Welcome I'm Sean Wilkerson.
Innovation Development Program
manager here at the United States
Patent and Trademark Office.
I want to thank you today for joining us
for the Women's Entrepreneurship Symposium.
We're excited to have you here
for the third in our series of
discussions held every Wednesday in
March celebrating Women's History
Month before we start the panel.
Resources for protecting
your intellectual property.
I have a few housekeeping notes to go over.
The agenda for today's program
is in the inbox of everyone who
registered for the program,
but it can also be found
online at www.uspto.gov.
During the panel,
we will be accepting questions for the panel.
If you'd like to send us your question,
you can do so by email at Wes at
uspto.gov we'll do our best to get to all
of your questions at the end of the panel.
If for any reason you get
disconnected during the presentation.
You can log back into the program at anytime
using the link that brought you here.
If you miss a portion of the program,
don't worry,
we will be posting this program online in
a few weeks on our website at uspto.gov.
However,
if you want to review the information
immediately after the program,
you can do so on Facebook.
We will be streaming live on Facebook,
so after the program the video will
be posted and available to you.
If you want to go to the USPTO.
Presence on Facebook.
Now at this time I would like to
introduce you to our moderator
for today's program, Heidi Kelley,
Tech Center, operations Manager.
Here at USPTO Kelley, Heidi,
I'll let you take it from here.
Good afternoon and welcome to the
Women Entrepreneurship Symposium
panel resources for protecting
your intellectual property.
As Sean mentioned,
my name is Heidi Kelley.
I'm currently technology center
operations manager at the US Patent
and Trademark Office with the chemical
and materials Engineering Technology center.
Prior to this assignment,
my everyday task was being a
supervisory patent examiner.
Where I manage a team of examiners,
chemists and chemical engineers,
and in the area of liquid
purification and gas separation,
which in everyday terms is
essentially the area of filtration.
I look forward to moderating this panel
with the hope that we will provide
you with an informative discussion,
about intellectual property resources
as you work and plan to protect your
intellectual property without Much Ado.
I would like to do a cursory introduction
of our panelists and then turn it
over to them so they can let you
know more about their backgrounds.
And overview of how they and their
agency support intellectual
property and small businesses, and
We have on our panel today Jason
Lott, Jason is Attorney Advisor,
TM customer outreach at the USPTO.
We next have Jennifer Shieh
who was a chief scientist and
program manager with the Office of
Innovation and Technology at the
US Small Business Administration.
We also have Jennifer Harchick
who is a staff
attorney with the Office of Enrollment
and Discipline at the USPTO.
And we also finally have Ben Benjamin
Hardman, senior international trade
specialist with the Office of Standards.
An intellectual property industry
and analysis at the International
Trade Administration at the
US Department of Commerce,
and I turn it over to you,
Jason, for your introduction.
Thank you very much Heidi.
Hey there everybody.
My name is Jason Lott I am the
attorney advisor for TMS customer
outreach here at the USPTO.
And really,
that's a long way of saying that it is
my job to teach you about trademarks,
what they are,
why they are important,
and how they federal trademark registration
can help you build your business.
I've been with the agencies since 2000.
I originally got hired straight
out of law school and have
been here for quite some time.
I originally started off as a
trademark examining attorney.
Which means that when you would submit
your application to register your trademark,
I was one of the folks who would
take a look at it and then do
that for many years and then maybe
about around 2009 2010 there was
work project opened up to create
a video to help applicants just
like you avoid some pitfalls in
filing the trademark application.
Well,
that one video has now become about
30 different videos and I have
transitioned from being an examining
attorney into doing outreach on a.
When it basis so I my day trying to help
folks just like you learn about trademark,
so we're trying to find better ways
to educate and better ways that we can
improve our materials to help you learn.
So what we do at the office on
the trademark side of the USPTO
ascentially is register trademarks.
That's what our mission is and
we would love nothing more than
to be able to have you registered
your trademark with us.
And so everything we do is.
Based around that, so protection of brands,
So you being able to protect your brand,
that's what we do on the trademark
side of the USPTO.
Great hi my name is Jennifer Shieh and
as Heidi mentioned I'm but Chief
scientist and program manager for the
Small Business Innovation Research,
Small business technology
transfer programs out of the US,
Small Business Administration and so
you know a little bit about myself.
I actually come from a technical
background as well.
My PhD is in neuroscience,
hence the brain,
but the I've been with the federal
government for a number of years.
Really what we do at SBA,
Is help you innovators entrepreneurs
start small businesses an grow
and and really you're the engine
of of the US economy.
So that's our mission here at SBA with
the small Business Innovation Research,
small business technology transfer programs,
it's kind of known as America's Seed Fund.
It's about $4 billion of non dilutive
funding to go to support innovations
and research and development.
That's being done at small businesses.
Get out of just being an idea and
a discovery in a lab and actually
get out onto the marketplace.
And so This is Money that comes from
across the entire federal government.
SBA actually doesn't have any of
that R&D money and so our job and
our role within the the SBIR STTR
programs is to help set the policy
and coordinate and make sure that
you as a small business owner or.
Future entrepreneur knows how
to access that money.
How do you get to that capital?
How do you understand and find
advice and counseling and also
another key part of the SBA is
in supporting small businesses in
getting the government as a customer
through small business contracts.
And one part that you may now know much
more about that was hidden before.
Was that SBA plays a very vital role
in providing disaster assistance.
And so I'm really looking forward
to this conversation as it relates
to intellectual property.
You know, small businesses.
And that's the way to really
commercialize the that IP started company,
get out there and get it out onto
the marketplace. So thank you.
Looking forward to this conversation.
Hi my name is Jennifer Harchick.
As Heidi mentioned I am an attorney
in the Office of Enrollment discipline
at the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Prior to coming to the office I was an
attorney in private practice where my
focus was on all types of intellectual
property prosecution and litigation.
So I assisted individuals,
small businesses,
large businesses in obtaining patent,
trademark and Copyright rights.
Now at the office I have many different
roles but one of the roles and that
we're going to be talking about.
Today is on the pro bono side,
so the US Patent and Trademark Office is
very supportive of intellectual property
rights and supporting small businesses.
And innovators, two of the programs
that are office overseas is the law
School Clinic certification program
and the patent pro Bono program.
Both of these programs we're going
to be talking about in more detail
as we go on throughout this event,
but they both provide.
Intellectual property services
to the public free of charge it
for qualified individuals,
so I'm excited to continue on in hoping to
Helping to promote innovation
and businesses through patent,
Trademark Offices programs
that help to support pro bono and
overseeing these two programs.
Thank you.
Hi everyone, thank you to Heidi and
Sean and the PTO for the wonderful
invitation to sit on this panel.
My name is Ben Hardman and I have
been invited to speak on this panel
because I have the great honor of
running the Stop Fakes program.
So I'm going to tell you about the the
resources we have an the outreach that we do.
The mission of Stop fakes is to give
information to consumers and businesses
about protecting intellectual property.
So we do this in a number of ways.
We do this through roadshows
direct outreach to the public.
Our main function is kind of bringing
together all of the assets that the US
government has and trying to put it in
one place for businesses to get to.
So I'm happy to be on this panel with
a scientist and other attorneys so
honored to be here and the layout of
my office where I work out of is still
under the Department of Commerce,
but through the International Trade
Administration we have an Office of
Standards and Intellectual property so
We kind of work as the office for
giving advice on IP through the to the
International Trade Administration,
and of course we're closely with
the PTO and so happy to be here.
Happy to talk about the program
and look forward to the discussion.
And we're happy to have all
of you with us here today.
