is not intended to provide legal advice. THIS IS GENERAL INFORMATION, subject to change at any time and may be obsolete. Court results depend upon the specific factual and legal circumstances of each case. You should consult with a lawyer before you make any decision affecting your legal rights. We do not form attorney-client relationships via email. We ask that you contact us to set an appointment.