Sign New Mexico Trademark Assignment Agreement Fast

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you okay so we're waiting for you all to join in thank you so much I see you all coming in to this webinar so welcome you you you you okay Dave Robinson I think we're ready good evening National Guard members sponsors and friends I am Alfreda Robinson the president and CEO of the National Bar Association which is the oldest and largest predominantly but not exclusively African American Association of lawyers judges beens law professors and students and other legal professionals it is wonderful to have you join us the national Bar Association has been in existence since 1925 and has continued uninterrupted for 95 years and we are still growing strong copic 19th is an unprecedented worldwide phenomenon that is caused tremendous death illness financial and societal disruption our lives families and practices have been impacted adversely so as our association when we would normally be needy together we have been separated because of the pandemic just when we really could love to be together and support one another however this pandemic gives us an opportunity enough a great opportunity to innovate and create new solutions that bring the greatest values to our members and our sponsors I'll establish the NBA Kovach 19-4 to coordinate the NBA's virus related responses activities innovations member benefits and messaging consistent with our Barre year theme to keep the NBA moving forward boldly and we're going to do that during this period as well one of the committee's undertakings development and implementation of a series of outstanding webinars those begin this evening with this first one the subject of which is intellectual property and features one of our own NBA member and leader aundrea hence the goal is to continue to learn share and connect even during this pandemic so we begin tonight but first let me say this I invite you to join the national Bar Association to go on our website to donate just to send us ideas and to send us proposals for additional webinars by visiting our website at thank you so much for the opportunity and I'm excited to be here you all and thank you so much for joining the NBA and the law firm Avenger and hence Evans for this opportunity to talk to you all about intellectual property and I'm going to share my screen with you all and we'll get started and this presentation is intellectual property protection patents trademarks and copyrights so let's get started talking about intellectual property because we all have some intellectual property and before I dig into patents trademarks and copyrights I want to briefly introduce myself to you all and welcome you again to this presentation so as Dean Robinson said my name is Andrea hints Evans I own the law firm of Ventura and hence Edmunds a full-service intellectual property law firm I've had the firm now for 13 years and in those 13 years I've represented a range of clients from individuals to Fortune 100 corporations all over the world and I'm very proud of that because I actually have a very interesting career path so I'm calling Dean Robinson the president of the national Bar Association my Dean because I actually am a graduate of George Washington law school and she was my Dean at the law school as well as my professor so thank you again for this opportunity and then I left GW and worked at the Patent and Trademark Office is both a patent examiner and a trademark examining attorney for five years and I launched the firm basically because one of my mentors pushed and encouraged me to fulfill a need and a void in the community because so many people including you all have some type of intellectual property and the purpose of this presentation is to ensure that as lawyers we can counsel our clients effectively and of course refer them to a good intellectual property attorney but to ensure that you know that this exists so let's get started so the first thing is you want to ensure that you know what type of intellectual property someone has so there are three types patents trademarks and copyrights so simply put you a patent and invention and then you a trademark the name of that invention and you will copyright written works and so essentially you would patent a television trademark the name of that television like Sony and then copyright the scripts of your favorite television show or instructions so I want to make sure you all have this because a lot of people watching will say oh I have some type of intellectual property and you want to be able to distinguish that you patent inventions trademark brands and copyright written works so let's get started talking about patent myths that I know some of you don't have but it's very common and a lot of my colleagues will tell me that clients will call and say oh I don't need to protect my invention because I melt myself a copy or I don't need to you know patent in one country I want to have an international patent so let's talk about this so first mailing yourself a copy of your invention does not protect you and so I know none of you think that's true but I'm just making sure because often people will say I melt myself something I didn't open the envelope and it's protected but if that were the case we wouldn't have patent attorneys in the first place so I want to make sure you all aren't doing that now the second thing is the patent laws in every country are unique to that specific country so there is no such thing as an international patent so I want to make sure you know that there are no worldwide patents we can file a patent application and apply in every country and every country has their own laws so make sure you do that now I'm going to talk about a few things that will help you to understand what can be patented but when people say well what percent of an invention do I need to change to make it patentable that is a myth so there's no percent rules and then last but not least the Patent Office is not going to enforce your patent that's up to you so we're going to talk about that so there are actually three types of patents so one is a utility patent the other is the plant and the third type is a design patent so utility patents protect the invention in their feature so let's say for example your client comes to you or you're an inventor watching this and you say okay I invented a chair and when you push a button the chair will tell me how much I weigh for example so that may have utility or does have utility because the chair is actually functioning a certain way so that would be a utility application but then some of you may say okay I know a chair exists I know the chair has four legs but I'm gonna have my four legs look like smiley faces and so you all you're doing is changing the look or design of that chair that qualifies for a design head so what we have to realize in intellectual property law is everybody hold up one finger and that's important because you only have one year to file a patent application once you disclose it to the public and so that's something that I want you all to be aware of because the clock starts ticking as soon as you make a public disclosure to someone and so there are two types of patent applications so let's say you're in a position right now where you're ready to pitch at a tradeshow well right now during this time you're going on social media and you want to talk to people about your invention or you want to have a go fund me as soon as you make that public disclosure you only have one year to file a patent application or it's consider giving away to the public now there's there are two types of applications so what is a provisional