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

Intellectual property law history in South Carolina indicates that individuals go to great lengths to retain the rights to their creations. There are three types of intellectual property laws in South Carolina that will accomplish this for you. When determining how best to protect yourself with South Carolina IP law, consider the following:

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first form of SC intellectual property law, the copyright, protects original works of authorship, whether published or unpublished, such as literature, drama, music and other artistic renderings.

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

3. South Carolina IP law defines 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.

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

Copyright your original work with SC intellectual property laws

Under South Carolina 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. South Carolina 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 United States Copyright Office website. Use the United States Patent and Trademark Office to search for registered USPTO intellectual property law lawyers in South Carolina. Assign copyright privileges to another individual, by visiting FindLegalForms.com to purchase and download a South Carolina Copyright Assignment.

Patent your invention through South Carolina 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 South Carolina patent law, 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 an South Carolina 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 an South Carolina intellectual property law firm on IntellectualPropertyLawFirms.com. Clemson University in South Carolina provides further information on the patent registration process.

Use IP laws in SC 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 SC 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 South Carolina 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 South Carolina Secretary of State website for further information on how to register a trademark in South Carolina. Search intellectual property law lawyers in South Dakota by county and city on Justia.com.

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 South Carolina in order to protect your idea or creation fully.