June 2024
SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) offers innovators a wealth of useful information and advice: mentors (specialized or general, local or from across the country, in-person or remote), events (live or recorded; in-person or online), courses (live or recorded), and business document templates. Dave Zedonis (president, Indiana Inventors Association) shared one of SCORE’S webinars with us: IP Types and Infringement by patent attorney Michael Steel. Success of a business often depends on its tangible ideas: inventions, symbols that communicate the company to its customers, and creative expressions. Naturally, business owners want to protect this competitive edge. So they enlist the help of the government by getting patents, trademarks, and copyrights, which are enforced by court systems. Patents Patents are available for useful things (utility patents), for ornamentation (design patents [important for 3-D printing]), and for biological plants (plan...