Tips on taking control of your creative IP

In fact, many products are covered by multiple patents, including for follow-on innovations that improved the product. One example I like to use is Thomas Edison, whose original light bulb that he submitted to the USPTO in the 1800’s is sitting on my desk at our headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. When I go into classrooms and ask whether Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, the kids know! They say, “No – he just invented a better filament.”  

In addition to being able to protect your idea or design with a patent, you can also protect your product, service or company with a trademark. Some widely recognized trademarks are the Nike swoosh; images of the brand names of products including Barbie dolls, Clorox bleach, the unique stitching on the back pocket of Levi’s jeans; and the name and some popular lyrics of musician Taylor Swift. Catchy slogans you come up with for your product or service, such as “If you spray it when you say it no problem” that two 10-year-old girls on a military base in Rota, Spain came up for their spit-proof headset, can also be trademarked.  

5th graders on the military base in Rota, Spain presenting their “spit-proof headset” to Director Vidal during her visit to the base.

Play-Doh, for instance, has its scent protected. We recently posted this popular Instagram video asking members of the public if they could identify the unique smell of this scent mark – check out who immediately guessed it.

What about that poem you wrote? Or the picture you took at the school play (or one that turned out so well you may want to sell it online)? Copyrights are there to save the day and to protect you against someone else copying (or to compensate you if they do!).

How about that great BBQ sauce that won first prize the state fair and you want to start bottling it and selling it at farmers markets (and maybe later in national stores or online)? Or that drink recipe you concocted? Or perfume? In comes trade secrets. If you take the right steps to ensure nobody has access to your “secret sauce” you may be able to protect your creation just like Coca-Cola did with their famous recipe.

Indeed, intellectual property is all around us. Because anyone can be a creator.

But people sometimes ask me why they should go through the trouble of protecting their IP. Simple:

When you get a patent, trademark, create a work eligible for copyright protection – or protect your trade secret – it’s a valuable asset. You’re investing in yourself and your idea. Our research has found that companies in IP-intensive industries tend to employ more workers, whose average weekly earnings of $1,517 in 2019 were 60% higher than in other industries. Other research shows that protecting one’s IP is crucial to the success of their business. For example, according to a joint study by Harvard Business School and NYU’s Stern School of Business, when used as collateral, a company’s first patent increases venture capital funding by 76% over three years. It can also help serve as an important employee recruiting tool: The approval of a startup’s first patent application increases its employee growth by 36% over the next five years. Further, protecting your IP can also increase your market share – a new company with a patent increases its sales by a cumulative 80% more than companies that do not have a patent.

As for trademarks, not only are they important assets, if you end up deciding to launch a business or expand to other areas in the U.S., a federal trademark that you can only get from the USPTO will protect you. You can use your trademark to stop copycat products at the borders or have online resellers remove copycat offerings. You can also use your copyright to have copycat material taken down from the internet.

Confused about what type of intellectual property you might need?

The USPTO now has an easy-to-use new online tool that lets you figure out what type of IP you have and whether it’s protectable by a patent, copyright, trademark, and/or trade secret. We call it the IP Identifier. It’s a very popular tool among those visitors to our website who are new to IP, with more than 100,000 visits to the page since we launched it earlier this year.