Pennsylvania intellectual property law aids in the protection of your ideas, inventions, and artistic renderings. Without intellectual property law in Pennsylvania, someone could claim your work as his own with no repercussions. Taking the time to register your creation under the appropriate IP law in PA will ensure that it will always remain your own.

There are three types of intellectual property laws in Pennsylvania. When determining how best to protect yourself with Pennsylvania IP law, consider the following:

1. Patents are a form of Pennsylvania intellectual property law that protect the new and useful machine, method, manufacturing technique, composition or improvement that you invent.

2. IP laws in PA define a trademark (also known as a service mark) as protection for any word, phrase, symbol, design, or combination thereof, which you use in association with a product/service that indicates the origin of that product/service and distinguishes it from others.

3. The final form of PA intellectual property law, the copyright, protects original works of authorship, whether published or unpublished, such as literature, drama, music and other artistic renderings.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Patent your invention through Pennsylvania intellectual property law

A patent gives you the right to exclude others from making, using or selling your invention. In order to have an invention worth patenting, it must be operative and useful. According to patent law in Pennsylvania, while you may have a good idea, you must be able to show how it will work, through diagrams or prototypes, in order to obtain a patent for it. Before getting to deep in the invention process, it's important that you make sure there isn't a patent already out there for your idea. You should also hire a Pennsylvania intellectual property lawyer or patent agent to assist you in the patent registration process.

I recommend: Research the national patent registration database on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website. Locate one of the intellectual property attorneys in Pennsylvania on IntellectualPropertyLawFirms.com. Utilize the Patent Tutorial provided by Penn State’s Business Library.

Use Pennsylvania IP law to obtain a trademark

You can establish a trademark by either using the mark (word, name, phrase or design) or registering the mark through the registration process provided in PA intellectual property law. The court must often determine the rightful owner of a trademark when a dispute arises between two companies that use the mark without registering it and without the knowledge that someone else uses it. The term of a trademark lasts for as long as the mark is in use and you renew the mark registration as required. Like a patent, you must make sure that someone else has no claim the trademark you use and it is helpful to hire an intellectual property attorney Pennsylvania to assist you with trademark registration.

I recommend: Go to the United States Patent and Trademark Office website and click on “search” to view the national trademark database. Visit the Pennsylvania Department of State website for further information on how to file a trademark in Pennsylvania. Search intellectual property lawyers in Pennsylvania by county or city on Justia.com.

Copyright your original work with State of Pennsylvania intellectual property laws

Under Pennsylvania intellectual property laws, only the owner of the copyright can reproduce, distribute or transfer ownership to the public (through sale, rental, lease or lending), and perform or display the work publicly. Pennsylvania copyright law provides that authors who own a copyrighted work are free to give rights to others, but it is illegal for anyone to change or use those productions without the author's permission. Copyrights start at the time of initial authorship and last through the author's lifetime, plus an additional 50 years. To make sure your work has the best possible protection from plagiarism and reproduction, you should consult with an intellectual property attorney.

I recommend: For more information on copyrights, visit the Pennsylvania Department of General Services website. Use the United States Patent and Trademark Office to search for USPTO intellectual property law firms in Pennsylvania. To assign copyright privileges to another individual, visit FindLegalForms.com to purchase and download a Pennsylvania Copyright Assignment.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Be sure that you register for the appropriate form of intellectual property law in Pennsylvania in order to protect your idea or creation fully.