Rutland Trademark Attorneys & Lawyers

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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Updated June 26, 2020:

What are Types of Trademarks?

A trademark offers legal protection for a word, symbol, phrase, logo, design, or combination of those that represents a source of goods or services. Types of trademarks for products include five main categories: generic mark, descriptive mark, suggestive mark, fanciful, and arbitrary mark. 

• Generic Mark
  • A generic trademark actually doesn't qualify for a trademark unless it includes more specific detail. One example of a generic mark is the phrase, "The Ice Cream Shop." Offering trademark protection on something this generic would restrict all other shops that sell ice cream.
  • To qualify a generic mark for a trademark, it needs to describe qualities, character

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Updated November 12, 2020:

What is a Trademark Infringement Defense?

A trademark infringement defense is a legal case brought by a defendant to prove they did not infringe on someone else's (the plaintiff's) trademark. Basically, trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark on goods or services that compete or are related. Whether or not a claim is successful is transferred to the defendant and depends on whether his or her use was likely to cause confusion to the average consumer, thereby weakening the plaintiff's image. It's important to note that infringement doesn't need to be an exact repl

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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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What Is a Patent Citation Search?

A patent citation search is a patent search of the titles that legally protect inventions from infringement and describe in detail how these inventions look and work based on the references they provide. You can search for patent citations on their own or use a patent citation search to enhance a keyword or classification search.

What Is a Citation?

When dealing with citations, there are two primary types: forward and backward, or reverse. While the definition may seem simple, forward citations are actually a derived artifact of reverse citations. The type of citation will depend on the point of view.

In essence, all citations will begin as a backward one. To determine a backward citation requires the processing of forms 1449 and 892 in the United States. Foreign juri

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