Today in class, we learned how to identify trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets.
1. Apparently, it is very cheap to hold a trademark and typically large corporations hold onto many throughout the world. While one company may purchase a trademark in the United States, it is not applicable in another country. A trademark is a logo, symbol, name or device used to identify a service.
2. Copyrights are a tool used to prevent someone from copying your product. Nowadays, these are extremely common as musicians, software companies and the movie industry use copyrights to make it illegal to use their product without permission and often with financial compensation for themselves. Even though there are websites that exist where you can download these files illegally, having these laws in place makes sure that at least the creators get some fair compensation and the violators are punished.
3. Trade secrets are any sort of information that is valuable and confidential. These include: customer lists, sales or profit date, product weaknesses, internal designs and processes and procedures. Most importantly, the trade secret is the crux that makes the company so successful because it is what gives its competitive advantage. For example, my dad's company, Mixografia, which creates 3-dimensional hand paper prints, uses machines and processes (that my dad invented and patented) in order to create what he does. His company is the only print-maker in the world that is able to create 3-dimensional prints and is what gives him the competitive advantage over other print makers in his field.
Respect to your dad! My dad also holds numerous trade secrets for his company, TiaLinx Inc. His company makes portable sensors that use radio frequency identification for wall- and ground-penetrating radars.
ReplyDeleteProps to both fathers! Incredibly swagged out.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to copyrights in music, I think we are seeing a drastic change in the industry where the artist no longer makes money by selling their copyrighted music, but rather uses songs as a marketing tool to attract high-paying fans to their concerts. At least this is my explanation to why concert prices are sky-rocketing and how musicians stay afloat. I think musicians are starting to embrace this- which ultimately ticks off record labels because they are the ones making most of the money from albums, etc.
I think thats one of the most important parts of copyrights, making sure the creator gets fairly compensated. Unfortunately there are a lot of ways around this and policies that dont accurately address this issue. Im not sure how your dads patents and competitive advantage relate to trade secrets. But I checked out Mixografia and it looks like a pretty cool business!
ReplyDeleteCory, the idea is that his patents are a trade secret and having this secret then gives him a competitive advantage over other print makers. Jon, unless an artist is able to sell a million albums, if they're smaller and unheard of, concerts are a great way to make money so I can see why you are making that argument.
ReplyDeleteI heard some news about 3 dimensional prints tech from the news. It sounds so cool. Do you know long the trade secret can be protected? Or it just depends on how long the inventor keeps the secret?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea about that information. Hopefully we get to learn about it in class!
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