How to Protect Your Invention: A Lawyer’s Advice

As an investor, you may have spent countless hours perfecting your product and bringing it to market. But what happens if someone copies your invention and starts selling it as their own? This blog post will give you some practical tips from a lawyer’s perspective on how to keep your invention safe. So read on and learn how to protect your hard work!

Copyright It

This is definitely the first thing you must think about as soon as you’re on a verge of creating something new. Inventors are always looking for intellectual property law services in order to establish copyright protection. This law provides people with exclusive rights in the form of copyright ownership, preventing others from using or commercially benefiting from the invention without proper permission.

In order to copyright an invention, you must first make sure that your work meets all copyright requirements, meaning that it must be original and creative. Then, you should register for copyright protection online at copyright.gov, submit the application along with your work and pay a filing fee. Once accepted by the U.S. Copyright Office, your invention will then be officially protected under copyright law for up to 70 years after the death of its author(s). It’s crucial to get this done so you have the proof of copyright ownership in case of any legal battles in the future.

Apply For A Trademark

Putting a trademark on your invention can help protect it from being copied or reproduced without your permission. This is a legal designation that helps to identify a product or service as belonging to you and can cover logos, words, and phrases associated with the invention. Additionally, you should hire a lawyer that knows the ins and outs of the industry, for example, if you’re running a cannabis business, make sure you hire a cannabis trademark attorney.

In order to apply for a trademark, you will need to complete an application form with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This will require details such as the type of mark you are applying for, its relevance to your invention, and any other relevant information related to your patent. It’s important that you provide accurate information when applying for a trademark so that it can be properly evaluated by the USPTO.

Once your application has been accepted, there may be additional steps you need to take in order to obtain your trademark. These may include submitting additional documents and evidence of ownership, as well as participating in legal proceedings and hearings related to the application. Due to the amount of paperwork involved and the potential complications along the way, many people choose to use a professional registration service like Trademark Factory to assist with this process. There are numerous benefits of trademark registration services, but in short, experts do the work for you and trademark your brand, with guaranteed results, at a fixed budget, or you get your money back. 

Utility Patent 

Utility patents are a type of patent that covers new and useful inventions or discoveries, such as the new machine, process, or composition of matter, or a new and useful improvement thereof. Utility patents are granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and provide the patent holder with exclusive rights to make, use, sell, and import the invention for a period of time.

To be eligible for a utility patent, an invention must be novel (meaning that it is not already known or disclosed in the prior art), non-obvious (meaning that it is not an obvious variation of what is already known), and fully and clearly described in the patent application. In addition, the invention must be useful (meaning that it has a practical application).

Trade Secret 

Trade secrets are types of confidential information that are used to protect a company’s competitive advantage. The information that provides a business with a competitive advantage and that is not generally known to the public. This can include things like the following: 

• Recipes
• Formulas
• Manufacturing processes
• Marketing strategies
• Customer lists

Trade secrets are protected under state and federal law, and companies can take legal action to prevent the misappropriation (unauthorized use or disclosure) of their trade secrets.

Nondisclosure Agreement 

A nondisclosure agreement (NDA) is a contract between two parties, or an individual and a business. It sets out how confidential information must be handled, who can access it, and what the consequences are if the information is disclosed without permission. The purpose of an NDA is to ensure that sensitive information remains protected from unauthorized use, disclosure, or distribution.

Using an NDA to protect an invention is a great way to ensure that your idea remains secure. An NDA should outline the scope of the confidentiality agreement, including what information will be kept confidential and how it will be used. 

Preserve All The Documents

No matter which road you go down, you will have to protect all the documents you have created for this purpose. Store them in a secure location and make copies you’ll use for public display. Protect them from physical damage by handling them properly and keeping them away from hazards like moisture, dirt, or fire.

It’s also recommended to create a digital copy of your documents and store them on a secure online storage platform. This will ensure that no matter what happens to the physical copies, you won’t lose all of your valuable information.

Inventions that you come up with need to be copyrighted and trademarked as soon as you make them so they’re untouchable. You could also opt for utility patents and create documents stating these are trade secrets. Make sure to have everyone sign a nondisclosure agreement before seeing your invention and preserve all the documents you make that protect your intellectual property!