Lincoln Trademark Attorneys & Lawyers

What Is a Collective Mark?

A collective mark is a trademark used by the members of a collective to indicate membership in the group or to identify and distinguish the products and services of members from those of the non-members. The mark may be a word, symbol, or group of words. Collective entities can register and get protection for collective marks under the Lanham Act.

Collectives may be associations, cooperatives, organizations and unions, or public institutions. Only members of the organization that registered a collective mark can use it. Even if it's the members of the collective that use the mark, the collective holds the mark rights.

Producers of traditional regional products often use collective marks to promote the products and help market them internationall

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Updated July 2, 2020:

Why Is Software Patent or Copyright Important?

A software patent or copyright is a legal way to protect your software source code, idea, or invention.

Every software developer or company has to choose between patent and copyright. Some decide they want both. To make the choice, you have to think about what you're protecting. Are you protecting the code itself, or are you protecting the software idea and the process? Getting a patent versus registering a copyright are very different processes and might also change what you want to do with your software.

Software counts as intellectual property (IP.) IP is an origi

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Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual: What Is It?

The Acceptable Identification of Goods and Service Manual is the guide put out by the United States Patent and Trademark Office or USPTO that describes the appropriate terms to use when describing goods and services on a trademark application that is filed with the USPTO.

Acceptable identification of goods and services is part of the trademark application process through the USPTO. The section requires the applicant to describe any goods and services that are being registered with clear or concise language.

Though the list given in the Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual isn't exhaustive, it is more extensive than

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What is Trademark Class 9?

Trademark Class 9 is one of 45 classes used by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to classify products or services. Class 9 is comprised of a broad range of trademarks for nautical, scientific, surveying, cinematographic, photographic, measuring, signaling, and weighing devices. Teaching and life-saving apparatuses and instruments also fall under Class 9, as do DVDs, CDs, cash registers, data processing equipment, and computer software.

Class 9 includes many of today's modern inventions, including electronics, software, computers, smartphones, mobile apps, and fire extinguishers.

In fact, the following goods are just some of th

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Intellectual Property Rights: What Are They?

Intellectual property rights are the rights that people have to anything they come up with in their mind. A content creator has sole rights over a creation for a set time.

What Is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property (or IP) is an intangible creation that a person or business owns. The law gives the owner rights and privileges over the creation. These rights protect the owner, stopping others from using the creation without permission. This protection lasts for up to 20 years from the date of the patent application.

Intellectual property exists as a concept to mirror physical assets. A person or business can own property. They should also have the right to own inventions of the mind. The concept is so important that mos

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