Kansas City Trademark Attorneys & Lawyers

What Is Intellectual Property Law?

Intellectual property law (IP) protects the rights of any person or business who creates artistic work. Artistic work can include music, literature, plays, discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Intellectual property law aims to encourage new technologies, artistic expression, and inventions that all promote economic growth.

Types of Intellectual Property Law

Just like the legal system protects people's physical property rights, it aims to protect people's mental labor, which we call intellectual property. There are several different types of intellectual property.

Copyrights

Copyrights protect any type of expressive art, such as writings, music, motion pictures, architecture, and other original intellectual and artistic expressions. A copyright gives the owner exclusive rights to reproduce their own work, publicly display it, perform it, and crea

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For many startups, legal issues are often the last to be dealt with. For one thing, legal issues require the involvement of lawyer. And who wants to deal with them? Lawyers can be both intimidating and expensive. The fact is, however, that some legal issues can’t wait. Trademarking your company name is a good example. In reality, trademarking the name of your company is a fairly easy and inexpensive step that you can take to start protecting your company and its intellectual property (IP). This article will attempt to put some of your concerns about the legal issues of trademarking your company name to rest.

Company Name vs. Trademark

The first thing to understand is that there is difference between registering your company’s name and filing for a trademark. Registering your business name is part of the ap

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What Is Trademark Protection?

Trademark protection refers to safeguarding intellectual property rights to protect a trademark from counterfeiting and infringement. A trademark is an established or legally registered mark that identifies a manufacturer's unique goods and services. The owner of a distinctive mark can apply to receive trademark protection. However, trademark protection also requires you to continually use the mark in commerce.

To protect your trademark from infringement and counterfeiting, you need to make sure your mark is not used by others, and you need to bring legal charges against those who use your mark without permission. By conducting research, you can develop a strong trademark or

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What Is DMCA Protection?

The DMCA, or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, protects creative works on the internet and contains the legal foundation for rights management in digital works. It covers things such as articles, videos, and photographs.

The DMCA protects both copyright owners and internet service providers (ISP), otherwise known as online service providers (OSP). To warn would-be content thieves away, you can use a DMCA Protection Badge on your website.

Copyright Owners

The DMCA gives copyright owners a simple and straightforward way to get their content removed from websites that don't have permission to use it. They can do this by sending a DMCA takedown notice to the ISP that hosts the offending conten

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What Is an Intent to Use Trademark?

An intent to use (ITU) trademark application shows a company's intent to use a trademark before actually putting it into use. The company must then put the mark into actual use within six months of filing the ITU application. 

Under Section 1(b) of the Lanham Act, there are two types of trademark applications that can be submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). They are intent to use (ITU) and statement of use (SOU).

The advantage of the ITU is that the filing date serves as the first date of the use of the mark. This assumes that the applicant puts the mark into actual use and completes the application process within six months. This status and indication of intent is regulated by §1(b) of the Trademark Act, 15

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