Law

It is likely that you have been asked to get an apostille by an individual or organization from another country. They may have requested that you get an apostille attached to a particular document. The apostille is requested as a way of authenticating the document.

Consider the following point – If you were sent a document today from Spain, Germany or any other country for that matter, how would you know that it was a genuine document?

The apostille certificate is only attached to documents in Texas once they have been checked to be genuine from certain government bodies, specific organizations, certified by solicitors, or signed by a public official. If a document is not genuine, for example a degree certificate from a fictitious online university, then it will not be legalized with an apostille.

What does the Apostille Certificate look like?

Approximately 15cm square the apostille certificate is always black text on white paper. It is normally fixed to the back of the document to avoid obscuring the document.

It includes up to 10 pieces of information depending on what document the certificate is being attached to.

Note: Not all documents are signed or sealed. An example of this is a birth certificate. There is no signature or seal/stamp. The apostille is only issued on genuine registry certificates. Therefore sections 2, 3 and 4 will be left blank. This does not invalidate the certificate, it is standard practice under the Hague Convention.

If you have any questions about apostille in San Antonio, Texas you should consult with the professional apostille San Antonio Texas legal firm.

Intellectual Property is a valuable and much misunderstood area of law. Copyright, patents, trade marks, trade secrets and registered designs all fall into this category and though these are intangible, they form an important part of your branding and your business. An Intellectual Property lawyer will help your business from the very beginning, especially if he/she comes from a professional patenting agency, such as InventHelp. InventHelp patent attorney will advise you from day one to ensure your ideas, business name and intellectual property are protected. They can also help you when it comes to creating licensing agreements and exploring business relationships and franchising possibilities.

Without maximizing your IP potential, your business could be losing money.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is an automatic right that exists when work is written down or recorded in some way, such as original literary work (including computer code, marketing plans or a database), music or works of art, sound recordings, broadcasts or films, or even a typographical arrangement of a published edition. It lasts for a defined length of time, usually the life of the author plus 70 years. The creator of the work can control its reproduction – when and how it is used or performed, and by whom.

I came up with an idea and my company is claiming it as their own – is that allowed?

If you created the work as an employee as part of your duties, the company usually owns the IP rights. If it is unclear whether you produced the work during the course of your employments, contact an IP lawyer – factors taken into consideration include whether you made the work during office hours and on office equipment, and whether you were asked to make the work by your employer. It is always worth being clear in your employment or contract what counts as work during and outside your employment.

If you were commissioned to make the work then unless you have expressly agreed otherwise with the commissioner, or the work was created for a specific commercial purpose, the copyright remains with the original creator.

What is a Trademark?

A trademark is a symbol that identifies goods and services in the marketplace, such as a logo or a brand name. It can be anything from a word to a color, smell or sound, as long as it can be represented graphically. Words and pictures (logos) are the most usual type of trademarks, but other things can be trademarked if they can be graphically represented – for example if a sound is written as music, or a smell as a chemical formula.

Having a registered trademark will protect your brand and create brand awareness as you will be able to stop others from using either an identical or similar mark on identical or similar goods. Once registered, you can treat it as any other property and can mortgage it, sell it on or license it to someone else for royalties.

How do I register a trademark?

In the US, you must register your mark with the US Intellectual Property Office. They will not let you register the mark if someone else has already applied to register a similar trademark on similar goods or services. An Intellectual Property lawyer will conduct a search of the existing trademarks and file your application for you. If the Intellectual Property Office objects to your trademark, a good Intellectual Property lawyer will help you to find a way around the objections.

What is the difference between the “TM” sign and the “R” sign?

These signify unregistered and registered marks, respectively. The TM signifies an unregistered trademark, but . It is notification to the public that you claim your mark as a mark of origin for your business. R (said as ‘R in a circle’) is a notice that the mark has been registered and therefore benefits from the law relating to registered trademarks.

What is a Patent?

A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, such as a product or a process that gives a new way of doing something, or introduces a new technical solution to a problem. This means that nobody else can make, use or sell the invention without the permission of the inventor.

Can I patent my invention?

There are a few conditions that an invention must fulfil before a patent can be applied. It must be:

• New – this means that it can’t have been released anywhere else in the world prior to the patent application date,
• Inventive – it must show a characteristic that is unknown in its technical field when examined by an expert in the subject.
• Practical – it must be able to be used in some kind of industry (this includes agriculture)

There are certain areas where patents do not apply; these include scientific theories or mathematical methods; aesthetic creation such as a dramatic, literary or artistic work; a computer program; a new species of animal or plant; a method for medical treatment; a method of diagnosis; discovery of a natural process or substance; commercial methods or schemes or methods for performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business. It would be best to get help from patent invention InventHelp agency with these.

What protection will a patent give me?

You will have a monopoly right over the product or process patented for 20 years. During this time, nobody else will be able to make, sell or use the product or process.

Alternately, prior to investing in the filing of a patent application, it is sometimes wise, though also not mandatory, to conduct or have conducted a patentability search. This type of search looks at patents and public information from anywhere and any past time to see whether the invention is truly novel and to gauge the likelihood that a patent on it can indeed be obtained.

Since the results of a patentability search are again proportional to the time/money spent, one must weigh the cost of such a search against the cost of filing the application without, and then relying on the search conducted by the Patent Office as part of the application’s examination. And regardless of the amount spent on a patentability search, the results are almost always going to be less reliable than a right-to-use search. That is where a patent agency like InventHelp comes in. You can read more about InventHelp on UrbanMatter.

