Protecting the intellectual property rights of a business should be a top priority of every business owner. Understanding trademark and copyright law is only the beginning. Taking the right steps to protect your rights and avoid infringement on the rights of others are equally important. At The Law Office of Poorvi B. Parkhie, we apply over 20 years of experience in business and corporate law to help Colorado businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups be proactive in protecting their intellectual property. We partner with our clients to make certain they are aware of all the key legal aspects of intellectual property law that pertain to their operations.
For Colorado small and midsize businesses in any industry or market, Denver-based business attorney Poorvi B. Parkhie offers reliable legal support that is easy to understand and free of stress. Her extensive business law experience enables Poorvi to work efficiently and provide exceptional quality services at reasonable rates. She provides honest advice in a timely manner to help her clients succeed and grow throughout the lifecycle of their businesses.
Many businesses rely heavily on creating unique content to market their products or services. Whether the content is written, graphic, or another type of creative expression, it is protected by copyright law as soon as the work is created and fixed in a tangible form. Copyright law grants a creator the exclusive right to use and benefit from their original work.
Copyrights are important for a business in two critical ways. A business owner must understand what steps can be taken to protect their own creative work, as well as know how to avoid infringing on the copyrights of others.
While copyright protection is automatic as soon as work is fixed in a tangible form, a business owner can take the additional step of registering a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office. Registration is not required to own and exercise the rights to a copyright, but it is required to file a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Registration also provides a public record of your copyright claim, which can be used as evidence in a lawsuit and may entitle you to statutory damages and attorney’s fees in a successful infringement action.
Representation by a lawyer is not required for copyright registration. At The Law Office of Poorvi B. Parkhie, we help business clients identify creative work that is eligible for copyright protection (and work that is not eligible) and also help navigate the registration requirements or provide guidance for the owner to register copyrights themselves. In addition, we help clients with copyright licenses and agreements, when the owner wishes to transfer limited or unlimited rights to others.
Regular monitoring and enforcement are essential to protecting your rights in intellectual property. Online tools and services can help track unauthorized use of your copyrighted works.
Copyright infringement occurs if a copyrighted work is used without the copyright owner’s permission when permission is required, which infringes on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner. Infringement may occur by publication, performance, making into a derivative work, reproducing, distributing, or other means. While there are exceptions, such as using copyrighted material for limited purposes like commentary, news reporting, and research, permitted uses can be a grey line.
It is important to ask for legal advice if you are unsure whether an intended use falls within the allowable limits. In a successful infringement civil action, a federal court may order an injunction, impounding and disposition, statutory or actual damages, and costs and attorney’s fees. In some situations, an infringer may also face criminal charges.
The best way to avoid copyright infringement issues is to create your own original content. It is also essential to provide training and resources for your team and employees to ensure they understand how to properly use and attribute copyrighted information in their work.
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, or design, or a combination of those elements, that uniquely identifies your business, products, or services and provides brand recognition and protection. Trademarks may identify tangible goods or intangible services.
Trademark registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) protects your brand nationwide from being unlawfully used by others, which avoids consumer confusion, safeguards your reputation and market share, and facilitates consumer brand recognition and trust. You can also register a trademark at the state level, which is less time-consuming and costs less, but provides protection only within the state where you register. In today’s economy, few businesses operate only within the boundaries of a single state. The more expansive protection of the federal process is usually worth the additional effort, time, and expense.
Before registering a trademark, it is crucial to conduct a comprehensive trademark search to ensure that your trademark is not already in use. You can use online resources to check for existing registrations and pending applications that may be similar to yours. At The Law Office of Poorvi B. Parkhie, we provide business clients with professional trademark search services to ensure comprehensive search coverage, as part of helping our business clients with trademark registration.
There is much more to protecting your trademark than registering it. To maintain the uniqueness of your brand and trademark, you must actively monitor and enforce your legal rights. You can use monitoring services and technology to track both online and offline mentions of your brand.
If you identify trademark infringement, taking legal action is essential. Our intellectual property services include helping clients determine the appropriate course of action for potential infringement situations.
At The Law Office of Poorvi B. Parkhie, we help our business clients evaluate their need to protect creative material and their brand. We ensure that the client fully understands copyright and trademark laws and takes the necessary steps to secure registration and avoid infringement on the intellectual property rights of others.
We also work with clients in drafting licensing and other agreements relating to protected material, to make certain an agreement fully protects the client and provides the basis for enforcing any violation of the agreement.
We invite you to use our online contact form to schedule a free 30-minute virtual or phone consultation to talk about how to protect the intellectual property of your business.
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