E-Business And Intellectual Property

E-Business And Intellectual Property

In recent years significant technological advancements have transformed how we conduct business and communicate. The explosion of business transactions on the internet is one example of the technological innovation changing both business and communication methods. The law is developing and changing to keep pace with the new avenues of communication, the new ways of transferring information, and ultimately the new ways of doing business. With technologically savvy competitors using fresh technology to render old companies obsolete, and old-fashioned competitors taking advantage of the same technology to hinder the new competition, protection of intellectual property is essential to effectively compete in almost every marketplace. The companies that protect their intellectual property have always – and will always have – an edge on the competition.

Intellectual property is the creative product of your business. The law provides a number of mechanisms that protect this valuable property. Two of the most important mechanisms are patents and trademarks. Patents protect discoveries and inventions that underlie the functions of your business. Trademarks protect the words and symbols that make your business known to the world. These two legal mechanisms, along with copyrights, which protect original works of authorship that you and your employees create, allow you to stake your claim to a piece of the intellectual property landscape and empower you to keep others from trespassing on your territory. Of course, these same legal protections allow others to stake their claims, which can be asserted against your business, should you inadvertently wander onto their property.

This article focuses on how patents and trademarks protect your e-business from competition and suggests how to prevent your business from encroaching on the intellectual property of others.

But first, what is an e-business? An e-business is any business that engages in transactions across an electronic network. Such transactions include electronic commerce where payments or fees are received in exchange for a product or service. For example, if you sell retail products, provide electronic banking services, offer travel reservations, or even advertise online you are an e-business. Not surprising, e-business is conducted by companies that exist almost exclusively on the Internet: retailers like Amazon.com, on-line financial brokers like Ameritrade and E-trade, internet service providers like AOL and MSN, and content providers like Yahoo!. E-businesses also include so-called “click and mortar” companies like Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean that supplement their retail or catalog sales with online sales. Even organisations where almost all commercial activity takes place off-line, for example, law firms, pharmaceutical companies, and mass-market sellers like Coca-Cola, are to some extent e-businesses because they provide information, advertise, or at least maintain an electronic presence on electronic networks.

Protection of intellectual property by e-businesses is critical because the exposure of that property to others who might misappropriate or misuse it is vast. After all, the web is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in every nation on earth.

Patents – a legal monopoly
Patents are monopolies, granted by governments, which allow an inventor to exclude others from using his particular discovery or invention for a specific period of time. In the United States, patents are granted by the Patent and Trademark Office following an examination process where a patent examiner determines that an invention is new, useful and not obvious in view of what has already been publicly disclosed. Patent rights are determined by one or more claims of the patent. It is the claims that stake out a specific piece of intellectual property. A patent has many of the attributes of real property – the claims define the boundaries of that property.

Unlike an illegal competitive monopoly that could bring authorities knocking on your door for violating antitrust laws, a patent legally empowers its owner to prevent others from practicing the patented invention and to demand compensation if a court finds the patent has been infringed.

E-Business And Intellectual Property