Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property

Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property

by Deborah E. Bouchoux
Released February 2006
Publisher(s): AMACOM
ISBN: 9780814426111

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Book description

A company’s most valuable assets may not be physical. This book shows how to protect them without fences or security guards!

You can’t touch it or feel it. Sometimes you can’t even see it. Yet, intellectual property continues to soar in value, comprising an increasingly greater portion of a typical company’s assets. In the age of instant global communication, understanding what intellectual property is, how to protect it, and how to enhance its value are prerequisites for corporate survival.

Enter attorney Deborah E. Bouchoux and her informative book, Protecting Your Company’s Intellectual Property. Packed with fascinating and illuminating examples, this book is a succinct, yet comprehensive discussion of the four key areas of intellectual property: trademarks,copyrights, patents, and trade secrets. In addition to defining these areas (for instance, did you know that customer lists and marketing plans are protectable trade secrets?), the book offers practical tools for protecting intellectual property, including:

    • Trademark and copyright application forms
    • Sample employment agreements
    • An Internet usage policy
    • Tips on preventing unauthorized dissemination of information via the Web
    • A guide for conducting an IP audit
    • And much, much more.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Contents
  4. List of Figures
  5. Preface
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. 1. Recognizing and Protecting Your Company’s Intellectual Property
    1. The Value of Intellectual Property
    2. The Four Key Types of Intellectual Property
    3. Types of Intellectual Property Owned by Business Professionals
    4. Complementary Strategies to Protect Intellectual Property
    5. Using Intellectual Property Assets to Increase Revenue
    6. When to Obtain Legal Counsel
    7. Affirmative Strategies to Protect Intellectual Property Assets
  8. 2. Trademark Basics
    1. The Four Types of Trademarks
    2. Business Names
    3. How Rights in Marks Are Acquired: Federal Registration, State Registration, and Common Law Rights
    4. What Can Be Protected under Trademark Law
    5. Exclusions from Trademark Protection
  9. 3. Trademark Selection and Searching
    1. Trademark Selection: Picking the Strongest Mark
    2. Methods of Selecting a Mark
    3. Determining Trademark Availability
    4. Trademark Search Tips
  10. 4. The Trademark Application Process
    1. Types of Applications
    2. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
    3. The Benefits of Federal Registration
    4. The Trademark Application
    5. Filing and Other Formalities
    6. Examination of the Application
    7. Publication for Opposition
    8. Issuance of Certificate of Registration or Notice of Allowance
    9. Effect of Registration
    10. International Protection
  11. 5. Maintaining, Monitoring, and Transferring Your Trademark
    1. Maintaining Your Registration
    2. Making Your Mark Incontestable
    3. Docketing Maintenance Dates
    4. Abandonment of Trademarks
    5. Genericide of Trademarks
    6. Protecting Your Marks
    7. Sale of Trademarks
    8. Licensing of Trademarks
    9. Using Trademarks as Collateral
  12. 6. Trademark Infringement, Cancellations, and Dilution
    1. The Test for Determining Trademark Infringement
    2. Infringement Actions
    3. Remedies for Infringement
    4. Petitions to Cancel Registrations
    5. Trademark Dilution
    6. Trademark Counterfeiting
  13. 7. Trademarks and the Internet
    1. Domain Names and Trademark Law: Cybersquatting
    2. Hyperlinking, Jurisdiction, and Complaint Sites
    3. Tips for Trademark Use in the Internet Age
  14. 8. Copyright Basics
    1. Introduction to Copyrights
    2. The U.S. Copyright Office
    3. What Can Be Protected under Copyright Law
    4. Exclusions from Copyright Protection
    5. Compilations, Collections, and Derivative Works
    6. Semiconductor Chip Protection
  15. 9. The Rights of Copyright Owners
    1. The Five Basic Rights of Copyright Owners
    2. Moral Rights
    3. Fair Use
  16. 10. The Copyright Application Process: Ownership, Registration, Notices, Duration, and Transfers
    1. Copyright Ownership
    2. Works Made for Hire
    3. Benefits of Copyright Registration
    4. Introduction to Copyright Applications
    5. The Copyright Application
    6. Short Form Applications
    7. Filing the Application
    8. Examination of the Application and Registration
    9. Notice of Copyright
    10. Duration of Copyright Protection
    11. Transfers of Copyright
    12. Termination of Transfers
    13. International Copyright Protection
  17. 11. Introduction to Copyright Infringement: Access and Substantial Similarity
    1. The Fair Use Defense
    2. Other Defenses
    3. Infringement Actions
    4. Top Ten Copyright Myths
  18. 12. Emerging Copyright Trends: Software Usage and Internet Policies
    1. Ten New Issues in Copyright Law
    2. Copyright and the Internet
  19. 13. Patent Basics
    1. What Can Be Protected under Patent Law
    2. How Patent Rights Are Acquired
    3. Exclusions from Patent Protection
    4. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
    5. Invention Development Organizations
  20. 14. Patent Searching, Patent Applications, Duration, and Transfers
    1. The Need for a Patent Search
    2. The Utility Patent Application Process
    3. Examination of the Patent Application
    4. Allowance, Issue, Correction, and Reissue of Patent
    5. Patent Marking
    6. Patent Duration and Maintenance
    7. Design and Plant Patent Applications
    8. Patent Transfers and Licenses
    9. International Patent Protection
  21. 15. Patent Infringement
    1. Reexamination of Patents
    2. Patent Infringement
    3. Patent Infringement Actions
    4. Modern Infringement Practice and Infringement Avoidance
  22. 16. Emerging Patent Trends
    1. Patent Protection for Computer Programs
    2. Patent Protection for Business Methods
    3. Biotechnology Patents
  23. 17. Trade Secret Basics
    1. Definition and Governing Law
    2. What Can Be Protected under Trade Secret Law
    3. Maintaining Secrecy
    4. Trade Secret Protection Methods
    5. Innocent Receipt of Trade Secrets
    6. Using Nondisclosure Agreements
    7. The Economic Espionage Act of 1996
    8. Trade Secret Litigation
    9. Disclosure to Government Agencies
  24. 18. Unfair Competition
    1. Governing Law
    2. Forms of Unfair Competition
    3. The Federal Trade Commission
  25. 19. Owning the Work Product of Your Employees and Independent Contractors
    1. Ownership of Work Created by Employees
    2. Ownership of Work Created by Independent Contractors
    3. Protecting Your Employees through Nonsolicitation Clauses
    4. Protecting Your Information through Nondisclosure Agreements
    5. Covenants Not to Compete
    6. Idea Submission
  26. 20. Internal Processes for Greater Protection: Audits and Infringement Policies
    1. Intellectual Property Audits
    2. Avoiding Infringement of Others’ Intellectual Property
  27. Appendix: Information Resources
  28. Index
  29. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property
  • Author(s): Deborah E. Bouchoux
  • Release date: February 2006
  • Publisher(s): AMACOM
  • ISBN: 9780814426111