Customer Service: The quandary of the doohickey: copyrights, trademarks and patents

When you bring a new or unique version of a product or service to the market, it’s important to not only distinguish yourself from the competition, but also protect your profitable business venture from infringement by others. Protecting your goods or services can seem like a sticky predicament with all the government and legal jargon, but copyright, patent and trademark protection is not just for the big dogs. It can all be boiled down into simpler, more user-friendly terms and protect even the most humble of businesses. As an example to guide you through the copyright, trademark and patent processes, allow me to introduce the doohickey.

Let’s say that you invented the doohickey. You want to protect your invention, so you decide to patent it. New and useful articles, processes or designs are considered patentable, so your doohickey definitely makes the cut. Make sure you patent it right away, though, because selling, offering, publishing or publicly using your invention for more than a year before filing for a patent can bar you from getting approved. A patent gives the inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale or selling the invention in the U.S. The process can get expensive, often ranging from $5,500 to $20,000, depending on the complexity of the patent, but a new patent lasts 20 years from the date of the application, and they are effective within the U.S. and its territories. A patent is important because it discourages others from copying your doohickey, builds the value of your business, creates licensing opportunities for your invention, and if need be, the patent can be used against other companies to shut down their production of doohickeys. 

Now let’s say that you didn’t invent the doohickey, but your doohickey company, Really Awesome Doohickeys, is different than other doohickey companies out there, and you want to distinguish your business from the competition. A trademark is applied to a word, name, symbol or device used to indicate the source of goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. Trademark rights are used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but they do not prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. Trademark rights are established based on legitimate use of the mark, and registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is not required in order to be protected. Use of the TM or SM symbols is permitted without registration. However, if you wish to use the federal registration symbol ®, you must file an application and be approved by the USPTO. Registering with the USPTO has many benefits, including public notice that you own the Really Awesome Doohickeys trademark, the exclusive right to use the mark nationwide in connection with your goods or services, and you have the ability to bring action concerning the mark in federal court if someone infringes on it.

You have already trademarked your doohickey company’s logo, and now you want to write and distribute a user manual for the doohickey. You can copyright the manual so that you have the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, prepare derivative works, distribute copies or display it publicly. This also goes for original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, artistic and certain other intellectual works, published or unpublished. You do not need to register copyrighted material like your doohickey user manual with the U.S. Copyright Office to be protected, as copyright law covers the work from the moment it is created fixed in a tangible form. However, registering is recommended if you want it on the public record and to have a certificate of registration, as well as the ability to bring a lawsuit against someone who uses or distributes the work in a way you have not authorized.

The patent, trademark and copyright processes can be complicated, so it is wise to get legal counsel or other assistance when pursuing these forms of protection. We retain the services of an attorney who specializes in this area in order to protect intellectual property. With the right help, patents, trademarks and copyrights can be less intimidating and a valuable tool to preserve business interests.