Intellectual Property
     protect your rights

Ideas, information, and intangible creations of the human intellect are becoming increasingly important to our economy. Business innovations result from expensive research and development. Intense periods of creative effort are invested to produce artistic and literary creations. Intellectual property law governing copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and related interests helps ensure that those who expend the creative efforts will reap the benefits.

Intellectual property law is growing and changing. The need for intellectual property planning and effective legal representation is also growing.

Showalter Law Firm has extensive experience helping creators of intellectual property protect, extend, and reclaim the value of their creations. Showalter Law Firm advises clients on copyright and trademark ownership issues, obtains copyright registrations for original works of all kinds, advises businesses on copyright infringement issues, negotiates and prepares agreements to resolve intellectual property infringement controversies, and litigates effectively when necessary. We can help protect your intellectual property rights and can help if an infringement claim has been asserted against you.

Copyrights conferred by federal law under a Constitutional provision, protect literary, musical and dramatic works, pictorial, sculptural and audiovisual works, and other kinds of works of authorship, including computer program expression. Copyright protection begins when the work is first written down or otherwise recorded-and lasts for the life of the author plus fifty years.

The owner of a copyright has the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute copies of the copyrighted work, and to prepare derivative works such as adaptations and translations based on the copyrighted work. If the work can be performed, such as a musical or dramatic work, the copyright owner has the exclusive right to perform it publicly. For work that can be displayed, such as a picture, sculpture or motion picture, the copyright owner may prevent others from displaying the work without the owner's permission. All of these rights are subject to the doctrine of "fair use," which permits limited use of copyrighted works for certain beneficial purposes such as teaching and research without the permission of the copyright owner.

Because a copyright is considered to be property, it may be sold and licensed. Claims to copyright may be registered in the Copyright Office, a branch of the Library of Congress, located in Washington, D.C. When a copyrighted work is published, copyright owners should place a notice of copyright on the copies of the work as a warning to would-be copiers. Such notice may consist of a "c" enclosed by a circle, the date (at least the year) and the name of the copyright owner. The work should be promptly registered with the Copyright Office.

Trademarks are words or logos used to distinguish goods from those made or sold by someone else. Words and logos used in the sale of services, such as those offered by service companies, professional sports teams and musical groups are called service marks.

By using a trademark or service mark in the sale of goods or services, the owner of a mark acquires the right to exclude others from using a similar mark on other products in a way that is likely to confuse the purchasing public. Because of the time and effort invested in building public goodwill in a product and the mark, this is a valuable right to a business entity. Trademark protection also protects the public from confusion, from buying something which they believe to be one thing when in fact it is something else.

Patents are granted to inventors as incentives to encourage progress in applied science. A U.S. patent grants the owner the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the patented invention in the U.S. for seventeen years from the date the patent is granted. Patents are property which may be sold and licensed. Many companies, research organizations, and individuals, as well as the Federal Government, own patents-sometimes substantial banks of them.

Patents are granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) a branch of the Department of Commerce, for inventions of new and useful compositions, machines, articles of manufacture or processes. There are also special types of patents available for new plant varieties and new ornamental designs for manufactured articles. The USPTO grants protection for inventions that meet stringent legal standards. The invention must be useful and novel (i.e., not previously known or used), and must not be obvious over what is already known.

Investments to develop new products and production techniques are gambles which would not be made if competitors could copy successful innovations and creative works of others at will. The limited duration of a patent gives successful inventors a necessary head start in recouping the fruits of their investment and allows inventors to invest in further research.

Trade Secret Laws protect against theft of business ideas and methods. A trade secret is an idea or information that has commercial value because it is not widely known. Trade secrets include business methods, processes, machines, formulas, patterns and techniques that are kept secret from one's business competitors.

Trade secret protection is acquired as soon as the idea or information is created, and lasts for as long as the information is protected as, and remains, a secret, under applicable statutory provisions. Trade secrets are protected primarily by the laws of the states. Protection is available against anyone who steals the secret or uses it without permission. Many states have criminal statutes outlawing theft of trade secrets.

Although trade secret protection is potentially perpetual, it does not prevent someone else from discovering the information independently by proper means, such as "reverse engineering" of a product that has been sold on the open market. However, applicable copyright or patent laws may supersede the right to use a reverse engineering discovery.