So we'll start off our discussion
from a hypothetical perspective.
Will start with a hypothetical
perspective of a business owner.
So let's say this individual
has a great idea or concept,
and this person may even have a
prototype of what they consider
to be like this novel invention,
which you know she's worked
on for who knows how long.
So, for example, you know.
This hypothetical inventor
may not realize it,
but they may have access to,
for example,
the Patent and Trademark resource centers,
which are essentially in network of
public state in academic libraries
designated by the PTO's locations to
provide assistance to public to the
public in the areas of Patent and Trademark.
For example,
our business owner and flooding event or,
you know,
you know in in this case if they
approach the PTRC can have a librarian.
A system on searching historical
data on patent trademarks.
One of the benefits of these libraries
is that they would have access to
databases similar to the ones that
examiners use when they are searching
invention and submit an application
so so they can find out on their own.
You know,
using looking at their prototype using
descriptors vacancy historically
what has been done in the area
that they are interested in.
So this is one option for a starting point,
but I like our panelists to expound
a little bit on starting with you
Jason on what resources at the
onset or at this point,
should our hypothetical business owner.
Have in the area of trademarks,
for example,
then will will go onto our other panelists.
Sure, well I tell you what.
Let's do honey,
let's take you, let's say,
make you the hypothetical inventor.
OK, and let's say,
and I don't know, you might be.
Let's say you're a total
gearhead and you have invent.
You're working on inventing
new sort of motorcycle, right?
One that when it hovers off the ground
and no one is ever seen as before, right?
And you got your prototype in your garage.
OK, great.
So what are you going to do now that you
have this piece of intellectual property?
What are you going to do with it?
Well,
you might consider starting a business,
and so one of the things when
you're starting to business.
One thing to think about.
Is your trademark and essentially
what that means is what is the sort
of brand that you have for your
particular good or your particular service,
right?
Maybe it's a brand name, maybe it's a slogan.
Maybe it's a logo.
Maybe it's a combination of
all of all of those things,
and what we're really talking about is
how do people find you in the marketplace,
right?
What is the name of the thing?
What is the brand of the thing
that you were selling?
Or the service that you're providing?
And that's the most important thing.
Because your public has to
be able to find you right.
So how are they going to be able
to like find you online when they
type something into Google there?
Typing, hover cycle or Heidi's hovercycle
or something like that, right?
That's how they find you.
That's how you advertise.
And it's you know when you're when
you're actually selling the thing.
Maybe it's the brand that you're putting
on the actual product itself, right?
So what we're talking about is a brand,
and that really in a lot
of ways is your trademark,
because it's how people find you.
And so even though you're at
the very beginning stages.
Beginning your business,
you need to already be thinking
about what that trademark is,
what that brand name is,
because you want to lock it down early on.
Because if you think about your business
suddenly taking off and growing,
you don't want to be at a place you know
a couple years down the road there like,
Oh yeah, man.
What was the I should have really come
up for a name for that thing you know?
And because by that point other people
might be calling their thing a similar name?
Or somebody else might start
a competitive company.
That's just kind of like yours,
and it's kind of coming up with a
name that's sort of like yours.
You don't want to have that happen, right?
You want to get.
You want to protect your trademark,
your brand name, your slogan,
your logo, whatever it happens to be,
that identifies you as the source
of Heidi's hover cycles, right?
You want to lock that stuff down
early so you can prevent your
competitors from sort of trading
on your good name later on as
your business continues to grow.
So one of the first things you're going
to want to do is figure out what is
the brand name that I want to protect.
How are people going to identify me?
In the marketplace,
and then you can do that research
to find out.
Is this actually a new name or is it
going to be too close to somebody else,
right?
Because what you want to be able to do
is have your trademark and then protect
it here at the USPTO with us right?
You want to have your brand name
and then file for federal trademark
registration in order to get
nationwide protection for your mark.
And you want in the one of
the ways to do that is was.
Once you file the examination
that's going to take place.
Is we're going to look at
that application and say,
is anybody else out there using
the same or similar mark for
related goods and services?
So what you can do before you even file
and maybe before he even lock down
in your own mind exactly what your
brand and your trademark is going to be.
You can do this search and
as highly mentioned,
you could talk to the folks at a PTRC,
you can even do the search yourself
because we have the trademark electronic
search system which is our database.
It is publicly accessible 24/7 on our
website and you can use our database.
And look to see is anybody else out
there using Heidi's hover cycles right
for motorcycles that you know float
off the ground so you can do that?
Search beforehand and you can also use
the Internet obviously to look to see.
Is anybody else out there?
'cause maybe it?
Turns out you know,
let's say that you're based in
Virginia and it turns out that
somebody in Arizona is already coming
up with something else that's very
similar with a very similar name.
Well, you might want to
rethink calling your thing,
Heidi hover cycles and come
up with a different name.
Because you don't want to run into
sort of competition with that
other guy in Arizona with the
motorcycle that he's creating, right?
So you want to start doing that research
early early on in the beginning of
the business to make sure you're
not going to come up with something
that's going to sort of compete with
other folks in terms of a brand name,
and that might confuse consumers
when they encounter both of
your goods in the marketplace,
so that's a lot of the work that you
want to do early on before you even
get to the point where you're trying to
register your trademark with the USPTO.
Is you want to be thinking about
the trademark itself and doing
as much research as you can,
as much learning as you can to
understand trademarks and we have
lots of resources that are available
on the USPTO.gov website in addition
to other things that we do and we can
get more in depth into those later on.
Or I can talk about them now.
Heidi if you want to.
If you want me too,
but those are the sorts of things you
want to do early on in the process is like.
Figure out what your trademark is
going to be, and then figure out.
Is this something that I can protect?
And if So what are the steps that I
need to take in order to get federal
protection for that trademark?
So Jason,
since we're on the topic and can you
let them know where they would go to search?
Yeah,
sure.
So if you go to uspto.gov you will
click on if you go to our home page
you will see a section that's for TMS.
Actually, you know what?
There's an even easier way, right?
I was going to take you into the
trademarks landing page and then
you can find on the landing page.
But one of the easy things to
do is actually on our website.
I believe it's on the right hand
side of the screen.
There is a little box called find
it fast and
in the find it fast box.
There's a section for patents and
there's a section for trademarks
and if you click on trademarks
it'll have a little tiny drop down.
And one of the things that you can
drop down and you'll look for tests.
TESS, that's the trademark
electronic search system.
And so you can easily Click to it from
the from the home page of USPTO. Gov.
Thank you, Jason, Jennifer Shieh
can you speak so so we have
our our hypothetical person.
They are now thinking about a trademark
and they're also thinking, well,
I definitely want to start a business.
So they're looking to maybe the SBA,
and if they're not,
can you tell them what help the SBA
would provide at the start of the
process for somebody in this position?
Yeah, and actually you know I,
I really appreciate hearing that perspective.
Jason, 'cause I,
you know I actually coming from so I I
have two diverging thoughts and so I will.
I will but it makes me think of,
you know the the list of band
names that I keep in my my phone.
So having a good some good trademark name
so that you don't do all of this work.
An effort to build up a product to do all
the research to develop your invention.
And then create a business and
now is to find you at the camp.
So how are you gonna sell it?
So if you do want to start a business so
I'm gonna go down two different tracks here.
Why does actually just thinking about
on the invention side of things?
So putting on my scientist hat, if
I just came up with an invention,
I have a prototype.
I you know, I may not actually,
know,
I would think that I wouldn't want to
yet name it something and it's really
about kind of trying to figure out
my invention and that customer like
what's the market going to be so that I
can really think carefully about what it is,
how it is I I want to be known.