Many inventors forego a patentability search altogether or limit it by cost to an affordable breadth with the understanding that the reliability of the results obtained are similarly limited.

The patent application is prepared with claims that are written as broadly as the known prior art would allow. But once the patent application has been filed with the requisite Filing Fee, it is assigned to a patent examiner who conducts his own patentability search and determines the allowability of those claims against his results.

It is rare to obtain an allowance on the application’s broadest claims absent some argument with the examiner. In the U.S., an invention’s patentability depends on its usefulness, novelty, and non-obviousness. Usefulness is rarely challenged by the modern examiner and novelty can be judged by a direct comparison to the examiner’s search results. But a rejection based on an examiner’s assertion that the claim is merely obvious in view of the prior art or through some combination of the prior art can be more difficult to overcome and require strong arguments. Getting support from InventHelp would be advisable.

The examiner issues his opinions and findings in an Office Action. Except in the case of “dead ringer” prior art, amendments which narrow the scope of the claims can usually be made to distinguish over the prior art and gain allowance. There may be several Office Actions and Amendments required before the application is allowed and a patent is granted, if one is granted at all.

There are many valuable possessions that people have that need to be protected, this includes both physical items and things that are known as intellectual properties. Intellectual properties are things such as ideas for business concepts or inventions. It is very important to have these things protected especially if you are looking to make money off of your invention or idea. In order to protect these things, and to keep other people from using them as their own you will need what is known as a patent.

In order to get a patent you must first submit an application to the federal government. If you are granted a patent, then the government will publish a description of the invention in a patent disclosure so that no one else can use your invention or creation When a new patent is granted then individuals will receive the proper protection that they need on their thoughts or inventions. A patent will legally protect the invention or idea for 20 years. You can read more about patenting process from this blog – https://kulturehub.com/inventhelp-step-by-step-guide-inventor/.

Getting a patent is a very complex process, so it is important to know how to go through it. Every day people find that they are denied patents simply because they did not properly go through the application process. This is why it is so important to understand the process of applying for a patent. The first thing that you will want to do when you decide to apply for a patent is to hire a patent attorney. Patent attorneys, they are a very specific type of attorney that works solely with the patent process. A patent lawyer is a legal professional just like any other lawyer but they are in charge of overseeing the patent process for a client.

You will need to find a local patent attorney, not just a general attorney and set up a consultation so they can get an idea of what your invention is and tell you if you have a patentable idea on your hands. They will also do what is known as a patent search and inform you if there is an existing patent published that is identical to your idea. They will then help you with the application process. By hiring professionals you are getting a lot of help for your new invention idea.

The attorney will first help you fill out and file your application with the government. They will then help you draft a detailed description of your item including any drawings that may help describe your idea to the government. They will help fill out additional paperwork and then send the information into to the national patent office. They will continue to stay with your case in case anything is overturned or if you need to complete any additional paperwork. You will need to work closely with the patent attorney and help them get any additional information that they may need to help get your idea the patent you want it to have.

Patents are formal legal documents and should be drafted by a registered patent attorney. Many Inventors feel they can prepare a patent application themselves because they have an understanding of how the invention works. Of course they have an understanding. . . they developed the idea! Unfortunately, this often turns into a nightmare. Remember, a U.S. Patent is a legal document.

If the patent application is not prepared correctly, the Inventor may end up spending more money to fix the patent application than the Patent Attorney or a Patent agency, such as InventHelp, would have charged to draft it in the first place. Alternatively the patent attorney may have to draft an entirely new patent application which results in wasted time and money for the Inventor.

Patent attorneys prepare a variety of Patents and Patent Applications. The following is a brief description of each:

A Utility Patent is what most think of when they imagine a patent. Utility Patents protect new and useful products and processes. A Utility Patent can be very broad and is usually preferred if the invention performs a useful function or a useful process. Examples of Utility Patents are pharmaceuticals, methods to treat medical conditions, devices for performing particular operations and the like. A Utility Patent typically has a term of about 20 years from filing and has a number of formal requirements.

A Design Patent protects the ornamental features of a device. In other words, a Design Patent protects the look of the invention. Design Patents are typically much narrower in scope than Utility Patents. Design Patents have a term of 14 years.

A Provisional Patent Application does not issue as a U.S. Patent. However a Provisional Patent Application provides the Inventor a priority date and a 1 year grace period to file a Utility Patent Application and/or a PCT International Patent Application. Although Provisional Patent Applications do not require many of the formalities as a Utility Patent Application (and can therefore be less expensive) a Provisional Patent Application should comply with the written description requirement including best mode. A Provisional Patent Application does not effect the term of a resulting issued U.S. Patent. as discussed in this article on https://celebmix.com/follow-in-the-footsteps-of-inventors-like-george-foreman-with-inventhelp/.

A PCT Patent Application is also commonly referred to as an International Patent Application. A PCT Patent Application never issues as a Patent itself. The PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) provides a centralized method for filing a patent application throughout most of the industrialized country. Thus, the patent application eventually must enter the national stage of each desired country. Currently there are about 181 Member States (countries) that belong to the PCT.

A U.S. National Stage Patent Application may be filed from a PCT Application designating the U.S. in the Request. A National Stage application issues as a U.S. Patent.