How to keep tabs on corporate intellectual property

Beyond flattery?
How to keep tabs on corporate intellectual property
Interviewed by Jerry Roche

Imitation, as the old saying goes, can be the sincerest form of flattery. But it also might mean liability for violating another’s intellectual property rights.

Intellectual property (IP) rights are analogous to other types of personal property rights. Just as our laws protect you from having your car stolen, they also protect you from having your name, the embodiment of your ideas and other original creations stolen.

“If a company infringes on another’s intellectual property, the situation has gone beyond flattery,” notes Michael Chesal, a member of Kluger, Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin P.L. and co-chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Department. In the trademark context, for example, Chesal notes that “companies are constantly adopting new product names and advertising themes. If management doesn’t sensitize its employees to the potential dangers of IP infringement, the company could be subjected to serious liability.”

Smart Business spoke to Chesal about how businesses can both protect their IP, on the one hand, and minimize the chances of being liable for violating another’s IP rights, on the other.

In what legal areas does intellectual property apply?

Intellectual property rights generally encompass the areas of trademark, copyright, patent and trade secrets. The most common of these rights involves trademarks, which are words or designs — or combination of the two — used to identify a product or service of one company and distinguish them from the products or services of others. The law

protects trademark owners from having someone else use a mark that is confusingly similar to their own.

When companies select names to identify their goods or services, the objective should be to adopt a name that is highly

distinctive. The more distinctive a mark, the more easily a company can claim exclusive rights in it, and the less likely it is that use of the mark will infringe on another’s rights. To continue, please click here.