And so if there still needs to
be more research and development
done to actually turn this,
maybe it's a prototype into a a full product.
You know,
there's definitely the program
that I was talking about.
The Small Business Innovation Research,
small business technology transfer programs,
and thinking about how to use
that to really continue the R&D
for the the full development.
But on the business side,
you know, once you do,
you've got an idea you want to protect it,
and so you want to think about how
to make sure that your you can both
develop and protect at the same time.
And and there are so many different.
Factors that go into creating a
successful business and launching a
product and one of the key things to
know I think is you are not alone
and there are many experts out there
in all of these different facets
of creating a business of thinking
through the research and development
side of thinking through the marketing
and planning side and the Small
Business Administration has resources
to help you cover run the gamut.
Of how you actually get registered
as a business?
What are some of the things you need
to do so one of the core pieces is,
you know, we as the
specifically within the SBA.
We can't help every single person in
the country are directly ourselves.
We want to, but we just
can't reach everybody.
And so the key way we do reach
everybody is by making sure
that we find resource partners.
And I do want to put a call out 'cause today.
Is actually SBDC day,
which is the small business development
centers and they are a huge key resource.
There are over 980 small business
development centers across the entire
country that are there to help you
to help you figure out how do you.
What do you need to do to get started
to actually create a business
and once you have it business,
what're what're you gonna do to
her to develop your business plan?
There are also SBA funds,
an organization called Score, it use.
It's one of those.
It used to be an acronym that stood
for something specific and now
has become known as just score,
so I don't even want to say
exactly what it stood for because
I don't want people to think that,
but it's score.
Is this mentoring network and so
it's a large.
It's the nation's largest network
of volunteer business mentors that
have knowledge and experience
about starting businesses.
From all sorts of different angles,
and so it's it's a place where
you can find somebody.
Who knows maybe how to navigate
that trademark space also,
and get some advice on that.
We also support specifically
women's business centers,
and so since this is the Women's
Entrepreneurship Symposium,
I would be remiss in not calling out
the women's business centers specifically,
but that is a fantastic place to start.
And so it's these are community
based centers that help with
training mentoring referrals.
They help you broaden in your
network and tap into many of the
the resources that exist out there.
And then also we also support
veterans business outreach centers.
So if you are a current former
member of the military one,
thank you so much for your service.
And two,
we want to help you transition out
into starting your own companies as well.
And so there are great training
programs through the Veterans
Business Outreach centers.
So SBA supports this huge resource
partner network and this is to get
on the ground and I realize you know
now we're primarily operating remotely,
but it is really helpful often
to find who is that local person
that can tell you how it's done
even in your state or city.
Maybe there was some special.
Thing programs that your city actually
does to help support small businesses.
And so the place to go for that is sba.gov.
If you remember nothing else.
Hopefully it's sba.gov local assistance,
but you can find partners.
You can help that will help you
navigate this whole complicated
business complicated business
of starting a business.
And then once you're ready for
the funding side,
I think will probably talk more
about that in in the next round.
Once you started your business.
Thank you, Jennifer.
That was a lot of information.
Very helpful.
Will turn it over to Jennifer Harchick.
Jennifer.
Give us a a little bit more
information on what are hypothetical.
Heidi's hovercraft is what Jason calls it.
What is that?
Our hypothetical person need
to do on the patent side, yes,
so as you're thinking about
everything that Jason talked about,
your thinking about branding
and Jennifer talked about your
thinking about starting a business,
what else should you be thinking
about on the patent side,
you should be thinking
about protecting your new.
Invention that new motorcycle
that hovering motorcycle that is
brand new no one seen before.
How do you do that?
The way to do that is to
file a patent application.
So if a patent is granted,
it is a federal intellectual property
right that provides protection to the owner,
the owner of a patented invention can
prevent someone else from making,
using or selling their claimed
patented invention.
So you spent.
All this time all this resources
you don't want someone else or
competitor sweeping in and taking
that invention away from you and
putting it out on the marketplace 1st
and capitalizing on your hard work.
So start thinking about should
your invention be patented
and protected in that way.
One of the things you would start
to look at it is do you is your
invention new and UN obvious so
meaning in the ordinary skill in the art.
Someone in that.
Art, is it something that's new?
That's not known, not done by anybody else.
And is it UN obvious like it would
not be obvious based on combining
other inventions that are out there.
So in this case Jason has set it up.
It is new he doesn't know
of anything else out there.
Finally a hovering motorcycle and so
patent application is the way you
want to go to protect those rights.
There are several different
types of patent applications.
So the first type of patent
application to consider.
Would be a provisional patent application,
so this is an application that is
used and basically as a placeholder
to reserve your filing date.
the US patent system is a
first inventor to file system,
which means the first inventor to
file a patent application has the
presumption of having superior
rights over anyone else who files
a patent application for that
type of invention later on so
You won't see this file the
provisional application.
One of the things with the
provisional application.
It is a placeholder per say.
It does not actually get
examined by an examiner.
However,
it gives the inventor one year to make
a determination of what should they do.
Should they continue on and they can
also get that earlier filing date.
As I said,
filing dates are very important if
you want to be that first inventor to.
While you can file a provisional
patent application after one
year of the from the filing date
of provisional application,
it automatically expires.
So as the inventor you could have
one year to think about should
you continue on in this process.
You could do a little more.
Investigation is it already out there.
Maybe it is, but you don't know.
But if it's not, what do you do then?
The next thing you would do within
that one year period in order to claim
the benefit of that earlier filing
date on the provisional application,
you would file what is called a non
provisional patent application which is
also known as a utility application.
So you are claiming in that application
a new unobvious invention.
It could be an article that can
be a method of doing something.
It could be a chemical composition,
but in our situation it is that new
product that new hovercraft motorcycle
and so that is something that actually
that will get examined by an examiner.
So there you put in a very thorough
and detailed explanation of what
your invention is.
There's things at the end we
can discuss later as well.
That's called the claim.
So what are you claiming?
As your invention now motorcycles are
out there so you can't necessarily claim
those features that are already out there.
But of this motorcycle,
what makes yours new over what is out there?
And so that's where you would use that
informing your claims of what you are
claiming is your particular invention
over the prior art and the prior art
is basically anything else that is out there.
Other patents,
other patent applications.
Other inventions that just may be
out there that someone could search
for on an Internet search provider,
and so that's the thing you want to do.
You don't have to file a provisional
application like I discussed earlier.
If you know that your invention
is new is un obvious,
you don't need that extra one year
time frame to consider anything you
can file a utility application or also
known as a non provisional application.
First,
you don't have to file
The provisional application but the
provisional is there in case you need
some little extra time to help you
develop what you're what you're working on,
or to look and see.
Some people use it to see if it's
really a marketable product,
and if you want to go forward in this.
There are also two other types of
patent applications that aren't as
commonly known that one is called
a design application,
and that protects the aesthetic
appearance of a product.
So in our example that.
Motorcycle the hovering motorcycle.
Maybe it has some unique lines or
a unique shape that gives it that
capability and you want to protect
that look that shape of your motorcycle.
So a design application would be
something that you could also file so
you could file a utility application
and design application because
both protects something different.
The utility protects the use of
of the invention.
And the design protects the
look of your invention.
You know, I know, there's a lot of design
applications in maybe like in soft drinks.
If you recognize a particular shape of
a bottle that associate that with a
particular soft drink, you may want to.
You know, people have used that they
can be used in all different ways,
so those are two types that
you may want to consider.
There's one I'll mention,
it doesn't really go with our hypothetical,
but another type of patent
application is a plant
Patent application so she fears
many growers out there that
they've come up with new plants.
