Product Development • Patents & Trademarks

Intellectual property is a broad term including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, know-how, and other proprietory concepts.

There are several ways to protect your ideas, such as using a non-disclosure agreement, patenting your idea, copyrighting your creative works, choosing and registering your trademarks, registering complementary domain names, getting your rights in writing, identifying confidential information, using non-compete agreements and educating your employees and vendors.

A patent is a grant of a property right for an invention, that is novel, useful, and non-obvious by the government to the investor through the Patent and Trademark Office.  The basis for US patent laws is to secure to investors for limited times the exclusive rights to their discoveries. 

A copyright protects the "works" or expressions of an author or artist against copying, performance, display, or use as an underlying work.  It protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter or idea of the writing.

A trademark includes any work, name, symbol, or device adopted and used by an individual or a corporation to distinguish its goods or services from the goods or services of others.

Below are some useful links for more information:

FreePatentsOnline.com - Search patents for free!

US-Patent-Search.com - Download full issued patents and patent applications for free!

US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

Copyrights Information

US Constitution and Laws

State Constitution and Laws

Tax Forms

Small Business Administration

National Federation of Independent Business

British Patent Office

Canadian Intellectual Property Office

European Patent Office

National Inventors Hall of Fame

World Intellectual Property Organization

*** Coming Soon - an online list of qualified law firms that specialize in technology business incorporation and intellectual property protection ***