Patent, Trademark and Copyright Philosophy

The Harshaw Research corporate philosophy identifies patents, trademarks, and copyrights as intangible assets. As such, the value placed upon these assets is highly dependant upon the economic return derived through the commercialization process by either licensing or venturing the new products created. It is, therefore, our intent to effectively identify, in the early stage of development, new products in which Harshaw Research will ultimately become an investor. Our analysis of the patentablility issue appropriately centers around addressing the question, "Should you get a patent?" as opposed to the typical question, "Can you get a patent?" This approach to patentability is obviously a marketing determination and is based on Harshaw's unique experience in new product market development.

The dominant view of intellectual property rights is economic incentive. Intellectual property is solely a creation of society. Legal protection, in the form of a limited monopoly, is granted to creative individuals as an economic incentive to create. In exchange for disclosing their inventions to the public, inventors are granted a limited monopoly in the form of patents, copyrights, and trademarks. The economic philosophy behind the clause empowering Congress to grant patents, copyrights, and trademarks is the conviction that encouraging individual effort by personal gain is the best way to advance public welfare through the talents of authors and inventors in science and the useful arts. Patents, copyrights, and trademarks encourage innovation by rewarding the creator with the right, limited to a term of years, to exclude others from certain uses of the writing or the invention.

Patents

The United States Constitution provides that Congress has the power to protect the discoveries of inventors. Accordingly, George Washington enacted the first patent statute on April 10, 1790, which provided patent protection for "any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine, device, or any improvement thereon not before known or used." Although the patent statutes have been modified many times since then, the present patent system is entirely governed by federal law.

A patent is a personal property right created by federal law describing an invention which did not exist prior to conception by the inventor. A patent gives the inventor the right to exclude others in the United States from making, using, importing, selling or offering to sell the claimed invention. A patent may be granted for inventions which are new, useful, and non-obvious.

Copyrights

Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection based on Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Copyright protection is founded on two seemingly conflicting policies. Copyrights seek to protect an author's creativity and expression by granting certain exclusionary rights while at the same time seeking to encourage authors to allow public access to their works. As in patent law, copyrights seek to balance these competing interests by providing certain exclusive rights to authors for a limited period of time. Copyright protection exists in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

Trademarks

Fundamentally, a trademark provides an indication of the source or origin of goods or services and distinguishes the goods or services from those of others. The trademark laws serve two major purposes.

First, trademarks protect the public by reducing or eliminating confusion between goods or services. Trademarks, therefore, enable consumers to obtain the products they know and want. Secondly, trademarks protect the owner's investment of time, energy, and money by preventing misappropriation of that investment.