So they did the reproduction
they've made in their greenhouse,
and it's different.
It's a hybrid or something compared
it's a new type of flower.
It's a new type of vegetable.
It's a new type of plant that grows
better as long as they can reproduce it.
Then you could obtain a plant
patent application.
So if anybody is gardeners or growers,
if that's your
Your field that would be
something to consider as well,
so those are the four main types of patent
applications that would want to be.
You want to consider as you're
thinking about branding and forming
a small business for your invention.
I think later on in the program,
we're going to talk about what
do you actually do
To obtain a patent application,
to obtain a Trademark application,
trademark application which ultimately
hopefully resolves in an issued
patent and a registered trademark.
Thank you Jennifer, Ben.
What thoughts do you have?
The top advice for business owners
and resources that you you can share
light on for our hovering Motorcraft.
I want to ask Jason to take a look
at our trademark Heidi's hovercraft,
and perhaps you can give some
advice on how we choose trademarks,
because what I found in this is
when you're dealing with someone
that started a new business
they're really good at what they do.
We're talking about entrepreneurs.
They're good at at, you know,
finding ways to fix problems.
They're good at business.
They have all of these things that have
their mind focused on what they're doing.
And I sat on these panels before where it
wasn't focused on intellectual property.
In these people jump so quickly from step to
step because they're always thinking ahead.
It's like, OK,
I want to do this.
And then where am I going to distribute and
How can I expand my market to here?
And their brain works so quickly.
They're there, they're ready
to get out and sell,
and so part of the reason for all of these
resources to get to get people to slow
down and realize you've got some assets here.
And it's not just whether or not
they have a trademark patent.
Is that they need to recognize
that they have one,
but not only did they need
to file for a trademark,
or you know putting a patent
application for their invention,
they need to realize that they
have something that's protectable.
So many times I hear things like,
yeah,
I invented this something other and
I need to get a Copyright on it.
So knowing what kind of intellectual property
a new business owner has is very important.
So one of the ways that we kind
of address the new business owner,
the entrepreneur,
and an even consumers.
Is through our stock bakes roadshows.
And stoptakes.gov is our website so
please please visit it any of the.
Resources that I talk about.
Will you have a links at the end
of this presentation
So don't worry about remembering
where everything is.
So we have these these roadshows
where we gathered together all
of the agencies that the U.S.
government has that has a primary
interest in protecting and
promoting intellectual property.
And we do this by putting on one
day seminars where we go around
the country to different cities
and we will talk about
Patents and we bring the PTO in
to talk about patents we talked
about trademarks and we've been
lucky enough to have Jason come
in and talk about trademarks.
We had the Copyright Office there.
So we have someone to tell you about
how to identify your copyrights
and how to register those.
We have people from Customs
and Border protection.
You know most people don't know that
they can actually have their stuff
protected from having counterfeits
being imported into the United States.
So we have customers there
to talk about the recordation
process. We have the FBI there.
You say What is the FBI gonna
talk about trade secrets?
You know trade seekers are very important.
Some businesses it's their whole business.
You know they're not.
They may decide that you're not
going to file for a patent because
they can keep their their valuable
invention or process secret,
and so no one will find out about it.
So the FBI talks about,
you know the threat of having
your trade secrets stolen,
and what steps you need
to take to protect them.
We have the Department of State
that talks about our embassies
and how we strive to protect U.S.
business interests overseas. And
Back to the Department of Commerce.
You know we have commercial officers
in most embassies around the world.
And we also have people in the
United States in what's called
US export assistance centers.
And that is who we partner
with when we do our roadshows.
So the the Commerce folks the commercial
officers have tons of information about.
Just good practice with how you find
distributors. You know they can.
They can check in export markets for
you and tell you what the best ones are.
The we have things called.
Top market reports.
So lot of assets there.
You know the road show is our main
entrance to talk to SMB.
Small and medium sized businesses.
Just to let them know what they
have and then how they protect it.
So the road shows are are fun.
We get to meet people one on one,
talk to them face to face and some
of the assets that we provided.
These is businesses that go to these.
And actually after Roadshow talk to
Copyright Office representative and
apply for Copyright registration
right there at the road show and
we've had a few of those and we've
had people work with the Customs
and Border Protection people
to apply to record their marks.
With Customs right there at the road film,
we've had a few of those that
have been successfully recorded.
So there's there's a lot of stuff out there,
a lot of resources,
and it's because this stuff is important.
Small businesses are what's driving
economic growth and job creation, and,
you know, we're here to support it so,
We have a number of assets on stopfakes.gov.
Which include. We have something called.
The IP snapshots.
So if you've made your business and
now you're ready to start exporting,
we have a document that will let
you look and see what is it about
this country that's relevant for
intellectual property protection,
so they'll be a list of IP treaties
at their members of it will show
contact information for the
IP offices in that country.
I will list something called whether
or not the country was listed on
what's called the Special 301 report,
which is a report that the United
States Trade Representative puts
out every year talking about
whether or not different
countries are protecting
intellectual property.
So lots of good information.
I think I'll save the enforcement
nightmares I get for later
in the conversation, but
there there there's lots to do
and lots of information out there,
so finding it is often the difficult
part and we're trying to make that easier.
Thank you Ben.
So we've introduced our hypothetical
business owner to your programs and what
kind of small business owner expect
Once they decide to participate
in your program or file for
intellectual property protection.
We can start with with Jason again.
Yeah, sure. So by the way,
I'll just say for those of you you
know Ben was talking bout Stop Fakes.
If you have an opportunity to
go to one of the road shows,
I would highly recommend it.
They're really just a great way to meet
with representatives from all across
the federal government and to learn
because we're all doing presentations.
And so you're learning the basics.
And so I highly recommend it so.
So let's say you are,
you know you got Heidi's hovercycle an
you and you been doing your research
and you know that there aren't
Any potentially conflicting marks out there?
'cause you've done your clearance
search and you've done some
more work in terms of research?
Maybe you've attended our
Trademark Basics Bootcamp,
which is an 8 week series that
teaches you pretty much as much as
we possibly can about the entire
process that I'm going to talk
about in just a couple of seconds
you have attended the boot camp,
so you've learned lots of things
you've looked at our resources
online and you realize, yes,
this is the trademark that I that I'm
using for my for my product here.
And I want to get protection for
it nationwide.
So what do I do?
How do I go about doing that?
OK, so let's say it is Heidi's Hovercycle,
and Heidi has now been selling
it for a little bit of time,
and she's getting a little bit of buzz,
and she's like, OK,
Now I absolutely need to make
sure I get protection.
So so, So what do I do,
right?
So what you would do if you were Heidi is
you would go to our website uspto.gov.
And in that little find it fast
box that I was talking about on
the on the landing page you would
you would do the little drill
down to get to teas, TEAS,
which is the trademark electronic
application system and you would
file trademark application and you
have a couple of options once called
teas plus others called Teas standard.
We always recommend that folks use
tease plus because it is cheaper
and there is a reason that it's
slightly less expensive and that
is because the four requires you to
front load all sorts of information.
Into your application,
it's stuff you're going to be
putting in there anyway, right?
So it kind of makes sense to
just put it in there first,
because and what that does is
it creates efficiency because it
efficient for you because you won't
have to put the stuff in later,
and it's sufficient for our office,
because that means that the
examining attorney who was assigned
your application has all the
information right there at the ready.
All the materials are right there,
and she can go through and take a
look at all of them and say, yes,
you can register your trademark.
Maybe not yet, though.
