Business owners often benefit greatly from patents and copyrights because they essentially stop their competition from being able to use some of their most lucrative commercial assets. All companies, from cosmetics companies to logistics firms can benefit when they patent or copyright something of commercial value to them that is at risk of being used by others. If you are starting to consider whether to protect your commercial ideas and inventions, you may wonder about the difference between patents and copyrights, as well as how the application process is completed. The following is an overv ..read more

Trying to stay relevant in the consumer economy can be quite difficult. Even if you've had a successful product for years, people may decide they don't like one of the ingredients or that they prefer the features of a competing product. Making a product that consumers want often requires specific knowledge about consumer preferences and what your competitors do. Whether the product in question is a face cream with a secret chemical formula or a kitchen implement made with a special alloy to prevent rusting and reaction with acidic ingredients, knowing how to make something is crucial to your a ..read more

As an artist, musician, creative professional or someone who runs a business that produces creative content, you have an interest in protecting your original works. After all, if other people start using your creations, you may not be able to recoup what you have invested in the process of making them. Whether you produce music, written content, graphic design or videos, your best option for monetizing your original work usually involves maintaining creative control and ownership. Copyright protections ensure that those who spend time making something interesting and new can control the use of ..read more

When considering trademark protection, there is usually an expectation that the mark being considered is not generic enough to be viewed as something anyone can use. Making it impossible for companies to use generic words and phrases could really limit their ability to communicate with their customer base. That's not the idea behind trademark protections. The goal is to protect unique, distinctive marks so that those who came up with them can benefit from them. However, don't assume that generic words can never be trademarked, even when connected with generic domain names. The precedent has al ..read more

If you're selling products on Amazon, you very well may see other sellers also moving the same products. Remember, Amazon started as a site for used books. While they've since expanded, it was initially a site for people to resell books, whether they were private sellers or professional vendors. This can create confusion for some authors, who demand that those unauthorized listings for their books be taken down. Amazon will decline these requests. Some experts who study online sales have noted that Amazon simply wants as many products as possible. The goal is to give customers a wide selection ..read more

Google and Oracle are now in the U.S. Supreme Court over a copyright case that revolves around the use of computer code. It has to do with application programming interfaces (APIs) and thousands of lines of code that Google used, after it was written by programmers at Oracle, so that their phones could properly use Java. Google has argued that APIs are not copyrighted and that it was allowed to use the code, as many other developers have done. Oracle claims that they alone had a right to use that code without a license and that Google infringed on that right. This is hardly a new case. It's be ..read more

If your company has a logo or other trademarked information that is instantly recognizable, it can work wonders for your brand. This is why you see advertising even for well-known companies that already make millions (or billions) in sales. They are striving to keep up brand awareness so that their logo is something people can identify without even consciously thinking about it. Which brands have done this well? According to one study, Apple has the most recognizable logo in the world. It is clean, simple and effective. It has also been stamped onto everything from computers to smartphones to ..read more

If you ask someone what a trade secret is, they may look at you as if the name is self-explanatory. It is a secret that is important to your company, in your trade. It's a critical piece of information that you don't want the competition to know so that you can keep your share of the market. That's all true, but the Defend Trade Secrets Act does help to define what a secret is and when and how you can protect it. It's more than just a generalized idea. Examples of trade secrets include the following: A formula A program A pattern A device A compilation A method A technique For instance, imag ..read more

Obtaining a patent is expensive. Inventors and company product developers often have to spend $5,000-10,000 to protect their intellectual property with a patent. On the other hand, those who create creative works (manuscripts, articles, poems, photographs or songs) only have to pay between $45-125 to obtain a copyright.   Patent protection vs. copyright protection What might be surprising to many entrepreneurs is that patent protection is much shorter than copyright protection. Utility patent protection lasts 20 years. Design patent protection is even shorter: 14 years. Patent holder ..read more

Have you ever been listening to a song on the radio and thought that it sounded like a song you'd already heard? This is pretty common. You may think that one artist stole the idea or the music from the other. This topic gets a bit confusing, though, because the reality is that the same four chords are used in a lot of songs. You can even move them around -- by putting a capo on a guitar, for instance -- to change the exact chords that are being used while keeping the same progression. A song that is written a half-step higher may still sound very much like the song that was written a bit lowe ..read more