In an era of progressive innovation, the protection of intellectual property is becoming increasingly more important for inventors and their attorneys, speakers said at the Boston Bar Association on Tuesday.
At a discussion titled “IP for All: What Every Lawyer Should Know about Intellectual Property” hosted by the BBA, about 20 attendees listened to a panel of attorneys discuss issues of intellectual property law, such as trademark, patent and copyright law.
Attorney Keith Toms of Saunders and Silverstein LLP, the discussion’s moderator, presented hypothetical scenarios demonstrating discrepancies in intellectual property law, which panelists then tried to solve.
Attorney Peter Karol of Sunstein Kann Murphy & Timbers LLP said trademarks are most efficient when they reveal minimal information about a product.
“The less the trademark tells you about the product, the better it is from a trademark perspective,” Karol said.
Inventors do not copyright ideas themselves, but their unique expression of an idea, said attorney Dan Booth of Booth Sweet LLP.
“The copyright that you protect isn’t the idea, it’s the way that you express the idea,” Booth said.
“If there is something dead-on that has already been done, you don’t want to patent it,” said attorney Lisa Geller of Biogen Idec. “It depends on if it’s obvious or not.”
Trade secrets are strictly prohibited whenever inventors bring new ideas to an industry, Geller said. “You have to have enough information from the inventors about how to use the invention. They can’t hold back the best way to use the invention.”
Many inventors find it beneficial to protect intellectual property in the United States, panelists said.
“Once in a while filing in the U.S. for just defensive purposes might be enough for keeping a competitor out of the market,” Geller said.
Because patenting can be a lengthy process, inventors are granted extra time for patenting products when offices do not make speedy transactions.
“If they go beyond certain deadlines, you get extra time on your patent for patent office delay,” Geller said.
Multiple states require inventors to submit ideas to their employers, Geller said. “There are some places where the employee is obligated to submit intellectual property to an employer.”
Certain publications are not under the penalty of copyright infringement and may be used freely by anyone, Booth said.
“Anything that was published before 1923 can be used by anyone as they see fit,” he said. “As a general rule, use of a parody is fair use.
You’re not going to allow people to control their work so much that there are not going to be parodies.”
Orphan works are ambiguous in the legal field, mainly because their origin is unknown, Booth said.
“One of the biggest questions is what to do with orphan works. You don’t know where the origin of the work is, if there even is an origin. What you’re supposed to do is notify the copyright office and put money aside until you figure it out,” he said.
Booth said it is important for every person involved in the creation of a project to have rights to their own work.
“In copyright, every author has an equal right to the work unless it’s been otherwise specified in the agreement,” he said.
“Every inventor owns 100 percent interest in the patented interest,” Geller said.
Some students who attended the forum said they learned helpful information. “I thought it was a good overview. I think these events are great for any student going into law,” said Yuki Matsushima, a third-year Boston
University School of Law student.
Matsushima said his favorite part of the discussion was a hypothetical situation discussing patenting problems for inventors in Germany.
Other BU students said they are familiar with legal issues concerning patenting and copyright infringement.
“I remember there were all these Comedy Central clips on YouTube about five or 10 years ago and Viacom said they had to take it down, and then it was all taken down from the website,” said College of Communication sophomore Jason Weitzman.
“I would sue if someone took my idea, but if my idea was stupid then I wouldn’t,” said COM sophomore Martin Nolan.
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