There's some things we have to
fix. OK, so, So what you do is you would
submit an application and then it would
go through the examination process and
folks will often ask what's the deal with
an examination process why isn't that I
automatically have a trademark registration.
Well that's because here in the United
States, trademark rights are based on use
and become through the examination system.
We have to make sure that nobody else out
there is also using a same or similar
mark for related goods and services.
And that your trademark complies with all
sorts of other rules and regulations and
things that are defined by statute. Alright,
so there is that examination process.
So once you've applied,
it's your trademark is going to be
examined and there might be some
back and forth between you and the
examining attorney about whether or
not the application can go forward.
And let's say that that it can.
OK, it can go forward.
You've done everything correctly,
and so the examining attorney will do
what's called an approval for publication.
And that means that your trademark.
Application is published in
our Official Gazette,
which is a a weekly publication that has
a listing of all of the trademarks that
have been approved for publication and it's
a way to put the public on notice that,
hey,
this is my TM.
I'm Heidi's hover cycles and and this
is my trademark and I'm I'm claiming
this trademark with for use with
my motorcycles that hover off the
ground so it goes through a 30 day
opposition period and provide it.
Everything is fine then nobody.
Who has reason to opposes your trademark.
Your trademark then would move on
to registration.
Now there are lots of other
sort of exceptions.
Another little filing basis
that you could be using,
but that's the basic sort of model.
OK, you would apply for for registration.
It goes through an examination process,
goes to the publication for opposition
process, and then if everything is a OK,
you get your registration certificate.
And as I said, it's not immediate.
OK,
that takes some time and the
quickest that I have ever seen.
An application go from beginning
to registration is probably
somewhere in the seven month range.
Somewhere around there seven or eight
months is probably the quickest,
just based upon you know that's
how things work.
Sometimes trademarks don't
register at all alright,
because it could be that.
Let's say you have a soft drink and
you have tried to register Coca Cola
spelled with cues instead of seeds.
Do you think that's going to go forward?
No, it's not,
because it's going to be a
cause confusion with Coca Cola,
right?
So your trademark registration
is going to be refused,
so at that point you're not
going to get it at all.
So the fastest could be seven months.
The longest could be years.
I mean when I was examining there was a case,
I remember that it came out of suspension,
had been suspended for quite some time
and I think it had been around for
about 10 years so that it can take
a long time for something to work
through the process. And as I said,
there is no guarantee that it will.
But probably somewhere in the
12 to 18 month range.
That's probably about right,
probably about average for how long it takes.
A typical trademark application to register.
And there are lots of little
of little tweaky things that I
could talk about in the process,
but that's the sort of main thing,
so that's something that you
want to think about, right?
As you're starting your business,
you're growing your business.
How long is it going to take to
have my trademark protected?
Nationwide,
how long is it going to take before
I can start to use the little
R in the circle symbol?
Well, it could take quite some time,
but the interesting thing that you might
want to think about is that there is no,
no, no, whatsoever,
no law that says you have to
register your trademark with us.
OK,
you could if you wanted to rely on
what are known as common law rights,
and you can.
Those are rights that are created
under state law and you could if
you wanted to never ever ever apply
for federal trademark registration.
You could do that.
However,
you miss out on a lot of benefits that
come along with federal registration,
and I can talk about that a little bit later.
But remember, it is your choice.
OK?
And because The thing is and the
reason I bring that up is that even
though it might be taking 12 to 18
months for your registration to go through,
that doesn't mean that you're vulnerable
necessarily during that time period,
because you could still rely on those rights.
And you could always point out,
hey.
I see that you are trying to use Heidi's
hovercycle for a brand for your hover cycles.
Don't do that.
I have an application filed with
the United States Patent and
Trademark Office is office is
going through the process right?
So you can also let people know and
try and get them to stop using a
conflicting mark based upon the fact
that you have an application in front of us.
So sometimes people like to do it.
Do I have to get the registration
first before I even go to market?
No, you won't necessarily.
Now you know there are a
little trade offs there,
but you don't necessarily have to
have that registration that R in the
circle before you actually go to market.
It is really your choice and it's
based upon the business decisions
that you want to make and the things
that are most important to you.
So,
so that's a little sort of overview
of the process is obviously when
more complex than that,
because it's a legal proceeding,
and so there are lots of in's and outs,
but that's sort of basics.
Of the process anyway,
so once you've said yes,
I've got my business up and going
and I want to protect my trademark.
That's the sort of process that
you would go through file on that
application through our website and
then working with the examining attorney
to hopefully get to registration.
Thank you Jason.
I know you go over this in more
detail in our next segment,
but can you quickly let our hypothetical
file or business owner know if
they should be worried when you,
when they're denied at their
first try with their application?
Great, great question.
No, you shouldn't necessarily be
worried because it's pretty much common
that most most applications are going
to get what is known as an office action,
and that's essentially what happens
when the examining attorney.
Looks at your application.
It says ah OK for the most part it's OK,
but there are a couple of issues that
we need to workout and there are various
flavors of office action that you might get.
One is the big sort of like letter that
says your mark is refused because it
is Coca Cola spelled with Qs instead of Cs,
right?
So that's the bad version,
but you know what?
But the other versions are a nicer.
There's for example,
you might get a phone call or an email
from the examining attorney that says,
hey, you know what everything is
looking great with your application.
There's just like this one
issue that we need to clear up,
and then you can have a conversation
with examining attorney and
examining attorneys is great.
I will send you what is known
as an examiner's amendment,
which memorializes the conversation
makes a change in the record.
You don't have to do anything
at that particular time,
because the examining attorney
is taking care of everything,
and so and then the examining
attorney can approve your application.
It will move forward from there.
So yeah,
there you probably will be communicating
with the examining attorney.
I think if I'm remembering the
sort of stats correctly,
I would say I think it's around
20 to 30% of the time.
Somebody who files TEAS plus gets
the initial application approved
without any back and forth with
the examining attorney.
OK, so that's like 70 to 80% of the time.
You're probably going to get
an office action,
OK,
so using teas plus helps.
Your odds of maybe not getting the
office action because you have to do
everything kind of correctly the first time,
but don't be concerned if
you get that office action.
You can make sure that you
read the office action,
understand it as best you can.
Follow the suggestions the examining
attorney puts in that office action.
But if you still have questions,
you are welcome to contact the examining
attorney in your case and say,
hey you know what I understand these things,
but I'm a little lost on this.
Can you help me understand?
This in the examining
attorney here at the office.
Everybody there their they're awesome.
We just have such great
examining attorneys here.
With you to help you to make
sure that you understand what's
happening in your application.
So don't be concerned if you get that
office action because it doesn't mean
you're dead in the water and you
still have another bite at the apple.
Thank you.
That is, all those are all great advice,
and that's really good to know.
We can continue along with talking
about intellectual property
since we're on the USPTO,
we can have Jennifer Hartswick
discuss just the process.
You know,
I know from the pipe inside
application is classified during pre
exam and it gets to the examiner.
What else can our person expect?
Yes, thank you Heidi.
One thing before we get into that,
I did want to mention Ben had mentioned
another type of intellectual property,
right?
Trade secret and so I just wanted
to give a little bit of background
between the difference between
trade secrets and patents because
they are two different types of
intellectual property rights.
One either end of the spectrum.
So a trade secret is basically
what the name says. It is a secret.
It is your invention.
You're keeping it secret.
Keeping it close to the vest.
You are not disclosing it to the
public that works for certain inventions.
It may not work so well with our
fibre craft motorcycle invention
because if you make that motorcycle
a good mechanic could probably
take apart that motorcycle.
