Should You File for a Patent or Reserve your Domain Name First?

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Do you know what the difference between having a patent and a website is? Well, a patent gives you exclusive rights to intellectual property. While having a website gives you well a website. Patents trademarks and copyrights are all types of intellectual property that are typically protected by registering or filing for an application. Before you reserve a domain name, or anything else that publicly reveals your idea. Here are two things you need to know. First, ideas are not patentable if they have been publicly disclosed for more than 12 months. Second, trademark applications can and often are rejected. So it is advisable to get an experienced intellectual property attorney to review your proposed brand name before you reserve the domain name and begin investing in advertising or marketing efforts. As an inventor, you may be eager to bring your product to the marketplace and skip the necessary steps to safeguard your idea. I advise you not to do this because the US patent system moved to a first to file basis after centuries of being on a first to invent system under first to file whoever gets their patent application in earliest or first owns the idea. You don't want someone else owning your idea and building a business upon it without having to compensate you. Without a patent. Anyone can steal your idea and you won't be able to take legal action against them. A patent allows your product to build value in the marketplace and maintain its novelty once granted. Another thing you need to know about protecting your intellectual property is that trademark applications can have the potential to be rejected security your brand name legally before accumulating expenses for a domain or for marketing or advertising. You don't want to waste money on a domain name that has a trademark rejection. A domain name that is not trademarked can leave room for competitors to use your business name and trade off of the goodwill that you have built with your customers. Let's say that your website name is WWW dot ABC corp.com competitors can use ABC corporation.org, ABC corporations.com or ABC corporations.net. If you have a trademark for your business name, you can prevent competitors from making minor changes to emulate the likeness of your business name and confuse your customers before publicly displaying your product or branding. It is best to keep it a secret and confidential until you have filed for a trademark and filed a patent application. If you're searching for a patent attorney, call our office at 1877. Patent professor to schedule a discovery call. We can talk more in depth to determine how we can adequately protect your idea with a bulletproof patent and your brand with a trademark. Like and Subscribe if you find this video helpful.