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Curious about patents, copyrights or trademarks? From protecting your inventions and ideas to the public domain, avoiding lawsuits, and fair use rules, you can find everything about intellectual property here. Below you'll find users' top picks on patent, copyright, and trademark.
To obtain a patent, you must ensure that your invention qualifies for a patent and then be able to describe it in your application. By taking the proper steps -- none of which requires "legal" skills -- you can obtain a patent without the assistance of a lawyer.
Doing a trademark search is important because you need to determine whether another business is already using a trademark that's identical or similar to the business or product name you want to use. You don't want to select a business name, print up brochures, run ads, develop a website, and develop a reputation only to be forced to stop using the name.
To avoid losing valuable employees (and trade secrets) to competitors, employers are asking, or requiring, employees to sign noncompete agreements. Here's the lowdown on whether it's worth asking your employees to sign a noncompete agreement, and how to create an agreement that will pass muster with a judge.
Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. If you write or publish, you need at least a basic understanding of what is and is not fair use.
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