Find all the components, find all the pieces,
see how they fit together,
and see how it's made.
An replicate it.
And so then the secret is out.
Once the secrets out.
It can't go back in.
It can't be comma secret again,
you know a trade secret may
work well for other inventions.
Say maybe you have a new type of
cleaning composition and what in
components in what quantities in
that kind of cleaning composition
may not be easily obtained from a
review or maybe even a chemical analysis.
Maybe you can't.
Really, someone can't figure it out.
That might be something that
you may want to consider.
As a trade secret, you keep it close to you.
You don't tell anyone what's in it,
how to use it, how to make it,
and it stays a secret for as
long as it stays a secret.
So you know once someone else learns
about it and it gets out then it,
then it's out and it's no longer secret.
However,
the opposite of a trade secret
is actually a patent.
If someone obtains a patent that
gives the owner a 20 year monopoly.
To prevent others from making,
using or selling your claimed product.
So for example,
in our motorcycle example that
maybe the Avenue you want it,
you want to do because someone
could look at it,
take it apart and they could
easily figure out what
it is. However, in order to obtain that
20 year monopoly and have a patent,
the inventor must disclose every
aspect of their invention.
They must disclose all the components,
how the components
Connect together or relate how
everything works so it's it's a balance
that you get that 20 year Monopoly.
However, you must disclose to the public
how others can make users making use it,
but you have those rights for 20 years.
After 20 years the invention is then
called what's dedicated to the public.
So so that's kind of a little
background on the difference
between patent and trade secret.
So Jason talked about.
Getting a trademark registration.
Filing the application there is the
same process on the patent side.
You have to file a patent application
that there's various components
to it of and disclosing every
key feature of your invention,
how it goes together and then at the
very end we've mentioned claims before.
What exactly is what is the
invention that you are claiming?
What is special about your
invention and what is new?
An unobvious compared to other
motorcycles that are out there.
Jason talked about the examination
process on the patents
side can take a little longer.
There is a backlog.
I'm not sure exactly what
the current backlog is,
but sometimes the examination
process could take,
you know,
over a year or even sometimes several years
depending on what the what the art is.
So one of the first things that happens.
Is Jason mentioned in office actions,
The patent examiners will also
issue an office action.
I think he said probably about 20%
receive an office action on trademarks.
Majority of applications received
a first office action in patents
when I was in private practice.
I only ever had one application
that did not receive an office
section and the first action was
a notice of allowance saying yes,
there's clean patentable subject matter.
And I tell you my office like,
scrutinize that application more closely
than any other applications to make sure.
Did we get broad enough
protection for our client?
But so you know,
don't worry if you receive an
office action that is again a
communication from the examiner and
what they do is they do a search,
they'll do a search and compare
that to your claimed invention
and determine they'll say,
well,
your invention isn't new it isn't
an obvious because of
These patents that are already out
there now then what you have the
opportunity to do is come back and do
a communication back to the examiner and say,
well wait a minute no no no.
My invention is different and
new and it is not disclosed.
Any of these references?
Because and then you list the
because and it can be a back and
forth conversation through written
communication with the examiner
and to determine if there is
patentable subject matter and so
that is on the patent side, as Jason
said on the trademark side
and on the patents I you can
file these applications yourself.
You are authorized to represent
yourself before the office in these
Patent and Trademark applications.
Both patents and trademarks have
assistance centers that can help you.
So if you so choose to represent yourself
now, they cannot provide legal advice,
but they can help you navigate the
system a little bit the process.
But if it comes to,
what should I do or what are my legal rights,
they won't be able to go that step.
If you decide you need legal
advice or you just don't want to
file the applications yourself,
you want legal counsel. There's.
Several ways you can do that.
One, there are practitioners in
private practice who specialize
in trademark prosecution.
Also, there are.
Attorneys who are registered.
You always want to make sure you use
a registered patent practitioner
for a patent application.
These are people who are authorized
to represent others now,
what happens if you are a individual
or small business and maybe you don't
yet have the resources to pay for the
service of a trademark attorney or
a patent attorney or patent agent?
The office overseas and administers
two programs I.
Mentioned it in my introduction,
one is called the Law School Clinic
certification program and the other
is the patent pro bono program.
Both of these programs provide
intellectual property services to
qualified individuals as part of the
USPTO's pro Bono Initiative to help
those who may not have the resource
resources to obtain patent services,
who really?
Who really could use these services so
both services provide their legal fees?
For free to qualified individuals,
the individuals or applicants would
just have to pay the USPTO filing
fees and any other fees that are
associated with the application,
but their legal services are free.
The difference between these two
programs is on the law school side.
We have 60 participating law schools.
The law schools provide patent services,
trademark services, or both,
so you could receive from either.
In this case, each of the law school clinics.
As a authorized person,
who is the supervisor who is a
qualified individual to either
is licensed to practice trademark law
or is a registered patent practitioner
who is authorized to provide patent
services to others before the office.
So all the schools have a qualified
individual on the trade on the logical side,
again,
as it is,
it's a law school program so students
enroll in the clinic each semester.
And they work with supervisor to
help provide those services to
the public and to the client.
So it's also a learning experience
for the students.
As I said,
there are 60 law schools that
provide these services,
and some of them have restrictions
based on their geographic service area.
Other serve clients all throughout
the United States,
so that's a little overview of
the law school program,
the patent pro Bono program
is another pro bono program.
It only provides patent services,
so there are 21 regional programs that
provide coverage throughout the entire
United States and what the regional
programs do is they seek volunteer patent
practitioners to donate their time and
provide these services to the qualified
applicants through the patent system.
And so there is a series of steps
that an individual would need to go
through to see do they qualify for the.
patent Pro Bono program and if they do,
they're paired up with a registered
patent practitioner who will work with
them to draft a patent application,
file it and go through the prosecution
phase that we that we discussed.
So that's a little overview
about both of those programs.
Thank you so much, Jennifer. Ben,
can you let us know what they should
expect when they contact
stopfakes.gov or even just your general,
just other aspects of your program?
What should they expect at once they
participate in file for for help.
Alright, so we have our business and they've
followed all of the advice they learn today.
They have their trademark.
They have their patent and guess what?
It was a genius idea hovering
motorcycle and we are making money.
So now if I'm at the road show I'm
probably going to ask the participants.
OK, what do we do now? We've got it.
It makes it's going to make a lot of money.
Where are we going to sell?
And it's OK.
Well, it's we want to try to get it
on Amazon and I said, are we going to?
Other countries do we want to sell?
OK, well we want to sell in Canada and
Mexico and you know they'll have their list.
Ann here is a real world example
of what I get.
First of all,
what's going to happen when we're successful?
So everybody that just looked at their
screen and said we're gonna get ripped
off you are you're 100% correct.
Yes,
if you're gonna if you're if you
have something that makes money
eventually somebody's going to copy it.
So the question is how are you?
How do you try to protect it?
And a lot of people that we deal with
the small businesses, especially.
They've got their US patent.
They've got their US trademark.
But guess what?
That only protects you in the US.
That's probably the most important
thing I could tell anybody today.
Is that even if you went through all
this work and you got your US patent,
you got your US trademark.
It's only going to protect you in the US.
So if you want to go sell in foreign
markets then you have to get protection
in those markets and we have a an
email address stop fakes at trade Gov.
You'll see it at the end where
people can email in their their
IP issues and you know 80% of the
emails that I get every day
are consumers report in different
sites they see selling counterfeits.
But every once in awhile you know,
probably once a week I'll get
a a an issue from a business.
And.
Usually I'll pick up the phone
and I'll call them and this.
