Trademark Lawyer 4

Before starting the process of incorporating your business, you need to decide whether incorporation is right for you and your business.

The main benefit of becoming incorporated is the limited liability status that incorporation affords the company s owners. Personal liability of the owners is restricted to their capital invested.
The primary disadvantages of incorporation are double taxation and the additional burden of statutory controls and record keeping. Double taxation relates to the taxation of the corporation s profits and the taxation of the dividends from the net profits. It may be possible to avoid the double taxation through filing to the IRS to become an S-Corporation (professional taxation advice should be sought on these matters).

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If brands are about relationships, why not build a strong brand marriage?

I m not suggesting you actually walk down the aisle with your customers. But maybe the time has come to look at brand relationships in a different way?

We all know that the best brands make strong emotional connections with their customers. Recent research suggests, however, that the best brands don t stop there. Instead, they leverage those emotional connections to such an extent that their customers feel married to the brand.

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Patent numbers are issued sequentially, beginning with the number one. Patent number one was issued to Samuel Hopkins on July 31,1790. It took 75 years for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to issue patent number 1,000,000. Patent number 7,000,000 was issued February 14, 2006. It took only seven years for the USPTO to move from issuance of patent number 6,000,000 to 7,000,000.

What does this mean? Simply, there is more creativity now that at any time in history. The old saw that there is nothing new is completely wrong. There has never been so many people and entities creating novel, unique products, technology and services, and so driven to commercialize these inventions. More patents

and entrepreneurs attempting to market their products is indicative that there is more competition for successful placement.

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Infringement and Provisional Damages

There is no action for infringement of your patent until it actually issues. However, through publication of your application, it may be possible to obtain provisional damages for the time between publication of the application and the issuance of the patent. Once your patent issues, infringement can give rise to treble damages and an award of attorney fees. During the phase from publication to issuance, only reasonable royalty damages can be awarded. Furthermore, a claim must survive and be substantially identical from publication to the issued patent.

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If you are located in the Pittsburgh area and have an idea for an invention, what do you do next? The most important step is selecting a competent, Pittsburgh patent attorney who can determine if it is patentable; obtain suitable patent protection for the invention; and, through direct entry or licensing, help you get the invention into business.

By using a local, Pittsburgh patent attorney, you ll be able to keep in touch easily with the steps of obtaining a patent.

The first stage in selecting a patent attorney is obtaining information about attorneys who will provide useful legal representation. By searching the internet you can get a list of Pittsburgh based patent lawyers, or if you have friends

who have worked with patent attorneys, this can be a good starting point. Local bar associations can frequently provide information, as can legal directories. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have a journal that lists patent attorneys and patent agents admitted to practice before the office. Yellow-page telephone directories also have listings of patent attorneys.

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