Intellectual Property Law

Small Business IP Protection Web Site - USPTO

By J. Douglas Miller

The U.S. Government maintains a web site aimed at helping businesses protect intellectual property from overseas piracy and counterfeiting.  The Department of Commerce?s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) maintains the site ? StopFakes.gov/smallbusiness -- dedicated to small businesses and protecting their intellectual property both in the U.S. and abroad. A focus of the site is to answer common questions of small businesses, home business owners, inventors, and other entrepreneurs, so they can better identify and address their protection needs.

The web site provides information to help decide when, where and how to file for intellectual property protection and covers patents, trademarks and copyrights. The Web site is part of a much larger USPTO and federal government effort. The Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!) initiative ( http://www.stopfakes.gov) is aimed at combating criminal networks that traffic in fakes; stopping trade in pirated and counterfeit goods at America?s borders; and helping small businesses secure and enforce their rights in overseas markets. As part of the initiative, the USPTO maintains a toll-free telephone hotline, 1-866-999-HALT that helps businesses leverage the resources of the U.S. government to protect their intellectual property rights.

Resources

Stop Fakes Small Business General Information: http://www.uspto.gov/smallbusiness

Stop Fakes Small Business Patents: http://www.uspto.gov/smallbusiness/patents/

Stop Fakes Small Business Trademarks: http://www.uspto.gov/smallbusiness/trademarks/

Stop Fakes Small Business Copyrights: http://www.uspto.gov/smallbusiness/copyrights/

Full post as published by Small Business IP Protection and Management on January 30, 2009 (boomark / email).