Therefore, it is vital that a high degree of skill be exercised in drafting documents and in following the procedures necessary to obtain this protection. Such ownership would include the agreement stating that all work products and associated intellectual property rights are irrevocably and in perpetuity transferred to the customer. The developer-friendly software development agreement basically states that all rights, title and interest in the work product and intellectual property are the property of the developer. Intellectual property law can be considered analogous to tangible property law in the sense that both consist of a set of rights conferred on the owner of the property.
Patent law is all the rage almost everywhere, with a particularly strong market in California and DC, where many boutique firms are located. So you should be the first inventor to seek protection in the countries where you currently operate, or where you are sure to do so in the future. The customer version would also like to have the broad definitions discussed above for intellectual property rights and the work product. In trademark law, the lawyer will search for the trademarks proposed by the client and advise the client regarding availability.
When investigating whether to file a trademark, confusion can arise as to whether federal or state laws protect owners of intellectual property and trademarks. On the contrary, if you do business in any country in the European Union, you only need to seek protection from the EU, not in each individual nation. Sometimes federal law may offer a superior form of national protection, while state law may be more relevant to intellectual property disputes or to intellectual property protection at the state level. Most state bar associations will also have an intellectual property section and a list is also maintained on the AIPLA website.
As a cornerstone of intellectual property, patents can be a great asset to any growing company. Finally, intellectual property enforcement involves protecting the intellectual property owner from infringing uses. Trademark law protects a word, phrase, symbol, or design that an entity uses to identify its product or service. The bottom line is that all intellectual property rights remain in the hands of the developer, and this gives the developer an incredible advantage in the event that the customer breaches the software development agreement, for example, by not paying the developer.
