When it comes to Intellectual Property, it is essential to consider your options and legal protection. There are many ways individuals can intentionally or unintentionally interfere with your Intellectual Property. Helpful hints to avoid interference by others: Have a Trademark registered for your desired brand’s name, logo, or design to ensure they are secured and […]
Widerman Malek Law Blog
Protecting Software Using Patent And Trade Secret Law
Protecting Software Using Patent And Trade Secret Law Traditional legal strategies have pitted trade secret law and patent law against one another. This is because patents are made public while trade secrets must be kept confidential. However, there is a way to utilize the best of what both have to offer.
Is There Legal Protection for Software?
Although the protection strategy has changed, the answer is yes. Until recently, software patents accounted for about half of all utility patents issued by the USPTO. Application of a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case, Alice v. CLS Bank, effectively slammed the door on this practice. Likewise, software patents issued prior to this decision have been […]
What is a trade secret?
Special sauces, secret ingredients, secret inner workings, special ways to train employees; we come in contact with products and brands that have these trade secrets every day. These trade secrets are what make that product so special. Have you ever wondered how a company legally protects those trade secrets? In almost all states, a trade […]
What is Intellectual Property?
If someone asked you about Intellectual Property, would you know what they were talking about? Would you think it was a smartly built house? Maybe one of those smart phones? You would be wrong if those were your guesses. Intellectual property has to do with creations of the mind. A painting by Van Gogh would […]
How to stop employee theft
We’ve all heard stories about employees stealing products, supplies and even money from their employers. But one of the biggest issues facing today’s employer is the theft of what is sometimes considered soft assets – the client list, trade secrets, intellectual property or proprietary data. We briefly went over this topic in another article you […]
Building the Perfect Employee Agreement
It’s sometimes very difficult to draft that perfect employee agreement – you know – the kind that fully protects your rights to intellectual property and inventions created by your employees while at the same time encouraging creativity. Many employers mistakenly believe they should make the agreement overly broad – favoring their interests or make it […]
Intellectual Property: A Threat from Within
The most costly data breaches are usually those that are created by a malicious insider. These people normally have access to things external hackers generally don’t have access to, like intellectual property, which in turn allows them to get into areas only known to them and to have additional insight as to the areas most […]
A New Way to Approach Copyright and IP Issues
The world out there is getting bigger all the time, especially with the internet and millions of users working hand in hand. While this looks like the perfect environment for ingenuity and creativity to grow and thrive, particularly when the creations are under patent protection, there is a darker side that has to be tackled […]
IP Security Policy: Following Through
As related in earlier blog articles, a “living” intellectual property (IP) security policy involves more than just pre-hire actions and new hire orientation. IP security policy procedures must be visible and active in the ongoing work routines of management and employees. If an employer cannot demonstrate reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy, the business’s IP rights may […]
