SIDESBAR WINTER 2021 - 16

MONTGOMERYBAR.ORG

Intellectual
Property (IP)
Lawyer's Creed

Ideas to Assets.
Ideas to Assets.
Our job is to turn your ideas to assets.
Ideas, creations, and new innovations,
IP Law provides several key transformations.
If your Business is in need of a " brand renovation, "
A new name and its Trademark is great approbation!
If your Product was born from a novel invention,
Then securing a Patent gets your business attention!
Protection, prevention, and value retention,
A Trade Secret provides yet a further dimension
for enhancing your business,

By Edward J. Howard, Esq.

W

ith apologies in advance to all
lovers of poetry and literary
artists, the above rhyme
endeavors to identify and characterize
the four pillars of intellectual property
law, namely, Trademarks - designed
to protect a company's brand (think
AirPods, Roomba, Moderna); Patents -
which protect technological inventions/
innovations (such as Patent No. 10,428,352
-CRISPR Gene Editing Method); Trade
Secrets - information which provide a
company with a competitive edge by not
being generally known in the particular
industry and kept secret (e.g. Google's
search algorithm, or the recipe for
Twinkies); and Copyrights - original works
of authorship, fixed in a tangible medium
of expression (e.g. computer software
programs like Microsoft Office, Darius
Rucker's musical compositions, the film
Heaven's Gate, or the above poem).

That's our main intention.
Ideas to Assets.
Ideas... to Assets...
© Copyright 2020 - Edward J. Howard, Esq.

greater than the total GDP of any other
nation except China. Such intangible
assets become quite real when valuing a
business for investors or creditors, sizing up
competitors in the marketplace, or assessing
potential joint ventures for collaboration
or entry into new markets. With myriad
IP-related issues arising in many business
transactions, every attorney should be
equipped with an understanding of the
fundamentals of intellectual property in
order to assist their clients in protecting
their intellectual assets. The following
represents a brief overview of each major
category of IP.

Trademarks. A trademark is any word,
name, symbol, device, or any combination,
used or intended to be used to identify
and distinguish the goods/services of one
seller or provider from those of others,
and to indicate the source of the goods/
services. Trademarks can be names
Intellectual property has become
(BASKIN ROBBINS for ice cream),
increasingly important in today's business
phrases (FIGHT LIKE A GIRL for
world. Indeed, according to the 2019
athletic apparel), sounds (choir vocalists
Annual Intellectual Property Report of
singing " LIBERTY LIBERTY LIBERTY
U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement
LIBERTY " for insurance services), symbols
Coordinator to Congress, U.S. intellectual (NIKE swoosh), colors (Owens-Corning
property accounted for $6.6 trillion in value pink fiberglass insulation) or even smells
and over 38% of the total U.S. GDP. This (PLAY-DOH scent for toy modeling
means that the value of IP in the U.S. is
compounds). Every business utilizes at least
16 SIDEBAR

one trademark, the name of the business, as
a source identifier, and consumers associate
the trademark with a particular quality
of the goods or services. This connection
between consumers and a given brand helps
to build a company's reputation and value.
Federal trademark protection is an
important step in enhancing brand value
and defending against third party use of
marks that may be confusingly similar to
your client's mark. In order to protect a
trademark asset, a client should choose
a mark distinct from other marks in the
industry. A trademark search can avoid
conflicts with similar marks already in
use. When selecting a mark, clients should
keep in mind that fanciful or arbitrary
marks having no relationship to the goods
or services are the most protectable, while
generic terms for the names of goods/
services of a mark are not protectable as
trademarks. Suggestive marks, that hint
at, but don't describe, a feature or quality
of a product or service, are often a good
tool to promote a new product. Although
common law rights exist for unregistered
trademarks, federal law provides enhanced
protection for trademarks filed, examined,
and ultimately registered with the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).


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