patent application that one holds your date so basically if you filed today April 15th of 2020 you have until April 15th of 2021 to file a non-provisional application and the non provisional application is the one that we hope will mature into a patent and that one is actually examined by a patent examiner so Provisionals aren't examined they're never going to mature into a patent and you only have that one year remember to file that non provisional application or you lose your rights to filing a patent application so I want to emphasize that because often potential clients or inventors will say I invented this ten years ago and I'm ready now to move forward to patent this well because you invented it ten years ago and you've been using it for ten years it's not patentable a question came in as someone said I wants a patent and invention that I saw in Mexico well you didn't invent that invention so even if someone does not have a patent on an invention you want to make sure that you understand you can't patent something that already exists so that's the main thing the key benefit of filing that not that actual provisional application is when you're ready to file that non provisional application you get the filing date of the provisional application so you found that provisional April 15th of 2020 when that time period comes for you to file the non provisional even though you file April 20th April 15th of 2021 you get the April 15 2020 date and that's gonna be critical because in the patent system the laws basically say that it is the first to file a patent application so remember I told you about that myth so you cannot just add a percent people want to know what percent do I need to change my invention to get something patentable there's no percent rule these are the rules that we need to understand to get a patent so the first thing is is your invention novel so that means is it new so basically if your invention exists whether or not as patents it or not so you see an ad on Facebook you take a trip to Hawaii and you see some type of product that you've never seen before your invention is not novel if it exists already so that's an easy standard you don't necessarily need a patent attorney to tell you that you can look at something and see if it's identical now the next question though is was it made public remember if it was made public more than one year before you file a patent application is too late so if it's already been a year is too late to file now is it obvious so the obvious standard is where you actually would need a qualified patent attorney to help you interpret what we call prior art the prior artists research that's the research that was done to help you to see what exists prior to you filing your application and that's the most important part if you ask me of this entire process and I know that because having worked as a patent examiner what we do as patent examiner's is examine patents by conducting that research so you can save a lot of money as an inventor or you can counsel your clients effectively by saying look you need to have research done so no patent attorney has a crystal ball to be able to tell you if something is patentable it's always based on research so the obvious standard works like this the question is would it be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to take what's out there and combine it to make your invention now what that means in plain English is if you just change the size of something or the shape or the color those things are obvious so you come to me and say I know that the iPhone exists but I want to make it smaller or I want to change the color to make it yellow so people can see it at night those types of things are obvious changes so that's all you're doing with an existing invention that's not going to be patentable now the last standard is does it lack utility or usefulness and that's very straightforward because all inventions typically have some useful feature because that's why you invented it in the first place so before you file an application for inventors or if you're an attorney and your client comes to you and it sounds great you know that they have the next best idea the most important thing you can do before you file is to obtain a patent search and so that's where you want to do prior art research now I'm going to give you some resources at the end of this presentation where you can go online and start your own research on your own and that can be very helpful because obviously again if you find something that's identical you stop if you find something that looks related or close to what you're doing then you can bring that information in for a consultation to have somebody counsel you on that but doing those searches actually save you money right because if it's patent if it's not patentable you know to invest that money in another idea because let's face it you probably have another great idea but it also helps you to see what compared are doing so when we research we're actually able to see who's already filed patties and who owns patents in that area and that actually helps you to reach out to them for possibly licensing deals or to see what your competitors are doing so what I want to do is make sure you have realistic expectations so the patent process is a very long process so again when you file you can wait almost two to three years before your patent application is even examined now the Patent Office does allow you to pay extra fees to have an expedited but you do have to be patient you know because if you don't have the money to pay all those extra fees to expedite your application so that they look at it in one year or less you will be waiting almost two to three years before they even look at your application so when you hear people say their patent pending that's just what it means it means that they filed a patent application now the claims are the most important part of this process and so that's why it's critical to hire a professional patent attorney to be able to help you with your patent now I want to tell you quickly though to be a patent attorney you actually have to have a science or stem background science technology or engineering type of background have that degree so my degrees are in mathematics and civil and environmental engineering and then you have to have a law degree if you want to be a patent lawyer now some of you may be watching and you may say okay I want to take the requisite classes because they don't necessarily require that you actually have the degree but you can have so many hours of science classes to be able to qualify to sit for the patent bar so you cannot hold yourself out as a patent attorney unless you've passed the patent bar so I want to make sure you all look into that and you can find more information about that at uspto.gov the Patent Office site now the claims are part of a patent application and that's what people basically exist with the office examines and that's what people in French someone you hear someone say such a such has infringed on my patent it's not all the write-up in the background that's in the patent application is the claims so when I worked at the Patent Office there was always this saying that I want to share with you all that the claim is the name of the game so that is the most important part so you want to make sure your claims are written in a way that they're not so broad that they cover everything because then you'll spend a lot of money trying to really claim the real invention but you don't want them to be so narrow that they're easily infringed by someone so once you file and this is either with the provisional application or a non provisional