When genius strikes, the last thing on your mind will be how you can keep you brilliant idea out of unsavory hands. But protecting your work is a crucial skill that every inventor or creatively minded person must learn, and the first step is differentiating between two types of intellectual property protection: copyrights and patents.
A copyright protects an original creative work, whether it’s a song, book, painting, or any number of other artistic mediums. And here’s the good news: copyrights are easy to obtain. In the U.S., an author automatically earns a copyright over any original creative work as soon as it becomes “fixed,” which means the minute it’s perceptible. A book can be fixed on paper; a painting is fixed on canvas; a song can even be fixed if it’s simply sitting on your hard drive. Once your work is copyrighted, you own exclusive rights to reproduce it, distribute it, display it, or create derivatives. And if someone else steps on your copyright without permission, you will usually have some legal recourse.
Patents, on the other hand, are a trickier topic to master. Patents protect inventions and discoveries, and there are three types in the United States: utility, design, and plant (as in the leafy green variety).
Utility patents, which cover inventions, are by far the most common of the bunch. If you’ve got an invention that you want to patent, the first step is to determine whether your invention is even eligible. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a list of what is and isn’t patentable on its website, and it’s also recommended that you do some research to see if your invention has already been patented by someone else. These searches can be tricky and tedious for novices, so it’s a good idea to seek help from the nearest Patent & Trademark Resource Center (there are six in Texas, including the Dallas Public Library) or a registered patent attorney or agent (you can search for one here.)
If you’ve determined that your invention might be eligible, it’s recommended that you seek the aid of a patent lawyer in filling out your application. If you’re worried about getting some of the finer points of your invention across, take solace in the fact that most patent attorneys come from engineering backgrounds and have the technical expertise to handle specialized applications even for complex inventions. But if you’d rather go it alone, you can follow the steps of the USPTO’s non-provisional utility filing guide and send it in yourself. If you go that route, make sure to file your application online — small entities pay an extra $300 in fees if they file by mail or in person.
Lastly, if you’re hoping to market your invention immediately and you don’t have time to wait around for patent approval, you can file a provisional application with the USPTO. This gives your invention “patent pending” status for up to 12 months and will allow you to claim an earlier filing date if and when you’re approved for a patent later on. You’ll still have to file a non-provisional application within a year and subsequently be approved in order to claim any of the legal benefits of a patent owner, but a provisional application can give you an added bit of security while you pitch your new invention to distributors.
