Essential Services of Intellectual Property Law Firms

Clients and consumers are always looking for the newest thing on the market. A unique product, service or brand can easily set you apart from your competitors and make your company grow exponentially. Innovation is the force that drives businesses to grow.

One-of-a-kind products and services which are the result of long and expensive research and development should be protected against copycats and infringers. Companies and businesses who have spent huge amounts in developing their innovative products and solutions should reap the benefits of their own innovation and should be able to prevent others from copying and riding on their coattails. Innovators should therefore be able to enjoy the fruits of their own labor and one way to do this is by registering their intellectual property rights to secure exclusive rights to use.

Your unique product and trademark on which you have built goodwill and customer recognition over the years should be only used by your company and business enterprise. Your unique product and brand are one your most important assets that should be protected.

Infringement, copying and passing off will cut of your potential profits and worse, tarnish your reputation and goodwill built over the years. Intellectual property law firms offer specialized services that can help you legally cement your ownership over your intellectual property assets and protect you from infringement.

Read on to learn about what kind of services intellectual property law firms like J. Ponce Law can offer to help you protect your intellectual property.

Patent Services

Patent registration gives you exclusive rights for an invention, utility model or industrial design. If an invention, utility model or industrial design is registered under your name, no one else may be allowed to produce, sell, or even use the same unless with your consent or authority. So, what kinds of creations can you patent or register?

A product
A process
An improvement of a product or process

So long as they are novel, inventive and industrial applicable may be patented. For a utility model to be registered, it must be novel and industrially applicable.

A registrable design relates to any composition of lines or colors or any three-dimensional form, whether associated with lines or colors; provided that such composition or form gives special appearance to and can serve as pattern for an industrial design or product. For it to be registered, an industrial design must be novel and industrially applicable.

An intellectual property law firms can help you in the registration of your invention, utility model or industrial design. They can help you draft the documents needed for your claim. They will aid you in making other necessary preparations prior to the filing of the application. This includes searching for any similar patents that might hinder your claim. When the application is filed, the firm will make sure that it is prosecuted until registration is granted.

There are many benefits to registering your patent claim. An official patent helps you monopolize the income that your invention will generate. Other companies have to get your permission to manufacture or use your patent, usually alongside some monetary compensation. It may also help attract investors to your company. The patent assures investors that you have a unique product that will be likely to generate substantial returns.

Trademark Services

Trademarks are any distinctive names, images or combinations thereof that help identify products or services that come from a certain company or source. A registered trademark gives a company exclusive use thereof and therefore allows a company to build its brand, goodwill and overall public identity. They are essential for customers to distinguish your product or service from your competitors. The following may be registered as trademarks:

Logos – Unique illustrations or symbols.
Brand/Trade Names – The name of the company or product.
Taglines – These can be a sentence, a group of words, or a phrase. They can be trademarked in combination with a distinctive font style from the company.
Colors – A color or combination of colors often associated with the brand.
A 3D Mark or Shape – A shape that is uniquely associated with a product.

Similar to the patenting process, an Intellectual Property law firm can assist you in every step of filing your trademark application. Before the official filing, they will conduct a search of any existing official trademarks that use similar words or symbols, as these can obstruct your application. They can also help you plan a course of action when your application is hindered by prior registered marks which are similar to your proposed trademark. If you wish to change the ownership of your trademark, the trademark specialists at an IP law firm can assist you in the process.

Using and registering a trademark can help you secure customer loyalty. Once people try your product or service on which a trademark is used and decide that they like it, they will associate anything that has that trademark with your company. They are more likely to try other things with those marks because they will associate them with what they initially tried from your company. A registered trademark will also protect your brand from subpar quality copycat products or services which can damage its image.

Copyright Services

A copyright is a way to safeguard an authored work. It basically limits who can reproduce, sell, use, or perform the creative work. It is owned initially by the person or corporate entity who made the piece. Here are some examples of what you can copyright:

Literary Pieces – Books, articles, pamphlets, screenplays, scripts, written poetry, and other written works.
Periodical literature- Serial publications such as magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals, and newsletters.
Musical compositions – A piece of music with a unique structure that can be purely instrumental, with vocals, or with lyrics.
Audiovisual works – Recorded audio-visual media, such as TV shows, movies, short video clips, and music videos.
Artworks – Paintings, sculptures, sketches, calligraphy, and engravings.
Photographs – Any pictures that were captured using traditional or digital photography.
Advertisements – Any material used to advertise a brand, service, or product.
Software programs – Computer programs with a certain function or unique code.
Geographic, architectural, topographic, or scientific plans – Any sketches, blueprints, or models that depict an idea relating to these fields.
Performances – Any performed art pieces such as dramatizations, musical recitals or concerts, poetry and book readings.

The copyright specialists at an IP law firm can help you register your authorship of a particular work. They will assist you in preparing the forms for registration, as well as depositing the copies of the pieces to the National Library for documentation.

Having a copyright claim on your authored work has several advantages. For one, it helps you when claiming damages in case someone infringes on your copyright. You can simply send them formal notices and already claim monetary compensation for their violation. Copyright also allows you to control who can reproduce your work and helps you facilitate the official sale of its ownership.

IP law firms have various other services that can help you protect your unique ideas. Reach out to J. Ponce Law in Metro Manila to understand how else you can safeguard your intellectual property.