patent application your patent pending so when someone says their patent pending that's just what it means they filed their patent application and it's pending but remember you cannot enforce a patent application until you get a patent right because there's no guarantee that you're actually going to get a patent so just because you file a patent application that does not mean that you actually can start suing and enforcing a patent application so just make sure you're clear on that now during that time some things that you can help your clients do or some things that you can do if you're an inventor watching or consider manufacturing or developing prototypes because you don't actually have to have a prototype to file a patent application so that's something that it's very important that a lot of people don't often understand as long as you can describe your invention in a way that someone can make or use it you can file a patent application now another thing t consider is remember we are talking about filing US patent applications right but you may say I know that I'm going to make this invention in China or I know that I want to sell this in India and the patterns that are found only cover you in the US so you have that one year to file in those foreign countries so at that time that's what you can start considering filing in those countries if you didn't file when you originally filed the application and again when you file you have to be patient because it can take you know one to two years but it's more like two to three before the Patent Office looks at your application and just because it takes that long it doesn't mean it's a problem it's just that we live in a country thankfully that there's innovation and creativity and people are taking advantage of the patent system now once you file your application is still not public but eighteen months after you file it does become public so once you get a patent you can stop in fringes and the beauty of intellectual property is that whatever you can do with real property you can do with intellectual property so you can license it you can assign it you can sell it you can will it and I love that because it's something that can live on forever you know this is what we talk about a legacy especially during this time people look at their life and the legacy that they're lived there leaving behind your intellectual property is part of that so you can actually patent something get a patent on an invention and licenses so you don't have to make it and then maybe get a dollar every time they sell or make your product so that's definitely something to consider now there the system used to be the first to invent so used to be that whoever invented something first would have priority but now it is the first-to-file so you definitely want to encourage your clients and if you're an inventor you definitely don't want some weight because once you file a patent application you get a filing date and when the government does that research to see any prior art exist prior to you filing they're looking to beat that day so someone fouled or someone posted a video prior to you filing that application that's prior art so you definitely want to encourage your clients and if you're an inventor watching you definitely want to file right away so we're going to move on to trademarks and trademarks are just as important as patents but it's very interesting because you don't have to be a genius to know that you need to patent your invention and why I say that is because if you've been watching TV you've always seen that commercial have you invented something time to get a patent but you never hear people talk about trademarks and they're very important you know just as important as a patent so remember patents protect the invention so now we're going to move on to trademarks and trademarks protect the names of those inventions and what's required to be a trademark is it has to be a source identifier and so what I mean by that is my firm is Evans IP law so let's say you love the name Evans IP law and you call and say I want to trade Mark Evans IP law well you can't just protect your favorite word it has to actually be for a product or a service that you either are providing or you intend to provide and that should make sense because you just can't own rights and one word you have to identify what it's for so that's why as consumers we go to the store we may see a company Evans IP law the law firm but we may go to the store and see Evans IP law for cookies because we're gonna we're gonna coexist because you wouldn't expect to see a law firm selling cookies and a cookie company providing legal services so let's talk about trademarks so trademarks we're all experts already in trademark law and I say that because we are all shopping you know whether you're shopping online now or using services like instacart you're an expert believe it or not because you're a consumer but I want to make sure you're clear on some myths that people aren't always clear about so often people don't recognize that you can actually trademark a sense you can trademark a sound and even a color so let's say for instance the NBC sound do do so that is trademark the red-bottom shoes or how about if I hold up a blue box the tiffany blue color box and a black box and say hey which one do you want you're probably going to say the blue Tiffany box because they have trademarked that color and that color is symbolic with their brands so that's the way you want to start thinking and you actually can trade my 3d shapes so the most famous 3d shape is the coca-cola bottle so that glass coca-cola bottle is actually trademarks and they've proved that when people see that shape of that bottle they identify that with coca-cola now this is often a big question that comes up often when can I use TM and when can I use the R symbol with that circle well those two things are not synonymous so right now if you're starting a business and you have not filed a trademark application and you don't have it registered you can put the TM symbol just to put others on notice that hey I'm using this as a source identifier so ABC with the TM next to it but once you get the actual federal trademark from the USPTO you put that R symbol with the circle and that puts others on notice that you actually protected this federally with the United States Patent and Trademark Office now another thing I want to talk about is domain names because people will say I have the domain name abc.com so I own the rights in ABC but not necessarily and it should make sense to you all because if I tell you the name of my brand is ABC you know that as a trademark you know because you see that on the side of the store you see that on the price tag of the shirt but if I say come to 1 2 3 4 5 Main Street that's just the address that when you get there you see ABC on the wall of the store so the brand is actually ABC same thing with the domain name you see that as abc.com but when you get to the site it may say welcome to you know the law firm of ABC so the brand may actually be the law firm of ABC the domain name may not function as a trademark but I do want to tell you that domain names can be trademarked if they function as a source a good example of that is matched komm so these are some issues that you want to definitely consider as you're counseling others and from entrepreneurs you definitely want to think about all these types of issues that can arise that aren't so straightforward now also just because you own the rights of a name or a brand in a state does not mean you own federal rights and so you want to make sure that just because you form an LLC for example