This is an example real world example of
what I would usually hear and you'll be.
Look I I started going into a contract
with a company in Australia and I
was going to supply them my widget.
And I we went back and forth
on price and all of a sudden I
didn't hear from them again.
And then I find out that
there selling my widget.
In Australia, so he picks up the phone.
He calls the guy.
He says,
well,
you know you still want me to be your
supplier and he's like no I can
get it for cheaper in China.
So in his mind he's like
my widget is being stolen.
But it's not his widget in Australian
and it's not his widget in China.
So it's important that you look at.
Not only where you want to export,
but we always tell people always look at
the kind of the main offenders. You know.
Where is it likely to be ripped off.
And of course China is one of those,
and it's not picking on China.
86% of the counterfeits that are ceased
at our borders come from Hong Kong or
China is pretty much the same every year,
so you can actually get protection
in those countries.
One of the things we have on our website,
we have these toolkits
for different industries.
And the information on those toolkits is.
Ways that you can get intellectual
intellectual property in other
countries using these efficiency tools,
which are some treaties?
The nice thing about these
treaties is a lot of them.
You can go through the USPTO,
so we have the patent Cooperation
Treaty for trying to get patents in
other countries that can be done
through the USPTO with your US patent.
Same with trademarks.
We have something called the Madrid
Protocol where if you have a US trademark
you can apply for other countries.
Have information on all this stuff.
USPTO has it on their website,
so there are tools that people can use.
The main thing is it's gonna happen.
The bottom line,
most of the time these are.
These are private, right?
So businesses are responsible for
protecting their own intellectual property.
So I'll I'll leave it at that.
Thank you Ben.
So we have a.
Our person has the knows a lot
about their trademarks.
They know that they should
file internationally.
They have their their idea of
what they may do patent wise,
but Jennifer are there still you know
trying to form that small businesses.
They just they have to get it in
in Commerce in order to use the
trademark and to get the value out
of you know the patent filing.
What would they?
Once they participate with the SBA,
what's the process you?
It grants tech transfer.
What does that look like for them?
Yeah,
thanks and you know this is going
to be completely different because.
You know when you're filing for
trademarks and patents,
you know both Jennifer and Jason
mentioned the fees and as a small
business owner that's one of
probably an inventor is just one
of your main concerns.
Where am I going to get the money?
How am I going to pay for these things?
How?
How do I find the money to run the
business and pay for the protection?
And so I'm going to focus in on the
that $4 billion seed fund I mentioned?
At the start,
which is the SBIR small Business
Innovation research,
small business technology transfer programs?
That money is for doing
research and development.
So these are both grants and contracts and
one of the things that's really complex.
I think about the the program is that it's
really 11 different federal departments.
Any agent, any federal agency
you think of that fund science.
So Department of Defense,
National Science Foundation, NASA.
Department of Health and Human Services.
Yeah, you know.
And I age, the US Department of Agriculture,
they all support small businesses
in furthering their R&D.
I want to and there are a few really key
pieces related to intellectual property here.
One is that when you apply for a
grant or contract through the SBIR
program that is not considered.
I'm blanking on the word,
maybe Jennifer you talking to her,
but it's it's not disclosure so it
won't harm your ability when you
apply for a grant or a contract.
So if you don't have your patent
protection yet, that's OK.
The other pieces that there is,
well,
all of the funding that goes to support
that research and development project.
Is for the R&D.
There is a special provision that
came in recently actually called
technical and business assistance,
which is up to $6500 in the
first phase of these programs.
I guess like well, let me give one step back,
which is the SBIR and STTR programs
are its trust in phased funding,
so there's an initial phase,
one proof of concept type of funding,
so this can help you.
You've got an idea,
bring it to a prototype stage,
or you have a prototype.
Let's test it out a little bit,
and so that's what that Phase
One funding is for.
It's typically somewhere
between $50,000 and $250,000.
And then there's a second phase.
Once you've gone past that phase.
One proof of concept to do
further research and development,
and so phase two is is $750,000 up to
somewhere you know almost $2,000,000.
So $1.7 million and and then really,
that's to get you to derisk that
technology development so that you can.
You can do the work that will also
help you develop the patents.
And you can also do more to
protect your intellectual property
during this time period.
To possibly sell or license it later on
as a possible exit for your business.
But one of the things that I started
to talk about was beyond that,
you know, $250,000 in Phase one.
You can have up to $6500.
That can help support you either paying,
you know some of the licensing or not,
like licensing fees is a possibility,
but patent fees or for a consultant
to help you with this and it's
actually up to $50,000 in phase two.
So there's funding available.
There's also in kind services
that a lot of the agencies.
Offered to help support your
ability to do this and then one
of the really key things about
getting funding through the SBIR
STR programs is that it comes with
something called SBIR data rights
protections, which means that those
agencies cannot reveal anything
about your data that you developed
through these grants and contracts,
and so that allows you if you want to
use trade secret as your mechanism for
protecting your intellectual property.
These data rights protections
allow for that to also happen,
and that will be maintained.
So I know that there's a.
There's a lot about SBIR that I
could go into much more in depth,
but there are mechanisms and we'd
like to collaborate with USPTO
on all of the valuable inventor
resources available there.
But this is where you can
find some money so sbir.gov.
And you can find many resources
there as well to find you.
I mentioned the SBA resource
partner network on sbir.gov.
We also have a specific area focused
on finding local assistance dedicated
to those entrepreneurs who are
focused in research and development.
Thank you everyone. This has been
a very informative panel we have.
I guess we can try to take one minute.
Maybe if you can,
you know say in one sentence.
The best advice you can give our
business owner as we wrap up.
Sure, I'll start off.
So I would say the best advice is to educate
yourself and with regard to trademarks.
One of the best ways to educate yourself
is to go to uspto.gov and take a look
at all the resources we have there.
Please sign up for our
Trademark Basics bootcamp.
You'll see my big greasy forehead like
every single Tuesday for eight weeks and
you learn everything about trademarks.
We also have a downloadable trademark
basics booklet which is really,
really helpful.
We have lots of trademark videos that
are available and we've recently
learned YouTube allows you to auto
translate that into other languages so.
Even though everything we have up is
pretty much English language based,
you can use YouTube's auto
Translate feature if you were.
If you don't speak English
as as your first language,
another great resource as we
wrap up is to is to remember.
And Jennifer mentioned this,
the Trademark Assistance Center
and this our customer Service,
division of trademarks and
they love to help you.
They want nothing more than to help
you and you can give them a call
you can shoot him an email and of
course cannot give legal advice.
No one at the USB token give legal advice.
But they can give you general information,
so that would be my advice.
Educate yourself as much as possible about
trademarks and the registration process,
and that's going to help you
so much when you file your
application in your applications,
going to sail right through.
Hi I will echo what Jason said.
Definitely educate yourself
on the patent side.
There is something that Jennifer also
alluded to that's called disclosure
on the patent side there is something
if you disclose your invention to
the public that starts the Clock
running for the time that you have
to file in a patent application.
And if you do not file a patent application
within that time from disclosure,
your invention is then dedicated
to the public, so be careful.
If you're out it.
No, it cocktail events or anything
like that in what you're disclosing
until you either educate yourself or
talk to a licensed practitioner that
can tell you what to do because the
last thing you want to do is take an
action that would actually preclude you
from patenting your wonderful invention.
You know, again,
more resources.
I talked about the law school
clinic certification program
and the patent pro Bono program.
Both of those websites are going to be
provided to you at the close of this.
However, if you forget the websites,
you can go onto the main Patent Office
Web page which is uspto.gov and in that
search box that Jason talked about,
type either law
school
clinic or type in patent pro bono
program and it'll take you to the
links and provide you with all the
information for those two programs.
