{"id":2005,"date":"2012-08-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/otava.test\/searching-intellectual-property\/"},"modified":"2012-08-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-17T00:00:00","slug":"searching-intellectual-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/searching-intellectual-property\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching Intellectual Property"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does someone else own it? That\u2019s the practical starting point for many intellectual property issues that come up in my practice. Whether we\u2019re talking about patents (which protect machines, systems, and even industrial designs), trademarks (which protect brand identifiers such as product or service names), or copyrights (which protect literary and artistic works, including software code, GUIs, webpage content, etc.), it is often necessary to identify whether your activities, present or planned, may be covered by someone else\u2019s intellectual property.<\/p>\n

And while it is still usually necessary to consult an attorney at some point in the process (and preferably early in the process since the old saying that \u201can ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure\u201d is nowhere more true than in the context of litigation), the Internet has enabled individuals and businesses to do a considerable amount of upfront intelligence gathering on their own. Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n

Copyright:<\/em><\/p>\n

The website for the Copyright Office (www.copyright.gov), though admittedly pretty bland visually, is still a great resource for searching copyright registrations. Through this site, you can search the records of the Office by the title of the work (if you know it, which is not usually the case), or by the name of the author or other owner.<\/p>\n

While the site doesn\u2019t allow you to actually see the work that was deposited (which can sometimes be a disadvantage if the title is ambiguous), you may be able to determine if a competitor or complaining party has a registered copyright. Particularly for copyrights, this information can be very important; even though it\u2019s possible to infringe an unregistered copyright, the owner can\u2019t recover attorneys\u2019 fees or court-determined statutory damages for infringement occurring before registration.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Copyright Office Website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trademark<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (\u201cUSPTO\u201d) is responsible for granting trademarks as well as patents, so its website (www.uspto.gov<\/a>) is the gateway for searching both.\u00a0 The \u201cTrademark\u201d tab on the site\u2019s homepage will take you to the trademark landing page, through which you can search the database by, among other things, keywords in a trademark, the goods or services covered by the registration or application, and the name of the trademark owner.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to remember that trademarks can be protected — though to a more limited extent — even if not registered in the USPTO. Because of this, most trademark searching is done either to check if a proposed trademark is available, or to look at the details of another party\u2019s trademark registration after they have made an infringement charge.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Patent Website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Trademark
Trademark Searching Website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Patent:<\/em><\/p>\n

By far and away the most searching I do in my practice is of the USPTO\u2019s patent database, which can be reached through the \u201cPatent\u201d tab on the site\u2019s homepage. Here you can search the database by, among other things, keywords that may appear in patents of interest, by classification numbers (kind of a Dewey Decimal System for categorizing patents), by inventor name, by owner name, etc.<\/p>\n

You can also look at the entire record of back-and-forth correspondence for issued patents and published applications, which is key to evaluating their true scope. A word of caution, however – \u00a0if you find what you\u2019re looking for, that\u2019s great. But if not, don\u2019t take that as a sign that it\u2019s not there. The sheer size of the database (there are about 8 million patents) and the difficulties inherent in searching by keywords (since what one patent may call a \u201cwidget\u201d another can call a \u201cgear\u201d) make searching the patent records a skill acquired over years of practice.<\/p>\n

\"Patent
Patent Searching Website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because I\u2019m an attorney, I have to end by noting that this is not, nor is it a substitute for, legal advice. These and other sites are great tools for anyone to gather information, and even keep legal costs down, but using them to make business decisions without professional guidance is like using WebMD to skip a doctor\u2019s visit because you think you\u2019ve diagnosed your condition.<\/p>\n

\n

\"christophermitchell\"Christopher A. Mitchell, Attorney, Dickinson Wright<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Mitchell focuses his practice in the areas of consumer products, life sciences and\u00a0medical devices. He has represented biochemical producers, manufacturers of food\u00a0products, sporting goods and building products, food service franchisors, consumer\u00a0product companies, medical device manufacturers and online service providers.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mitchell’s industry experience includes working in a research capacity with the UpJohn\u00a0Company in the department of Bioprocess Research and Development.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mitchell counsels clients in adopting and leveraging intellectual property beginning with\u00a0the earliest phases of product development and continuing beyond commercialization. He\u00a0has significant experience in the areas of patent, trademark and copyright procurement and\u00a0litigation, including administrative proceedings. He frequently handles the international\u00a0procurement of intellectual property, including PCT applications before the World Intellectual\u00a0Property Organization.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mitchell has handled numerous copyright, trademark and patent infringement lawsuits,\u00a0representing the interests of plaintiffs as well as defendants.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mitchell is admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the\u00a0Canadian Intellectual Property Office.<\/p>\n

\n

Christopher Mitchell was a guest speaker during an Online Tech hosted webinar, mHealth Intellectual Property 101<\/a>\u00a0(watch the recording and view a slideshow). Don’t miss our next upcoming healthcare webinar,\u00a0Implications of Recent Medicare Announcements on Trends in Physician Payment Methods<\/a>, <\/em>next Tuesday, August 21 @2PM ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does someone else own it? That\u2019s the practical starting point for many intellectual property issues that come up in my practice. Whether we\u2019re talking about patents (which protect machines, systems, and even industrial designs), trademarks (which protect brand identifiers such as product or service names), or copyrights (which protect literary and artistic works, including software code, GUIs, webpage content, etc.), it is often necessary to identify whether your activities, present or planned, may be covered by someone else\u2019s intellectual property. And while it is still usually necessary to consult an attorney at some point in the process (and preferably early in the process since the old saying that \u201can ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure\u201d is nowhere more true than in the context of litigation), the Internet has enabled individuals and businesses to do a considerable amount of upfront intelligence gathering on their own. Here are a few examples: Copyright: The website for the Copyright Office (www.copyright.gov), though admittedly pretty bland visually, is still a great resource for searching copyright registrations. Through this site, you can search the records of the Office by the title of the work (if you know it, which is not usually the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"other_category":[],"class_list":["post-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSearching Intellectual Property | OTAVA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/searching-intellectual-property\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Searching Intellectual Property\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Does someone else own it? That\u2019s the practical starting point for many intellectual property issues that come up in my practice. Whether we\u2019re talking about patents (which protect machines, systems, and even industrial designs), trademarks (which protect brand identifiers such as product or service names), or copyrights (which protect literary and artistic works, including software code, GUIs, webpage content, etc.), it is often necessary to identify whether your activities, present or planned, may be covered by someone else\u2019s intellectual property. And while it is still usually necessary to consult an attorney at some point in the process (and preferably early in the process since the old saying that \u201can ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure\u201d is nowhere more true than in the context of litigation), the Internet has enabled individuals and businesses to do a considerable amount of upfront intelligence gathering on their own. 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