Patent Services
Why?
Patents and other legal protections like non-disclosure, copyrights and trademarks exist to help protect ideas. Entrepreneurs are granted the exclusive right to market, manufacture and sell their product. No one else will be able, for a set time, to compete. Patents help get you to market competition free!
Ideas are valuable, imagine being the first person to conceive of a functioning iPhone, sharing your idea with a friend and then watching them beat you to market! Most people assume that their napkin sketch concept is ready to protect, even before sharing it with a design team. Although good in theory, the truth is that Design Branch will be fundamental to creating a patent-worthy design and communicating clearly with your legal counsel. The recommended first step to creating a patentable concept is signing an NDA with Design Branch and sharing everything. An NDA is a non-disclosure agreement, meaning we won’t share a thing and are legally bound not to steal your idea. Our goal is to make sure your idea is so unique and so protectable that no one will be able to touch it.
What?
Understanding what type of patent your idea qualifies for can be complicated. Do you need a trademark registration, design patent or a utility patent or can you get all three? Let’s walk through what is covered by the different protections.
Trademarks are best for recognizable print and images. Set up trademarks after you are ready to commit to the look of your new logo.
A design patent protects the look, shape, or ornamentation of an object. Protected with a design patent, no one can produce a widget that looks exactly like your widget. Think about the exact curve of the Coca-Cola bottle, that is patentable. Many times, the design patent is related to your brand identity and your aesthetic.
With a utility patent the detailed function of your object is protected. How your unique thing works and even how your new idea improves the function of an existing item is patentable. Gravity, magnetism, and abstract ideas are not patentable but how a specific thumb screw tightens that new shower rod concept of yours is ready to go.
Design Branch will make sure your idea is put together in a new, unique, and useful way. We will get your drawings patent ready so that your legal counsel is ready to file!
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