does not mean that you own the trademark and just because you own the trademark does not mean that you've formed a business so you definitely want to understand those myths and I'm sure you all definitely maybe you didn't know those but I'm glad to tell you about those so trademarks before you file you want to identify how strong or weak your trademark is and so what I mean by that is there's a spectrum of trademarks from generic so weak you know it's a strong now the stronger trademarks or words you make up so Google for example doesn't mean anything in the dictionary you made that word up that's gonna be the strongest trademark and that makes sense it should be because you made that word up now we move down the spectrum to worse that we call arbitrary trademarks now that's the word that may have a dictionary meaning but it doesn't mean anything related to the product or services some Apple for computers we know Apple is a fruit but it's very strong for computers because it doesn't mean anything related to computers now you actually can trademark a descriptive term so you actually can trademark lavender lotion because it's describing that your lotion is lavender but it's going to be a weak or trademark because it's descriptive and so if you file a trademark that's descriptive you have to be prepared for others to be able to use those words in a descriptive way so I can trademark something that's descriptive and use it as my brand but don't be surprised if someone is using that expression to describe goods or services you know which you may or may not want and then you definitely and not trademark generic words shoes for shoes lotion for lotion and that should make sense because owning a trademark provides you with these rights to be able to stop others from using similar marks that may cause confusion so I want to point out like I said earlier that once you create that name and you have this strong name you have to identify all the goods and services that you're using it on or intending to use it on so that's right you can actually counsel clients as soon as they create a name and they intend to use it you can file a trademark application so you don't actually have to be using the trademark meaning making money in and out of state you just have to be intending to so I intend to use ABC for a law firm I have a start at the law firm yet but I intend to I can file a trademark application or I may actually be using it already so some of you may be watching it you may say look I've been in business 10 years and never got a trademark so you're actually using it so it's one of the other you're either using it when you file or intending to use it and you think it means using that trademark for those goods and services in what we call interstate commerce so outside of the state so that is a requirement for trademarks you do have to either be using it or intending to use it outside of the state so at least what you need to get a filing date for your trademark application is at least you have to have the name of the owner in their mailing address and the USPTO is now requiring an email address to be published on their applications you have to identify those goods and services that we talked about and again that makes sense because if somebody else files ABC for cookies then they're not gonna be blocked by by ABC for legal services so you do have to identify that and you have to identify with the trademark is so the trademark could either be the words a B C or maybe I have a fancy logo where all the letters are made out of smiley faces and I'm going to upload that so I either have a word that I type in or I may have a design that I upload and of course the patent office is like the post office they require their money so you always have to pay your filing fees and have the name of the applicant the draw and identify those goods and services so once the application is filed so the beauty of this is there's a theme to me regarding intellectual property and that's the searching and researching is critical so again you're gonna research before you file a patent application to determine if something is patentable and if you've done what we call your due diligence to ensure that no one has a name that's similar you should be ok you know with this process so before you file I definitely want to emphasize that you get a professional trademark search done to ensure that no one has that name now tell you what though if you are going to Google and you google ABC for a law firm and you notice that someone else has it a lot of people call my firm and they say oh yeah that person has it but they didn't file a trademark well remember again for trademarks it's the first to use so even if you get a trademark register if someone can prove that they used at first they can challenge your trademark and take it from you so you want to make sure that you've done your research and you can ensure that you used it first now once you found the government's going to be looking and what we call a likelihood of confusion so does it sound the same does it look the same is it on identical goods and services so that's what they're going to be looking at first so if I'm a B C the letter C for a law firm and you come behind me you want to be a b SE a which is pronounced c then we're gonna have some problems because obviously when someone calls the ABC firm they don't say is this the ABC the letter C or sister ABC se a firm so and I want to emphasize that because people will say well they have my ABC or I'm going to be the ABC but again that's confusion so step back because we're experts as consumers and ask yourself would someone be confused by that if they are that you want to change the name now they also look to see if something is mis descriptive work that's descriptive you can get a refusal on that or how about if it's geographically just if Texas barbecue ribs and you're selling ribs from Texas or you actually can trademark your surname like the last name like Evans can be trademarked it's just a weak or trademark but these are things to consider before you file the things that you want to pay attention to now there are several benefits of trademark registration because people form companies and many of you helped to form corporations and you should be encouraging your clients to protect their federal trademark as well because doing that puts others on notice so there's a constructive notice that you own it and so you have that R symbol there you've registered as a presumption that you have ownership which is fabulous now the other thing is that this is a federal issue so you can actually have jurisdiction in a federal court and also you can claim registration benefits in other countries sometimes that's priority to say okay I found in the u.s. I've used it here and that depends obviously on the country but also you can actually register your trademark with customs to help prevent infringing products so when you see those buste in new york and things like that that's because people have actually taken the time to register their trademarks to prevent those types of products coming in so I want to give you all some social media tips here if your counseling clients on trademarks and if you have registered a trademark you definitely want to reserve your username on social media as I'm saying that because so many people now are taking advantage of social media during this time we're being innovative and creative ways to reach you all and even if you don't plan to date so ever post a video or two ever post on Twitter you want to reserve that name that you plan to use as your brand on social media so that you have control over it and so by the time you