Blanco, Harley David R.

Mandap, Chrisdan A.

Product Management

Research the following:

Trademark
Distinctive design, graphics, logo, symbols, words, or
any combination thereof that uniquely identifies a firm and/or
its goods or services, guarantees the item's genuineness, and gives
it owner the legal rights to prevent the trademark's unauthorized use.
A trademark must be (1) distinctive instead of descriptive, (2) affixed
to the item sold, and (3) registered with the
appropriate authority to obtain legal ownership and protection rights.
Trademark rights are granted usually for 7 to 20 years and, unlike in case
of patents, are renewable indefinitely. These rights are
protected worldwide by international intellectual property treaties and may
be assigned by their owner to other parties. Although a trademark has
no limited term of existence, the rights to use it may be lost due to misuse or
lack of use. Trademarks are divided into 42 international classes,
each class representing similar goods or services. Whereas a trademark may
be registered under multiple classes, it is protected only in the
class(es) relevant to the business or trade area of the item. And, whereas the
use of symbol 'TM' does not provide any legal benefit, it precludes the
infringer's defense of lack of knowledge of a
trademark claim. Costs incurred in design and registration of, and in
defending, a trademark are usually amortized over the life the trademark or
40 years, whichever is shorter. Imbalance, trademarks are identified
as intangible assets and, in some cases such as Coca Cola Co., are far more
valuable than the firm's all other assets. The term trademark includes
the associated term service mark (SM).
Trade Name
A trade name is any name used in the course of business that doesn't
include the full legal name of all the owners of the business. In the case of a
limited partnership, corporation, or LLC, it's any name that differs in any
respect from the name registered with the Secretary of State.

Patent
Limited legal monopoly granted to an individual or firm to make, use,
and sell its invention, and to exclude others from doing so. An invention is
patentable if it is novel, useful, and non-obvious. To receive a patent,
a patent application must disclose all details of the invention so that others
can use it to further advance the technology with new inventions.
Patentable items fall under four classes (1) Machine: apparatus
or device with interrelated parts that work together to perform
the invention's designed or intended functions, (2) Manufacture: all
manufactured or fabricated items, (3) Process: chemical, mechanical,
electrical or other process that produces a chemical or physical change in
the condition or character of an item, and (4) Composition of matter:
chemical compounds or mixtures having properties different from
their constituent ingredients. In most of the world, patents are granted on
the 'first to apply' basis, with a protection period of 7 years (India) to 20
years (European Union). In the US, they are granted for 17 years on the 'first
to invent' basis. Responsibility of identifying, locating, and suing the patent
violators, however, rests solely with the patent holder;
patent law provides only means of prosecution and determination of just
compensation.

Copyright

Legal monopoly that protects published or unpublished original work

(for the duration of its author's life plus 50 years) from unauthorized
duplication without due credit and compensation. Copyright covers not
only books but also advertisements, articles, graphic
designs, labels, letters (including emails), lyrics, maps,
musical compositions, product designs, etc. According to the major
international intellectual-property protection treaties (Berne Convention,
Universal Copyright Convention, and WIPO Copyright Treaty)
five rights are associated with a copyright: the right to: (1) Reproduce the
work in any form, language, or medium. (2) Adapt or derive more works from
it. (3) Make and distribute its copies. (4) Perform it in public. (5) Display
or exhibit it in public. To acquire a valid copyright, a work must have
originality and some modicum of creativity. However, what is protected
under copyright is the 'expression' or 'embodiment' of an idea, and not the
idea itself. A copyright is not equivalent of legal-prohibition

of plagiarism (which is an unethical and unprofessional conduct, but not

an offense), and does not apply to factual information.