1
Know the difference between different types of intellectual property
* A patent is a new and useful idea in principally any field. (e.g. a new product, new functions for an existing product, a new way of building a road, cooling a building, administering a drug, or cutting up fruit). * Industrial design (aka “design patent”) protects the shape of a product (e.g. the signature silhouette of the Porsche 911). * A copyright work is an original expression; it does not have to be literary or artistic, and can be technical in nature (e.g. a manual describing how to install a grey water system, or a software program for monitoring and managing geothermal energy). * A trademark is a name of a good, service, or technology (e.g. Coca Cola or LEED) and a service mark is the name of a business (e.g. Heliovolt). A logo can also be a trademark (e.g. the globe symbol Bechtel uses or the Microsoft Windows flag). * A trade secret is confidential information that has economic value (e.g. your customer or vendor list, or a database of test results)
2
Know some basics about how the IP system works
Patents must be registered to be protected, and once granted they become public documents, but no one else can use the new idea for 20 years, unless the patentee gives permission (a license). Trademarks in most countries must be registered, too. Copyrights may be registered in certain countries but don’t have to be. Trade secrets are not registered. Trademark and trade secret protection have no set duration, but if maintained may last indefinitely. Copyright lasts a certain number of years after the death of the author of the work (50, 70 or 90 depending on the country). After IP protection ends, the IP goes into the “public domain”, i. e. everybody is free to use it. Virtually all countries of the world have IP laws, but there is no such thing as international protection. The United States, Japan and Germany are the great patent powers of the world, but many other countries, including China, Brazil, India, Singapore, Vietnam, South Africa, and Malaysia are coming on strong.
