Home » Blogs » Industrial Heating Experts Speak Blog » Example of How to Use the Major Types of IP to Protect a Product

Thomas Joseph is a patent attorney in Pittsburgh, Pa. He maintains a solo practice in all areas of intellectual-property law. He has been practicing since 2001. Before starting his solo practice, Joseph was the General Counsel of Grant Street Group, a financial software firm. At Grant Street Group, he managed the company’s patent litigation against its primary competitors in the online-auction markets for tax certificates, foreclosures, tax deeds and municipal bonds. Joseph received a Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida and a Juris Doctorate from George Washington University.

You can contact him at www.joseph-iplaw.com.

Example of How to Use the Major Types of IP to Protect a Product

February 6, 2009

Thomas Joseph

No Comments

Table 1

The same product may have aspects that may be covered by all four types of intellectual property. For example, suppose a metallurgist invents a secret process for manufacturing a novel and non-obvious aluminum alloy for use in the aircraft industry. The metallurgist prepares a technical paper for publication describing various mechanical properties of the alloy. The metallurgist also comes up with a new name for this alloy: Alumamax™.

A patent could cover a novel, non-obvious, useful alloy. The process for manufacturing the alloy, if kept secret, could be protected through trade-secret law. The technical paper could be protected through copyright law. Incidentally, it does not matter that the paper has not yet been published. The alloy name could be protected through trademark law.

Table 1 summarizes what we have covered in the first section of this course.