A trademark is a word, name, or symbol that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product.

Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark.

Want help or advice about Intellectual Property or securing your IP Rights?

A patent is a document, issued by the federal government, which grants to its owner a legally enforceable right to exclude others from practicing the invention described and claimed in the document. Congress has specified that a patent will be granted if the inventor files a timely application that adequately describes a new, useful and unobvious invention of proper subject matter.

Patents are obtained through a complex administrative proceeding in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Since the legal rules that govern this proceeding are quite extensive and often complicated,

Another security issue is intellectual property. Patents, copyrights, trademarks and industrial designs, as well as know-how or trade secrets, are often collectively referred to as intellectual property (IP). Many firms have such property without even being aware of it or of the need to take measures to protect it.

Here are examples of Intellectual Property that you may need to protect:

• Digital Products (e-book, article, blog post, report, white paper, recording, video, transcript etc.)