Sample Articles On Applying For US Patents

“Should You Rush To Copyright Your Invention Idea?”

Invention idea, what does this term mean? Chances are you’ve already heard this term, only you know it as “intellectual property”. It means that the idea is a product of the mind or the intellect, of the inventor. Once a legal claim is made, and established, the invention idea is considered a tangible property. The inventor or author can then go to court to have their rights enforced.

Examples of intellectual properties are copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. On the other hand, while trademarks and patents are also intellectual property, they fall under category of industrial property.

What are the differences between a patent? A trademark? And copyright? And what similarities do these three have in common? The USPTO has ruled that patents, trademarks, and copyrights are three types of intellectual property protection. But they serve different purposes. For instance, patents protect inventions, and improvements to existing inventions.

Trademarks on one hand, are defined as and include any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods.

On the other hand, copyrights protect literary, artistic, and musical works.

To register your copyrights, you’ll need to go to the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, found at Washington, D.C.

A Brief History of The Copyright Office
The Copyright Office was founded on the principle of American law, wherein an author of a work has the exclusive right to reap the fruits of his or her intellectual creativity for a limited period.

In May of 1790, Congress had enacted the first federal copyright law and the first work was registered within two weeks. Before 1870, and prior to the centralization of copyright records, it was the duty of the clerks of U.S. District Courts to keep the copyright claims.

Copyright” literally means the right to copy, and is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations.

However, the “copyright” protection does not include any idea, procedure, process, slogan, principle, or discovery.

How does one go about copyrighting ones’ intellectual property?



The law says that your copyright protections begin from the time your work is created in fixed form, and it doesn’t need to be published. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. This means only the authors or those who derive their rights (family members and legal inheritors, are some examples) through the author can claim copyright.

But, you aren’t protected by the copyright law, if the creative work you did, was for hire. If so, these rights belong to your employer.

Work for hire is defined as the following:
1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or
2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as:
• a contribution to a collective work
• a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work
• a translation
• a supplementary work
• a compilation
• an instructional text
• a test
• answer material for a test
• an atlas

3) If you sign a contract, wherein your work is considered for hire.

Does your copyright protection exist only in the United States? Nope, it is available wherever you live, whatever your nationality and regardless of the fact that your works may be unpublished.

So now, you know which intellectual properties are covered by the copyright protection. You may be wondering, how do you apply for copyright protection?

Here are the conditions, wherein you’ve automatically secured your copyright protection:

• When it was fixed in a “copy”, which in this context is defined as material objects from which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film, videotape, or microfilm.
• When it was placed in a phonorecord for the first time. Here, "Phonorecord” refers to material objects which embody fixations of sounds (excluding, by statutory definition, motion picture soundtracks), such as cassette tapes, CDs, or LPs. This means, that a song (the "work") can be fixed in sheet music (" copies") or in phonograph disks (" phonorecords"), or both.

Now, that you know that the copyright protection comes built into the creation, how long is your invention idea protected?
• If your creative work was done on or after January 1, 1978, then copyright protection applies during your lifetime plus additional 70 years after your demise. If two or more of you created the works, then the plus 70 years after demise, will apply to the last surviving author.
• For the employer, who paid for the creative works, including the anonymous and pseudonymous works, the duration of copyright is 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.

Even if your invention idea or intellectual property is automatically protected under the copyright law, it is much better to register your works. When there is a legal dispute, the U.S. Copyright Office can step in to help you.