When Do You Need an Intellectual Property Lawyer?

Given the flood of information on the Internet, it gets easier to copy and paste an idea and claim it as your own. Good thing there is a law that protects an individual’s creations from intellectual theft. But when do you know it’s time to call a lawyer for help? Here are some issues that fall under the legal expertise of an intellectual property lawyer:

Copyrights

The copyright legislation is the most commonly exercised part of the US International Property Law. A lot of artists are taking advantage of social media, like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, to promote their works. However, this type of promotion is prone to theft since users can easily download the artworks and re-upload them as their own or even use for commercial purposes.

When this happens to you, you can guarantee that your rights as the owner are protected under the copyright legislation.

This law applies to any expressive art, including:

Paintings

Music/Songs/Dance

Writings

Photographs

Films

Architecture drafts

Patents

The US Patent and Trademark Office grants licenses to inventors to give them every right to use or sell their inventions. You cannot use patented works unless permitted by the rightful owner. Patents last up to 20 years from the date of application.

Trademark

The Trademark Law, meanwhile, protects brand names, logos, symbols, phrases, or some devices that distinguish products and services.

Trademarks, protected under federal and state laws, receive different degrees of protection depending on several factors.

 Right of Publicity

The Right of Publicity protects an individual’s image or name from unauthorized commercial use. The extent of this law varies from state to state.

Trade Secrets

The US federal and state governments bid to twat unfair competition by protecting trade secrets or undisclosed information that may give your business an advantage over your competitors. This category applies to ideas and inventions that could not be reverse engineered, unlike in patents. A business marketing plan and an ancient secret recipe fall in this category.

You have every right to your unique creative works. Should your original works and inventions be subject to unfair commercial use, it’s better to find an intellectual property lawyer to determine what action to take under these laws.