Frequently Asked Questions

A patent is a property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor "to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States" for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.

Utility patents provide protection for a new, non-obvious, and useful:

• Process
• Machine
• Article of manufacture
• Composition of matter
• Improvement of any of the above

In addition to utility patents, encompassing one of the categories above, patent protection is available for (1) ornamental design of an article of manufacture or (2) asexually reproduced plant varieties by design and plant patents.

Inventors may prepare their own patent applications and prosecute the application on their own. However, the majority of patent applications filed by prose applicants go abandoned and the majority of the patents obtained by prose applicants fail to adequately protect the particular inventions being covered. Therefore, it is in your best interest to hire a patent attorney to ensure your patent application is prepared and prosecuted correctly.

A patent may be applied for only in the name(s) of the actual inventor(s).

A search of all previous publications and U.S. and foreign published patent applications and issued patents should be conducted to determine if your invention has ever previously been publicly disclosed. A prior publication or patent could prevent you from obtaining a patent or pose an infringement issue. A good patent search will determine if a patent is obtainable and will be broad enough to be enforceable, thereby allowing you to make an educated decision regarding investing your time and money into the invention.

No. However, it is important that you do not tell anyone else about your invention prior to applying for a patent without then first signing an NDA. A public disclosure of your invention prior to filing a patent application can invalidate a later issued patent in many instances.

There are several options available to inventors including filing directly in foreign countries within one year of filing your U.S. patent application or deferring the one year deadline by filing a patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Deadlines and filing requirements vary from country to country, so it is important to understand your foreign patent rights as early as possible so you can plan and budget for foreign filings.

The practice of sending a copy of your invention to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s patent.” There is no provision in the patent law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for applying for a patent.

You should immediately contact a patent attorney. Most states have individual laws setting forth strict requirements regarding patent cease and desist letters. Failure to meet those requirements prior to contacting an infringer could expose you to financial liability.

A trademark is any word, phrase, symbol, design, or combination thereof that identifies a source of goods or services. A mark that identifies services is sometimes known as a “service mark,” though it is often used interchangeably with “trademark.”

An attorney who is licensed to practice law in the U.S. and experienced in trademark law can advise you about many important legal issues. These include:

• Determining if your chosen trademark can be legally protected.
• Determining the appropriate filing basis for your trademark application.
• Preparing and filing a trademark application with the USPTO that is complete and accurately identifies your goods and services.
• Selecting an appropriate specimen that shows how your trademark is used in commerce
• Responding to questions and refusals to register your trademark from a USPTO trademark examining attorney.
• Helping you understand the scope of your trademark rights and the best ways to enforce them.
• Ensuring your trademark application does not adversely affect your other intellectual property rights.
• Defending against challenges brought by others against your trademark.
• Preparing and filing documents with the USPTO to maintain your registration.
• Although USPTO trademark examining attorneys can provide information about the federal registration process, USPTO employees cannot give you legal advice.

If someone registers a similar trademark with the USPTO before you do, they can potentially block your trademark from registering. In addition, even when similar trademarks are not federally registered, they could still prevent you from using and/or registering your trademark, or even worse, cause you to end up in a trademark infringement lawsuit.

A trademark attorney can advise if your trademark should be available for your use and registration and decrease the possibility of you having costly legal problems. We do this by conducting a comprehensive clearance search for potentially conflicting trademarks and providing a legal opinion prior to applying for trademark registration on the availability of the mark and potential infringement issues.

A comprehensive trademark search includes at a minimum searching the following sources for trademarks that could potentially conflict with yours:

• The USPTO’S database of federally registered trademarks;
• U.S. state trademark registration databases; and
• Sources revealing common law rights of unregistered trademarks.

Copyright law protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed, such as the expression of computer software through source code.

Copyright protects original works of authorship or the expression of an idea. Patents protect the idea itself. However, both forms of protection may be available for the same matter. For example, a copyright protects source code while a patent protects the method being carried out by the source code.

Trademark protects words, phrases, symbols, or designs identifying a source of goods or services. Likewise, both forms of protection may be available for the same matter. For example, a trademark and copyright law may be used to protect a logo design.

Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form. However, your copyrights are not enforceable until you have obtained a copyright registration from the Library of Congress. In addition, failure to obtain a copyright registration prior to an infringement occurring can greatly affect the damages you can collect.

Registration is highly recommended as copyrights are not enforceable until you have obtained a copyright registration from the Library of Congress. In addition, a copyright registration makes the registrant eligible to seek statutory damages and attorney’s fees against infringers.

The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is  sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a  substitute for registration.

A trade secret is something used in a company’s business that (a) is not known or readily accessible by competitors, (b) has commercial value or that provides a competitive advantage in the marketplace, and (c) the owner of the information protects from disclosure through reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.

Trade secrets are not limited in time and may continue indefinitely so long as they are maintained as secrets.

There are many different corporate forms available under Alabama law, such as corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies. Generally speaking, the main advantage of a corporation is that its officers are shielded from personal liability. Partnerships offer a more simplified and advantageous tax structure, but with personal exposure from the business. The limited liability company can be viewed as a hybrid of the two, offering the tax advantages of a partnership along with the personal liability protection of a corporation.

If you are operating under any name other than your legal name, then you need to file for a fictitious name also known as a d/b/a.

C corporation is subject to the double taxation, where the corporation is taxed once on its profits, and then if any shareholder dividends are issued, the shareholders are then taxed on receipt of those dividends as personal income.

With an S corporation, however, all of the profits and losses of the corporation flow down to the shareholder level where the money is only taxed once.