SHOULD I COPYRIGHT THE TRADEMARK IN MY PATENT?

 If the question “Should I Copyright the Trademark in my Patent?”, or some variant thereof, has kept you awake at night worrying about protecting your business you are not alone.  Intellectual Property (IP) is confusing and intimidating for independent inventors and Fortune 500 CEO’s alike.  How do we solve these issues? If you are the CEO you call your $1000+ an hour IP attorneys, or staff of in-house IP specialists. But how does the small business person tackle these issues? First, relax and let the IP nightmares subside, then imagine yourself a “long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ….”  (you can hear the music can’t you?) 
 
George Lucas is pitching a space wizards with laser swords movie.  As a prudent businessman he is concerned about his “intellectual property rights.” He’s confused what those rights are, and he feels a ripple in his mystical karmic energy (I’m relying heavily on fair use/satire so let’s not push this too far) that makes him think he should consult with an IP attorney.  George is worried about protecting the script for his new movie, the name he will use on toys for his robots, and an idea he has for converting crystals into an electromagnetic power source.  Concerns we have all experienced. 
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​Let’s deal with the script first.  Copyright law provides protection to authors for their original works of art from unauthorized copying or reproduction.  The works can include, books, photographs, paintings, sculptures, songs, films, screenplays, and many other forms of artistic expression.  George as the original author of the script has common law copyright in his script the moment he puts it into tangible form, i.e., writing it down, but the more prudent method of protecting his copyright will be to file a Federal Copyright Registration at the United States Copyright Office.  The federal copyright will allow him to sue in court for an injunction and potentially collect statutory damages.   
 
George has also come up with a name to refer to his robot protagonists, namely, Droid®.  The term Droid® can be protected by trademark law, which grants rights to owners of the trademark to stop competitors from using the same or similar names on similar goods.  He intends to use the word Droid® to market toys based on the robot characters from his movies and does not want others to sell toys with a similar name.  George can file his trademark application for Droid® with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and he actually did (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droid_(Star_Wars)).    
 
Next, let’s get to the inventions. During one of George’s fever dreams he conceived ideas for a device and a process for converting kyber crystals into electromagnetic energy that can be harnessed, amplified and redirected.  These inventions can be protected by patents, which protect new ideas for devices, compositions of matter, methods or processes.  A patent owner can then stop others from making, selling or importing the patented invention.  George can file patent applications at the USPTO for his kyber crystal harnessing device and for the process for converting, amplifying and re-directing the resultant crystal energy.  He may have issues with the novelty of his crystal based planet destroying technology, enablement and written description, but these are topics for another day.  
 
 You may have also heard the term Trade Secret in IP jargon.  As a brief example let’s assume George developed a working laser sword.  If he did not want to allow the technology to be available to the public (because for some reason he thought laser swords were more dangerous than death stars???) he could try to keep the technology secret by restricting its access.  Trade secrets allow the owner to keep the invention (or client list, recipe, processing technique, etc.…) protected if the owner maintains confidentiality of the secret.   However, this form of protection has many drawbacks if the secret becomes public.  
 
What should be evident to everyone is that the sale of Mr. Lucas’ Space Wizard IP to Disney ($4 Billion+) demonstrates that IP rights can be VERY valuable and should not be ignored. This IP primer cannot attempt to cover the myriad IP rights that exist in Mr. Lucas’s science fiction mythology or your daily business world, but I hope it can provide some clarification on the tools available to protect your intellectual property. I wish you good fortune in your IP endeavors, and may the mystical karmic energy always be in your presence. 

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