Patents & Trademarks

Event description

You picked a business name, paid someone to design the logo, and maybe built a product nobody else sells. So what actually stops a competitor from using any of it?

Patents and trademarks both come from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, but they protect different things, and business owners routinely reach for the wrong one. This workshop covers what each one does, what it costs in time and money, and how far the protection reaches.

Trademarks get the deepest treatment, since they are what most small businesses need first. A trademark identifies the source of your goods and services, and it can cover a slogan, a logo, a color, packaging, even a sequence of musical notes. You will also learn what a trademark does not protect, which government databases to search before you file, and when a trademark lawyer earns their fee.

John Hutchinson is a Business Librarian and a representative of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center, where he helps business owners research intellectual property questions.