Intellectual Property theft occurs when someone misappropriates or uses without permission the intellectual property of another individual or company, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, for a commercial purpose.
It is very common for competitors to attempt to misappropriate and use to their benefit the hard work that you have put into growing your brand. If you have a widely recognized logo, product, name, service, device, recipe, or a number of other things that can easily be identified as yours, then your competition is likely to want to infringe on that success by creating something very similar that customers may confuse as your product. This can damage your reputation if the product is inferior, and it can decrease your sales. No matter the cause, the reason, or the effect, however, you should be protected. At ICS, our copyright and intellectual property investigators offer free consultations to determine if you have a case. We will identify the source of the theft, and we will gather the necessary evidence to stop the unpermitted use of your intellectual property.
Intellectual Property and Copyright Infringement Investigation Information:
- Unregistered Trade Secrets, Confidential Proposals and Work Papers, Technical Notes
- A trade secret is any business or technical information, including formulas, patterns, programs, devices, compilations of information, methods, recipes, or techniques that have commercial value because the information is not publicly known
- An infringer may be liable for civil damages on top of an injunction, including reasonable royalties, damages, and attorneys’ fees.
- Copyrighted Materials and Registered Works
- Registering your copyright grants the author exclusive rights over their literary works, graphs, pictures, sculptures, architectural works, computer programs, sound recordings, dramatic works, videos, films, and other creative works
- Must be in some tangible form of expression such as a writing, recording, or picture
- The “idea” expressed in a copyrighted work is not protected, but the presentation of that idea may be
- Copyrights may protect against reproduction, distribution, public display, public performance, and derivative works based on the original
- If you are hired to create something by another person, the finished product is a “Work for Hire” product and the ownership rights belong to the person who hired you
- Duration of Protection
- Copyrights protection lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years
- Work for Hire and Anonymous copyrights last 95 years from first publication, or 120 years from creation, whichever comes first
- An infringer may be liable for civil damages on top of an injunction, including reasonable royalties, damages, and attorneys’ fees.
- Patented Items
- A patent prevents others from making, using, selling, or offering to sell an invention within the US for a certain period of time (generally 20 years)
- No patent exists until the US Patent Office officially issues it (different from copyrights and trademarks, which exist automatically—but with limited protection—upon creation of the work)
- An infringer may be liable for civil damages on top of an injunction, including reasonable royalties, damages, and attorneys’ fees.
- Trademark Violations, Trade Names or Partials
- A trademark may be any word, group of words, logo, symbol, numbers, colors, sounds, scents, or shape of packaging that is used to identify and distinguish a producer’s goods or services
- A registered trademark may not be reproduced or counterfeited in connection with any sale, offer to sell, distribution, or advertising
- Anyone who infringes on a trademark may face a court injunction, be forced to turn over any profits from the infringement, pay damages, pay attorney fees, and treble damages
- Unregistered trademarks may be indicated with a “TM” for “trademark” or an “SM” for “service mark”
- Trademark owner may lose his right to damages if the trademark lacks notice of a registration (such as ®)
- Strategic Business Planning
- Gray Market Distributions, Illegal Distributions
- Counterfeiting, Unauthorized Product Diversions
- For more information on Patents, Copyrights, Trade Secrets, and Trademarks, please visit the following sites:
- Related ICS Services:
- Technical Surveillance Countermeasures
- Computer Forensic Services
- Social Networking Investigations
- Undercover Investigations
- Pre-Employment and Employee Screening Programs
- Physical Evidence and Forensics Services
- Witness Locate
- Polygraph or Lie Detection Services
- Public Records Research
- Process Service
- Comprehensive Information Resources
- Supplier and Vendor Screening
- Private Investigations (International)
- Private Investigations (United States)
- Personal Investigations
- Reputation Defense
ICS Experience and Expertise:
- Operating since 1967
- Far greater operational reach than any other investigative service in the world
- Built through experience and expertise with a mix of law enforcement and military backgrounds
- All services are performed and billed on an hourly basis.
- Investigators are available 24/7.
ICS Network:
- Global resources network for domestic and international work
- Constantly evolving technical capabilities to adapt to advances in electronics and technology
- Use of cutting edge technology and equipment
Implementation:
- Free Consultation for Needs Analysis
- Design an Action Plan
- Engagement and Fees
- Execute Action Plan
- Present Thorough Documentation of All Results/Findings
Are you in Need?
As a business owner, brand recognition is a crucial component of your success. If your customers cannot identify your product and differentiate it from the competition at a quick glance, you are likely to lose their business. Similarly, if your success is based on a particular formula, pattern, recipe, or some other unique creation that is not publicly known, then you must protect it. If you allow intellectual property theft to go on for too long, you may even lose your right to make a claim. Experts are available to ICS who can trace the source of the intellectual property theft and put a stop to its continued misappropriation. Call today for a free ICS consultation, and let us get started before you lose any more of your company’s goodwill to a competitor who does not respect the brand that you have built.