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If you would like to find out more about Patents & Trademarks
and perhaps try some searching yourself here are some
important links.
Patent searching - USA Patents & Trademarks Office
- Google Patent Search
- European Patent Office
- Esp@cenet covers multiple countries
- International Patent Classification (IPC)
- IP Australia - click
Trademarks - Madrid Express Database
Australian Trad3e Mark On-line search System (ATMOSS)
Australian Business Name registrations
"Intellectual Property Explorer"
Intellectual property is more important for the small guy
than a big company because it is often all you have to
bargain with - a large company with existing distribution
channels can be out there moving product before you
have even started the long journey to try and reach the
customer.
A Trademark is a means of distinguishing your
product or service from others. This can be a brand
name or logo, but can also take in colours sound
smells and other things.
If you are going to build a brand name you had
better consider protecting it, and also before you get
rolling you need to check that your choice does not
infringe some other soul 'out there' who may take
you to task. For this reason, a proper search should
be done to check for potential infringement.
We have had clients in this country who have
established sound brand names an logos here only
to find they cannot use these in some other
countries.
Packaging, websites etc can wind up having to be
trashed trying to cope with this situation.
See some of the links below for more information on
the various treaties that apply to different world
regions.
Confidentiality agreements can also be used.
The more people in the 'know' the greater the
risk - 'loose lips sink ships' and you don't want a
hole in your boat.
Strategies for Protection by other means
There are many additional means that allow you
to brace yourself against others 'out there'.
Talk to us about this issue. We specialise in
‘other’ approaches to to protection.
If you are an inventor or product developer we
can help you with your project.
Normally we send a client off to Patent Attorney to have a
Patent and/or Registered Design search carried out.
We want full copies of anything that looks 'close' - as useful
background information can flow from this including
potential distributors, potential purchasers of Intellectual
Property (IT), the Product. or license.
The results will tell you who, if anybody, is active in this
area, whether there is a conflict.
Some people will tell you they have not seen anything
around.
This does not mean it has not been thought of before. It
may well be that someone may have patented the product,
but simply could not get their marketing act together.
The searching step is to protect you future investment.
It is not all that smart to do your own searching unless you
have had a lot of experience.
It is common to have someone turn up who has rushed out
and patented an idea without going down the Process
route.
Interesting idea George but how are you going to make it?
You may need to change it to be able to produce it for a
reasonable cost and then may sometimes have the
expense of a patent all over again.
If you already have an effective distribution operation, then
Patent protection is not as critical - for someone who
doesn't it is a key issue.
We need an opinion from the patent attorney on what
appears, at this stage, to be the best method of protection.
Protection - Patent Attorney - types available ?
As plans are now to go out for quotes -
From this point forward protection of the concept becomes
an issue as the number of people involved increases and
security becomes difficult.
Protection should now be put in place - Patent, Registered
Design or otherwise.