trademark ABC if they okay fine I'm gonna hire someone to do all my social media you want to have the at ABC is your handle so you can have control over it because that's the way consumers are trained anyway and that should make sense right because when I'm looking for ABC I don't want to go to my ABC or the ABC so it's possible before you launch a business or you know have a product with the brand that you plan a trademark get the dot-coms as well as reserve the social media handle now you definitely want to police your trademark so often people assume that because you've registered at the USPTO that it's up to them to stop others from using it but it is up to you and so you want to make sure also that as you are monitoring your trademark stuff especially you know your responsibility to do that when you see others using your trademarks you just don't sit back and watch it happen because there can be case law to support that if you know someone is infringing and using it and you sit back that you've given them permission to do this so just be very careful with that the beauty of this though is if you have a trademark and someone is infringing and they're using your trademark on social media right now all of the social media has trademark policies and trademark attorneys that we talk to to be able to say hey I have that trademarks that the benefit remember the presumption of ownership so they respect intellectual property rights and that is definitely one of the benefits of having that trademark so you want to be able to shut down others from using your brand so you have control over it now there are three types of intellectual property so I definitely want to talk about copyrights so again we patent inventions trademark the names of those inventions and copyright written instructions so the USPTO United States atent and Trademark Office is the agency that is in charge of patents and trademarks so when you file a patent application remember it's examined by a patent examiner when you file a trademark application it's examined by a trademark attorney now the Library of Congress is the government agency that handles copyrights but unlike patents and trademarks they aren't looking to see if someone has filed something similar so you write a story they're not going to read that story and compare it to John Doe story they're going to review that application to ensure that it meets the legal requirements but they aren't going to examine it in the same way as a patent and trademark so you cannot copyright a name right and that should makes this because we just talked about trademarks you can trademark a name but remember it has to be for a product or a service that you intend to use or that you're actually using so that favorite word that you have that you have in your mind that you want to protect has to be used on something or intended to be used and that's protected with a trademark now everybody is using Google these days and they're copying and pasting and they say ok I'm going to copy this presentation and put it on my site well even though you aren't charging people to watch the presentation that's copyright infringement so these slides are protected by a patent break so that's a good example because people say well I didn't make any money off of posting your picture on my blog or you know I even quoted you you know that should be enough but that is still copyright infringement so be careful with it however a parody is considered fair use so you make fun of someone you know in a funny way or you show the video and you criticize that person or what's happening in the video that is fair you so that is okay now people assume that posting on the Internet means that it's free but just because it's posted on the Internet doesn't it does not mean that it's fair game for you to use that and take it off the internet and claim it as your own so here's a list of things that can be protected with the copyright so literary works musical works dramatic works Panem eyes vultures motion pictures sound recordings and architectural works so those are things that can be protected with the copyright but the beauty of copyright law is as soon as you put the pins of paper so if you're taking notes right now you actually own the copyright right now without registering yet however the benefit of registering it is if you register your copyright before it's made public or before it's published you get more damages than you would have had you waited to copyright it after someone copies it from you so definitely encourage others to protect their copyrights before they make the written work public now we talked about the R symbol with the circle around it to show that your trademark is registered you've seen this C symbol with the circle and this basically informs the public that the work is protected with the copyright so you'll see the copyright symbol with the seed the owner and then usually the year of the first publication of that copyrighted material so that's what that means now the benefit of registering your copyright is that it establishes the public record of the claim and so that's important because you want to basically establish ownership now here's the deal with copyrights though so remember I told you that as soon as you put the pen to paper you own that copyright but if someone copies it and you don't have it registered with the copyright you are required to register that copyright with the Library of Congress before you can sue someone for copyright infringement now it's going to cost more because all of this stuff that I'm talking about takes time so remember we said patents can take two to three years before it's examined trademarks can take three to four months but the entire process can take 12 to 18 months you know maybe longer if is challenged or longer for extensions of time copyrights can take almost a year before the application is examined as well so before you can actually find the lawsuit for copyright infringement you are going to be required to have that copyright registered and again similar to trademarks registering that copyright allows you to record that registration with customs as well so I wanted to share these resources with you all the most important to me regarding patents and trademarks is uspto.gov so that is the United States Patent and Trademark Office ain't everything is electronic now so electronic filings are actually now required for trademarks and you know you still now there's because of the Kovach pandemic I'm not sure what they're doing with you being able to drop off files at the Patent and Trademark Office for your patents but you can have paper filings but they have a very robust and innovative filing system so they require that you file online for trademarks and you want to make sure that if your counseling clients that you encourage them to hire a professional and you you understand trademark law because often they assume because the document seems so simple like I know that I'm answering questions but it is a legal document so I want to caution you all because I also do intellectual property litigation and if we can find some holes in your application you can't say well I didn't know or you know I assume this is what this meant it is a legal document now I encourage you all to do some research and so the best and free tool for research is google.com for slash patents and you can go in and key in some keywords about your invention and if you find it we know that you stop and move on to something else or bring those references to a qualified patent attorney now I definitely don't recommend that this to use this as a substitute to hiring legal counsel because your search may