Learn how to protect your work

Protecting the idea for a new invention, artistic endeavor, or just a unique business concept is often on the mind of entrepreneurs. This is a short primer to introduce the basics about patents, copyrights and trademarks.

Patents -- protect inventions and improvements to existing inventions.

Trademarks -- are words, names, symbols, devices and/or use images that are applied to products or used in connection with goods or services to identify their source.

Copyright -- protects the expression of ideas in literary, artistic and musical works.

Patents are associated with things and processes that are commercially used. As defined by the United States Patent and Trademark Office a patent is a property right granted by the government to an inventor. It "excludes others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the United States or importing the invention into the United States."

A patent must be applied for in the name of the inventor. There are three main types of patents:

Utility patents are provided for new, nonobvious and useful processes, machinery, articles of manufacture, composition of matter or improvements to anything in the list.

Design patents may be provided to new, original and ornamental designs for an article of manufacture.

Plan patents can be granted to one who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.

An invention must be novel, nonobvious, and claimed by the inventor in clear and definite terms. The patent application is complex, and the U.S. patent office may not assist in the preparation of patent application paperwork.

In general patents allow the creator of an invention that contains new ideas to keep others from making commercial use of those concepts without the inventor's permission.

A trademark is not concerned with how a new idea or technology might be used but with the names, logos or other devices -- such as color, sound or smell -- that are used to identify products or services and distinguish them from their competition. The term trademark is actually used to refer to several types of "marks" that can be registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). A Trademark officially refers to a mark used to identify a tangible product, and service marks are used to identify services. There are also certification marks and collective marks but these are used very infrequently and registration is more difficult. To research patents and trademarks go to the USPTO Web site at www.uspto.gov. The site provides access to the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries that the public can use to study currently issued patents and trademarks as well as pending applications.

Copyright applies to expressive works such as novels, fine and graphic arts, music, records, architecture, photo software, video, cinema and choreography. These categories are very broad. For example, a computer program may be registered as "literary work." Copyright protection begins when a work is completed and fixed in a tangible form of expression.

There are categories that are not usually eligible for federal copyright coverage. These include the following:

Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form, for example, a speech or performance that has not been written or recorded.

Titles, names, short phrases and slogans or familiar symbols or designs.

Works that are entirely comprised of information that is common property and contains no original ownership such as calendars, tape measures, etc.

The best source of information for pursuing a copyright is the United States Copyright Office. The Web address is http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/.

A copyright, patent or trademark may not be needed to protect your work. Check the Web sites and then, if necessary, speak with an attorney who specializes in this field to make sure your work fits into one of the official categories.