What Small Manufacturers Need to Know About Intellectual Property
Presenter: Lawrence P. Zale
Attorney at Zale Patent Law, Inc.
email: ip@zalelaw.com
Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other Intellectual Property (IP) are tools that, when used properly, provide a significant business advantage over competitors. IP can easily be the most significant growth factor for manufacturing companies. A patent is a legal monopoly for up to 20 years to stop competition from making, using, or selling your company’s novel products. Copyrights provide long-term coverage of your authored works and software. Trade Secrets can cover some innovations indefinitely. Trademarks protect your corporate identity. IP helps your business grow, significantly limits competition, allows your company to command higher selling prices, gain a more significant market share, and bring your company to a new level.
Topics To Be Covered:
IP Overview
• What are patents, TMs, Copyrights and Trade Secrets?
• Why do we care?
• How do we acquire rights?
• How long does it take?
• What does it cost?
• How long do they last?
• What are the benefits to my company?
IP Audit
• Acquire documents.
• Set up C-Level meetings.
• Conduct interviews.
• Create IP Report with some fixes.
Common IP Mistakes made by Small Manufacturers
• There is no system to retain patent rights.
• Ownership of IP defaults to employees.
• Ownership of IP defaults to Independent Contractors.
• Employee actions increase Copyright Infringement liability.
• Employee actions increase Patent Infringement liability.
• Improper use of TMs weakens corporate identity.
• Competitors are allowed to create similar ‘knock off’ products.
• There is little Competitive Intelligence performed.
For more information about this webinar, please contact:
Eric Basta, Business Development Manager at NH MEP cell: 603-724-0802 or email: ericb@nhmep.org
About the Presenter:
Atty. Lawrence P. Zale has been registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a patent attorney since 1990 and has been in-house counsel for GE, Tyco International, ALSTOM Power, and other corporations and law firms. Atty. Zale currently runs a small Intellectual Property (IP) law firm based out of the Innovation Center in Haverhill, MA, and out of Jermyn, PA. Atty. Zale has presented IP seminars to corporations, universities, economic development entities, and bar associations.
He was fortunate to be employed to create, manage, and enforce IP for technologies relating to MRI, dialysis, enteral feeding, cardiothoracic, phone Apps, computer networks, web hosting, data rooms, routers, switches, coal pulverizers, combustion chambers, steam generators, steam turbines, electric power generators, electrical distribution and control, laser-guided missile systems, STS Shuttle simulation, and the AEGIS Battleship simulations, for example.
He is the Chairman of the IP Section of the Pennsylvania Bar and has been a member of the Philadelphia Patent Law Association (PPLA), The Boston Patent Law Association (BPLA), the Connecticut Intellectual Property Law Association (CIPLA), the PA Bar Association, Lackawanna Bar Association (PA), the Boston Bar Association, and numerous innovation groups, such as EforAll and the Ben Franklin Technology Partners.
Contact Lawrence at Zale Patent Law, Inc.:
Tel: 570-878-5000 (text/voice)
ip@zalelaw.com | zalelaw.com