not be as thorough as a professional but it is a good start now I've actually authored two books all about trademarks and all about inventing and those are sold on my site as well as Amazon I'm very proud of them because they're the first books written from the perspective of a former patent examiner we're all about inventing walks you through the process of going from an idea to an invention and it tells you what to expect when she filed a patent application and I think this is critical that we all understand the process because you know what to expect and then all about trademarks walks you through the process of creating a brand ensuring that is strong and understanding what to expect there and then last but not least copyright gov is definitely where you're going to go to find out more information about copyrights so my trademark is invest in your idea you know I'm going to definitely encourage you all to invest in your ideas and I want to encourage you all to definitely support the National Bar Association for things like this and the first thing I want to tell you about is that the National Bar Association intellectual property law section is actually taking nominations as we speak through April 30th of this year for the 2020 diversity and tech and IP Awards so you all can visit WWE in tech law calm and feel free to nominate your favorite intellectual property superstar or nominate yourself for that so I definitely want to encourage you all to do that and last but not least I definitely want to encourage you all to join the National Bar Association some of the benefits are discount programs advocacy having this national network professional resources is so much more the friendships are endless and the relationships are priceless so thank you all so much I'm going to stop sharing my screen and I'm going to answer any questions that you all have saw some questions coming in here and you all sent me some questions so I'm going to start answering questions so post your question in the Q&A box and we'll take it from there in these last few minutes so the first question that came in was what recommendations would I make to an innovative technology firm in looking forward to developing technology and planning a for intellectual property so that is a good question so once you have made a decision that you want to focus on intellectual property or really any type of law to be honest I would say especially during the time like this technology is critical so you want to make sure that you have your systems in place and this comes from the engineering me everything needs to be spelled out in a way that if you hire someone that person knows from A to Z what they're supposed to be doing so regardless of if you're a family lawyer or intellectual property lawyer to plan ahead you need to have your systems in place so do you have forms where you have the questions that you need to ask during the consultation what information do you need and because the process is so long you definitely want to ensure that you have a docketing system in place as well so the next question is how does a young attorney interested in IP law become more involved and knowledgeable about this area of law so the IP section of the National Bar is definitely a valuable resource I highly recommend you all consider joining this section a IP LA the American intellectual property lawyers Association is another valuable resource that I recommend and I also recommend that you find a mentor in this particular area someone that can help you so that you're not reinventing the wheel the next question is someone had a specific question about grief cards in stores so now that you all are experts on intellectual property we can answer this questions together because if you want to put cards in a store do you need a patent trademark or copyright so the beauty of intellectual property is sometimes you may have all three sometimes you may have one but again everybody has some type of intellectual property so the names of the brand of that grief car the ABC grief car brand is going to be protected with the trademark and then the content on the car will be protected with the copy the illustrations would be a copy rate so that's something to consider and then let's say you have some innovative technology that actually allows you to print cards in one second or less that may be patented so that's something to consider so someone said how long can you use TM before filing you can actually use TM without filing an application so that's a good question but in terms of enforcing your trademark we have what's called common law rights and so what I've been talking about our federal trademark rights which cover you in all 50 states if you have a trademark and you put TM that means that you didn't file but you're using it in common loss I hope that answers your question and the next question is how can I protect my patent when I present my ideas to a lawyer so when you are working with a law firm or a lawyer that establishes an attorney-client relationship an attorney-client relationship allows that information to be confidential so that's a good question because often if someone calls and says I meet my attorney before I can talk to you to sign a nondisclosure agreement that's kind of a red flag that you're not familiar with the process and so you want to make sure that it's to understand that it is not necessary but that's a great question because an attorney-client relationship keeps this conversation confidential and it doesn't start that clock that we talked about remember you have that one year but then when you go present your idea to Bob the Builder that does start the clock and so that's a great question and that relationship is not necessarily confidential so thank you for that question now let's see the next question is if a firm knows that it will be doing business globally should the company file a patent trademark and copyright concurrent to filing in the US so that is a good question so the short answer is it depends and I say that because remember in the patent world you only have one year and I'm emphasizing that because what's interesting about the US patent system is you can file an application and you don't even know if your patent if your application will be granted in one year and so it's very interesting so you want to make sure you're working with an attorney that's going to keep up with that one year time period to remind you that hey the time is coming for you to be able to file in these other countries because if you don't file in those other countries within that year you lose the right to file and so there's no rule that it should be filed at the same time but the loss due afford you and we didn't talk about this but there is something called the PCT application patent cooperation treaty and several countries are part of this one treaty and that allows us as US attorneys to file an application and designate when we file which countries were interested in filing those patent applications in now from a cost perspective which you have to understand is every country will have their own attorney and all those applications will have their own fee so you definitely want to be prepared and budget for that but I have a lot of experience filing those applications and I'm proud that my clients have multiple patents in other countries and mostly what will happen is the firm has relationships with other firms in other countries so thank you for that question and someone is asking a question that they found a product with the similar use okay so that is a great question because often what what happens is let's say I patent a pot and you push a button and