Protecting Your Intellectual Property
Trademarks, Copyrights & Patents
Protecting intellectual property is essential for all companies – big or small. Companies most frequently file to protect their intellectual property through the use of trademarks, copyrights, and patents. Generally, anything integral to your brand may be trademarked including any word, name, symbol, or device used to identify and distinguish your company’s goods or services from its competitors. Trademarks are used to avoid brand confusion. A company that is granted a trademark registration has the exclusive right to use that intellectual property in its respective industry. Before you select your trademark, it is always a good idea to perform a search to determine whether there is anyone offering similar goods and services using a similar mark. The last thing any business person wants to do is to invest time, energy, and money into a mark that they have to stop using at a later time. It is a good idea to register your mark in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to let others know the mark you are using and so that you can stop anyone who later tries to use a similar mark anywhere in the U.S. Read more 
Resources:
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Trade Secrets
Laws also exist to protect a company’s trade secrets – commercially valuable proprietary information that gives a competitive advantage such as formulae, strategies, lists, processes, and design concepts. Things like Coke’s exact formula, Google’s algorithm, or KFC’s secret blend of 11 herbs and spices could be trade secrets. In the U.S., trade secrets are generally protected under various states’ laws.
Ohio has adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act in Ohio Revised Code section 1333 to establish fair and uniform standards and definitions of trade secrets and protection of trade secrets.
A trade secret under Ohio Law must derive economic value from not being generally known and efforts must be made to maintain its secrecy. The Supreme Court of Ohio has articulated a six-factor test to determine whether the information is a trade secret:
1. The extent to which the information in question is known outside of the business.
2. The extent to which the information is known to those inside the business.
3. The precautions taken by the owner of the trade secret to guard the secrecy of the information.
4. The savings affected and the value to the holder in having the information as against competitors.
5. The amount of effort or money expended in obtaining and developing the information.
6. The amount of time and expense it would take for others to acquire and duplicate the information.
To protect your business’s trade secrets, you will need to have non-disclosure agreements or confidentiality agreements with anyone who comes into contact with your information including those manufacturing your products, independent contractors, employees, and other business partners.
Resource: “Trade Secrets Protection in the U.S.” by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Taking Action for Violations
Diligently monitor your brand. You are the IP police! Keep in mind, it is your responsibility to watch for and take action against anyone violating your intellectual property rights. There are a variety of ways a business can enforce its intellectual property rights including sending takedown notices for violations online, sending cease and desist letters (also called demand letters) to the person using your IP, and filing a lawsuit. We can help! Our Wells Law attorneys work with small businesses to determine what intellectual property can and should be protected and counsel them on options for protecting their names, logos, slogans, and trade secrets. Contact us today to protect your intellectual property or if you find out someone else is violating your intellectual property rights. 
