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Intellectual property law for engineers and scientists
Rockman H., Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Pr, 2004. Type: Book (9780471449980)
Date Reviewed: Oct 5 2004

This book addresses material pertaining to the protection afforded by the law to the ideas, creations, and inventions of engineers, scientists, and others covered by the umbrella term “technology professionals.” The author states that, with technological advancement moving forward today at what appears to be an exponential rate, the need to transform intangible, but novel ideas into tangible, protectable assets has increased. Where in the past the word “patent” or “copyright” only rarely appeared in the daily newspapers, today the popular press repeatedly relates news items about the effects of intellectual property protection.

A major purpose of this text is to teach an inventor or creator to efficiently interface with an intellectual property attorney, for example, to provide information insuring the maximum protection for his or her invention or creation. The book will also aid readers in ensuring that inventions or creations do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. The author notes that “the last thing needed is a lawsuit when the introduction of a new product or process occurs.” The table of contents and index have been crafted to allow the reader to go directly to information regarding specific projects.

The text includes a discussion of patent, copyright, trade secret, mask work, trademark, and “cybersquatting” legal and procedural principles, as well as how to properly use new vehicles of intellectual property protection, for novel software, biotech, and business method inventions. The text also covers trademark protection for domain names, and other ancillary matters within the genre of intellectual property protection. The purpose is to provide knowledge of a very arcane adjunct to the technology professions: how to protect your technology.

Between the chapters are essays on famous and noteworthy inventors and their inventions, followed by copies of the first pages of patents resulting from these inventors’ efforts. The author also provides a “Top Ten List of Intellectual Property Protection” points. While the points are discussed in the text, an annotation of them includes:

(1) Do not publicly discuss your patentable invention with anyone outside your development team until a patent application covering your invention has been filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, or your respective home patent office.
(2) Even if you obtain a patent on your invention, products incorporating your invention may still infringe on the patent rights of someone else. Therefore, have an infringement search conducted before bringing a new, patentable product to market.
(3) Be sure you advise a patent attorney of all prior art relating to your invention that you are aware of, before the patent application covering your invention is filed, and during the pendency of your application.
(4) When beginning new employment, carefully read and fully understand the agreements you sign, particularly the language regarding ownership of inventions made prior to your employment, and those inventions made during your employment. Also, make sure you understand any language that may affect your ability to work for a competitor, if and when your new employment terminates.
(5) If you are adopting a name, trademark, logo, and so on for use in your business, have a search conducted to ensure that someone else in the same line of business is not already using a similar name or symbol.
(6) When asking a vendor or supplier to provide input to a development project, have the vendor first sign an agreement that any contribution they make toward the development of protectable intellectual property will belong to you or your company, not to the vendor.
(7) If you intend to maintain certain formulations as trade secrets, fully inform yourself of the steps you legally have to take to prove later that you have in place a strict policy, and safeguards for maintaining the secrecy of all confidential information.
(8) Keep adequate document records of all development work.
(9) The copyright law prevents copying. You may set forth a previously written about concept or development in your own words, but do not copy the same expression of that concept used by someone else.
(10) Consider initially that any new development you produce may be patentable, or may be covered by one or more of the other intellectual property vehicles. Intellectual property laws change to protect new forms of innovation.

The content of this text does not provide everything there is to know about intellectual property protection. It does, however, take the reader to the point where the next step will be to consult with a competent intellectual property law professional, to provide the detailed information necessary to protect the results of an intellectual endeavor.

Reviewer:  J. R. Ray Review #: CR130226 (0505-0563)
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Intellectual Property Rights (K.4.1 ... )
 
 
Regulation (K.4.1 ... )
 
 
Regulation (K.5.2 ... )
 
 
Governmental Issues (K.5.2 )
 
 
Professional Ethics (K.7.4 )
 
 
Public Policy Issues (K.4.1 )
 
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