the pot allows you to cook food in two seconds or less and then we have a hurricane and you put that pot on your head and say attorney Evans I need to patent this pot now when it's time for us to patent that invention remember it's the same pot so for the patent system we don't necessarily care what the invention is used for because we describe that pot as having a handle and having an opening and I'm having a button on it it's going to be the same pot and should make sense because if I patent that pot and then you go and start packaging it up and saying okay now this pot is a helmet it's still my pot so if something already exists and it's used for a different purpose and it is the same invention although it's used for a different purpose that is not going to be patentable so you all have a lot of good questions one of the most important questions is can you see this presentation again so thank you that means you loved it and I appreciate that and yes you can we will be emailing out a link for you to see this again and I appreciate you asking that question the other question that you have is how do you find a manufacturer or someone to develop it so that remember when you have an invention and you are in a position where you can actually describe it in a way that someone can make or use it to file a patent application it's not required that you have a prototype although some people do basically you know they want to be able to say that I know that this is how it works you know and they feel very confident about that so how do you find a manufacturer or someone you're gonna have to do some research in that area and ensure that is someone that you can trust and you have a relationship with and so I don't have a direct answer of who that person would be but you want to make sure is someone that works in that particular area so you don't want to go and hire someone that manufactures toys to manufacture your kitchen tool okay so I answered the question about seeing this again and next question is if you hire an attorney that you don't feel confident in I'm working with because they don't they aren't well versed in IP law you miss the deadlines they're both dead oh sorry to hear that now to answer that question just like any other area of law if you don't feel confident with that attorney you can actually fire the attorney and so lawyers can fire clients and clients can fire a third and it's not personal this business and it does happen unfortunately if you miss the deadline for a trademark for example if the trademark is abandoned then you have two months from that abandonment date to pay a fee to revive that application or unfortunately you do have to start the pr cess again and so if that has happened you are going to have to refile that application now here's the deal with that let's say you refile the application and during that time John Doe beat you to the filing so now John Doe is in front of you at the trademark office what happens then is that John Dulles application will be cited against you so unfortunately even though you originally had it filed and you beat Jane Doe you start over with a new date but remember for trademarks it's the first to use so if John Doe filed it before you but you can prove you used it first you can challenge the John Doe but the challenge is litigation so it can get to be costly but that's why time is of the essence when you think of intellectual property so that's definitely something to consider you know as you and hopefully this inspires you also to start taking action you know which I appreciate you all have a lot of questions here so the next question says what's the best resource to use to conduct and global search as to whether prior trademarks exist so that is a good question now every country has their own rules for trademarks and I say that because often let's say you file ABC in America if someone is exclusively using ABC in Italy you know you are going to have any problems because they are in another country now in order to conduct a global search there are third-party vendors that you can hire to look up to or attorneys in those countries that can do those searches or we have software that also allows us to do that search but I wanted to say that because I want to emphasize that if you find someone using your name in the US then that will be a problem because they're using before you even if you beat them to filing a trademark so people say oh this is a little boy selling ice cream on the corner and he doesn't have a trademark so I'm gonna take that name and file it for an ice cream store he can challenge you because he used that name before you whether or not he's big or small so I answered the question about filing an application for a new use for a product even if it's in a different industry if that product is the same it's not going to be patented and let's see next question Oh so free resources for the patent bar I'm not sure about free resources because it's changed since I've taken it but you may want to contact the United States Patent and Trademark Office and see if they recommend a resource to take it now the patent bar is now online and so I'm not aware of any course materials that are free but it there are some that will allow you to take the class online and I believe their practice tests online but that's been so long and I'm sorry I don't have an answer for that question and let's see slogan so that's a good question so again if you are using your slogan as a source identifier like we talked about where that slogan allows people to perceive it as a brand when I say just do it my trademark is invest in your idea so as long as you're able to identify goods and services that you're using or intending to use that slogan on it can be trademarked so slogans can be trademark so let's see it is important to ensure that you are maintaining your patents and trademarks so copyrights lasts for your life plus I believe 70 years after you pass so you know that you don't have to actually maintain in the sense that you're paying fees along the way trademarks though once you get a trademark every five years after you get that federal trademark you do have to remember to maintain it by filing a fee with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and signing a legal document to let them know that you are still using it and showing them that you're still using it and that makes sense and that's a great question when I think of coca-cola coca-cola has the oldest trademarks so they've owned that brand since the 1800s so we know how important trademarks are because you pay it a few thousand dollars to get a trademark but the trademark is worth so much more because it's worth you know so many years you've used it for so many years and it has this incredible value but yes every five years you show that you're still using it as long as you're using it you get to keep it and if you stop using it then it is fair game for someone else to come behind you and file that application and so yes once an application is filed you can actually delete trademark goods and services so let's say you file and you think that you're going to use it on soaps and hats and shirts you can delete goods and services after you file but you cannot add them after you file so that is a good question and it comes up often it's not the end of the world but you do have to file another application so what we can I'm going to have to talk to the National Bar to come back to answer all these questions we have so many questions here and they're great questions let me see someone said okay so let's say you do have to put an address on a trademark application that that address does become public