Thank you.
Jennifer Shieh, yeah well so the key piece
of advice is remember you are not alone.
There is a ton of help to help
you navigate all of these.
You know very complex programs
and resources and they are free.
So that's also reminder that there
are number of these resources that
are free so sba.gov for any of the
business assistance more broadly and
to look for money to fund Sbir.gov.
OK, yes the 1st for a lot of companies.
The most important thing is going to
be your your intellectual property.
So absolutely protect it.
You know we operate under a what
we call the no wrong door policy.
So if you have any questions,
any issues you know,
email whoever you know and you
know we work closely together,
we will make sure that we get
you to the right person so
You have a question on stop fakes and
you only remembered Jason and his email.
He can, you know,
get you to me and I can help you with
whatever it is you need the takeaway.
Get your intellectual property and just
remember US Patent US trademark only
protects you in the US so you've got.
I can look at protecting
yourself before you export.
Um?
And then stopthis.gov please.
We have lots of information there and
my email is on the follow up slide
so feel free to ask me any questions.
Thank you everyone.
This concludes our discussion.
I want to thank our panelists today.
You all provided wonderful information.
Other discussion was robust and I hope
everyone takes on that good lasting
advice and gain something from this event.
An want to thank Sean Wilkerson and
Nathanya Ferguson and the rest of
the Office of Outreach and Innovation.
That outreach. Thank you so much
for putting this program together.
That's it. Thank you, Heidi And
Thank you, Ben, Jason,
Jennifer and Jennifer for today's discussion.
All of this is great information
and if you have any questions
and you need to reach out to us,
you can reach us by email.
At www.uspto.gov.
You can send us your questions.
We will get those over to the
panelists and assist you with finding
the right information for you.
If you missed any of today's program,
we will be posting this program
online in the next few weeks.
But if you're ready to watch
the program again because you
wanted information right away,
you can log onto our Facebook page
for USPTO where the program video
is available and ready for you to
view directly after the program.
At this time I'd like to introduce
you to Nathanya Ferguson.
She's the Office of Innovation
Outreach manager here at USPTO,
and she'll be closing out today's program.
Nathanya, I'll turn it over to you.
I'm sorry I was muted.
Good afternoon everyone and thank
you Sean for the introduction and
I want to also thank our moderate
are an panelists for providing
that informative discussion about
government resources that are
available to support inventors,
entrepreneurs and small business
owners for today's wrap up,
we want to make sure you have
information to follow up on
resources that were discussed today.
First slide please.
So we recognize that is not cheap
to have an attorney prepare,
file and prosecute your patent application.
So we are always happy to share
information about two free legal
services provided by either a
patent partitioner or law student.
First, the patent pro Bono program,
which you heard Jennifer speak up
earlier during the discussion,
is designed to help inventors in small
businesses with limited resources.
That need help
Applying for a patent to protect
an invention,
you can visit the patent pro Bono
webpage at uspto.gov pro bono patents.
All one word, once you get to the web page,
you can learn about the criteria
to participate in this program and
you can also access videos that
will explain how the program works.
There is a video in English and
there's also a video in Spanish.
2nd, we have the law School
clinic certification program.
As Jennifer mentioned,
there's it's a nationwide program.
There 60 law schools participating.
This is another option for
pro bono assistance.
As mentioned,
students practice under the guidance
and supervision of approved faculty
that is experienced with filing and
prosecuting patents before the USPTO.
Please visit uspto.gov/law school clinic.
All one word.
To get more information next
side next slide please.
As we've heard,
the patent process is complex.
There's various laws, regulations,
policies and procedures,
and therefore we always recommend
using a registered patent patent
attorney or agent to assist you
with preparing your application.
However,
there is not a requirement for
you have an attorney if you decide
to file an application on your
own without an attorney,
you will be considered a pro, say applicant.
And the good news is we have a pro,
say assistant program here to help you.
The program will not provide legal
advice that the dedicated Pro se
assistant team will provide you
with information so that you can be
successful in filing your patent application.
Please check out the Pro se
assistant webpage at uspto.gov Pro se
patents.
Again,
all one word to learn more about
this great program,
you can access educational
materials and even set up a one
on one appointment to answer your
specific questions.
About filing a patent application.
Next slide please.
So we also have free resources to
help you with protecting your brand.
The basic facts about trademarks
booklet contains a wealth of
information about trademarks.
Such as things you should
consider when selecting a mark.
Tips on searching on trademark searching,
and links to free resources to assist
you with your trademark search.
There is also these great USPTO
videos for trademarks and those
are found at uspto.gov/TMvideos.
You'll have an opportunity
to see more Jason in here.
His great voice if you check
out some of those videos,
there very educational and they'll
give you information about the
various stages of the trademark
process before you file during
an after filing your application.
Next slide, please.
So are great friends over and SBA an
these wonderful resources that they
have there are available to you.
We heard how SBA works with a
number of local partners to counsel,
mentor and train small business.
The first link you see here will take you
to a page where you can search for local
organizations that are available to you.
If you are interested in
American seed fund America,
See Fund SBA small business.
And innovation research is small
business technology transfer also
refer to as SBIR STTR programs.
The second link here will take you
to a page to search for organizations
that will provide training and
support for those programs.
For more information about the
unique and important data protection
accorded to SBIR STTR firms,
please check out the link in
the third bullet.
If you are interested in receiving
emails from SBA tailored to
your role in their research and
development innovation ecosystem,
please use the link in the last bullet.
On this slide,
to sign up for the monthly Americans
Seed Fund update after signing up,
SBA will see information about opportunities,
programs,
events or other items of interest to you.
Next slide, please.
The stopfakes.gov Rd shows
so they are amazing.
I'm hoping that you all will have an
opportunity to attend the all virtual
for the mean time and they deliver
critically important information about
intellectual property to inventors,
entrepreneurs and small businesses.
For more information.
They also have a marketing link here.
You just go to stopfakes.gov/roadshows.
I know that then also made
reference to the IPR two kits.
Which are also accessible
via the stopfakes.gov.
Website and those two kits provide
resources to help US businesses protect
and enforce intellectual primary rights.
Specific industries and countries.
Last but not least,
please visit the USPTO.
I mean I'm sorry,
stop fakes that Gov Main page
at stopfakes.gov/welcome to
access educational resources.
We heard from the panels is
important to educate yourself.
You can learn about counterfeits.
You can access the business guide for
intellectual property rights and even
check out some upcoming events and training.
Ben is also very happy to answer
any of your questions and he can be
reached at his email Benjamin Dot
Hardman at USPOUSPTO is all my mind.
You know,
I'm just a dedicated USPTO.
Employees say excuse me Ben Benjamin
Hardman at trade.gov next slide,
please.
I want to thank all of our virtual attendees
for spending your time with us today,
and I hope you will be joining us
for our next to WES programs.
Registration is now open for next week's
program on Wednesday, March 24th.
We are so excited about having subject
matter experts share valuable
information about securing funding
for your invention or small business.
On March 31st, we will conclude the Wes
series by hearing from successful women
entrepreneurs, for links to more
information about how to register for
upcoming WES programs, please visit
our events.page at uspto.gov/events.
While you are on our events page,
I encourage you to check out the many
other free virtual intellectual property,
educational and awareness programs that
are available.
You will be receiving a short survey
for today's program. Please complete it.
We value your feedback.
Your input is very important to us
as we create future future programs
to meet your needs.
Thanks again for attending today's program.
We look forward to you joining us next week.
Goodbye.