the USPTO just changed the rule you cannot file an application with the pol box anymore they do require a physical address now the worst thing that happens with posting that physical address is spam mail you get a lot of solicitations and things in the mail but if you move it is your duty to keep the office aware of your current address in case someone needs to reach you to file a cease-and-desist letter or for renewals but again that's your responsibility to keep up with those dates and so you do when you're considering allowing us having this IP as part of your law firm you want to make sure you have the right systems in place to keep up with all these very important dates and critical dates so another question that someone asked that I thought was good and said how does a new attorney build a law firm that specifically focuses on intellectual property law so so that's what I did so I can tell you what I did so I started my firm 13 years ago and what's unique is that I worked at the Patent and Trademark Office as a patent examiner for three years and a trademark examining attorney for two years but what has always been a gift for me is having a network and understanding the importance of a community and so I would often get calls from my colleagues saying did I have a referral for a patent lawyer and I would often as a patent and trademark examining attorney hear heart-wrenching stories from people who were trying to file on their own because let's face it most people don't want to hire an attorney and the number one reason is because of money but that is why my trademark is invest in your idea because it is an investment and if you file these applications incorrectly you can jeopardize your rights and some things cannot be fixed you know and will ultimately cost you more money so I'd rather have be a resource where we can counsel you and at least tell you what you need so that you know what to expect versus trying to fix your mistakes because it can cost more to have an attorney fix your mistakes and so after getting a call from one of my mentors who said I was feeling comfortable at the Patent and Trademark Office he said you're gonna be working from home and I loved it there I loved the lifestyle of knowing what a production system was and just basically knowing what was expected if I wanted to get a bonus I knew how many extra cases I needed to examine but he said hey you're getting all these calls from people in your community and that's a sign that maybe you need to be doing something else and really that's all it took I never really planned to start a law firm but I stepped out on faith I put in my two weeks notice and I did not have any because I was working for the government so often if you're at a firm you can take your book of business with you but I did not have that so I bought a computer I had a contract and I was ready to go and luckily I talked about the importance of community because I sent a blast email message out to everyone I know everyone I knew at the time on my email list to say hey I'm starting the firm and sure enough people started calling people needed my services and three months after I formed my firm I was very fortunate to obtain a fortune 100 client because of my reputation and because I had that skill set of working at the Patent and Trademark Office and my firm outperformed all the firms that were on this specific project and it just gave me so much more confidence because if you are starting a firm we're all intelligent and qualified to be able to do this work but you have to have a level of confidence because it's very challenging and it feels good to know that someone will invest in your firm to be able to do it and long story short I did not have a huge marketing budget but I took total and full advantage of social media so I started with Twitter posting things and then I had Shark Tank retweet me and then because I was available and posting information about intellectual property I had national publications contact me to be floated in magazines and the rest is history you know so I want to thank many of you who are already part of my community for participating in this event tonight and if you're not on my firm's newsletter please subscribe you can go to Evans IP law comm and you can text Evans IP law to four to three three seven seven seven if you want to join the firm's newsletter but to answer that question how does a young attorney build a firm with this practice and if you're a young attorney watching how you do it is you start you start by having that confidence and you take action so many people have ideas and this applies to inventors this applies to attorneys who are kind of on the fence about what to do and the difference between a million-dollar inventor and a million-dollar person running a law firm is that they took action so the key is to start and there are no real rules of how this is done but you start and you have to let people know that you're out there so with any product that you have any business that you have you can post a website but no one will come to that website unless you are taking actions to let them know that you exist and then once you do a good job which you're going to do because you're passionate about what you do your clients will tell other people and then their community becomes part of your community so I've built my entire firm for 13 years around having a community so that is extremely important so definitely if you don't have a budget and you're a young lawyer you're watching take advantage of social media and the way you do that is by providing information about yourself but balancing that with information that your community can use so that is what I'm going to leave you all with and I want to thank you all for definitely watching this presentation today thank you so much to the National Bar Association for this and make sure that you all follow the National Bar Association because they have other amazing lawyers who will be presenting on their area of expertise and this was amazing and I know you all have many more questions so feel free to reach out to my firm if I can help you with your specific issue and let me just skim this long list of questions again to see if I can answer some quick questions and then I'm going to let you all go and this presentation was recorded and we will share this for those of you that want to see it again and let's see so once the trademark application is dead is it possible to have it revived no I answered that question you would have to start that again but if a trademark is dead it may be possible for someone else to file the next question let's see from lawyers I want to answer oh thank you so much I appreciate your feedback someone wrote this was great thank you thank you so much I'm glad you all enjoy this presentation and I'm glad that you all are supporting my firm the law firm Avenger and his Evans as well as the MTA but ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for joining us tonight and I'm so excited that you all are excited about intellectual property law so I want to leave you all with understanding and knowing that patents protect inventions trademarks protect the names of those inventions and copyrights protect written works if you are a lawyer and you're interested in finding out more about structuring your law firm so that you can focus on intellectual property law please reach out to my firm I'm happy to help you there and you can also reach out to me at boss - Squire dot-com for all lawyers and thank you all again so much follow Evans IP law and follow the National Bar Association for more valuable content like this have a good night and thank you so much