USPTO on Small Businesses

July 21, 2005 on 2:39 pm | In Uncategorized |

For years the USPTO has had resources targeted at independent inventors, but it wasn’t until recently that they decided to custom tailor resources for small businesses as well.  Kudos to the USPTO!

From http://www.uspto.gov/smallbusiness/pdfs/USPTOSmallBusinessCampaignFactsheet.pdf:

The USPTO Small Business Education Campaign:

A Campaign Against Piracy, Counterfeiting and IP Theft

Piracy, counterfeiting and the theft of intellectual property pose a serious threat to all U.S. businesses. Industry estimates of the cost of such theft range from $250 billion to 750,000 jobs per year. Small businesses often find themselves at a particular disadvantage because they often lack the resources and expertise available to larger corporations.

Small businesses also often lack the familiarity with the process of protecting their intellectual property: research conducted in Spring 2005 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) indicates that only 15 percent of small businesses that do business overseas are aware that their IP protection in the U.S. does not travel – that is, that a U.S. patent or trademark provides protection only in the United States.

To help address this problem, USPTO has launched a nationwide program to encourage small businesses to recognize and consider the benefits of strong IP protection—both domestically and abroad. Specifically, USPTO wants businesses to know:

1. • When to apply;
2. • What type of protection to apply for;
3. • Where to apply; and
4. • How to apply.

As part of the campaign, USPTO has developed a Web site – www.StopFakes.Gov/SmallBusiness – specifically designed to help small businesses better identify and address their IP protection needs. USPTO is also working with organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers to help spread the word about the benefits of filing for IP protection—both domestically and abroad. Free informational materials, which can be downloaded from the Web site, will help guide small businesses through the often-complicated world of intellectual property protection. Finally, USPTO is alerting small businesses to the resources being made available by placing announcements on Web sites they commonly turn to, such as entrepreneur.com and fast.com.

This program is part of a government-wide effort to curb IP crime and strengthen IP enforcement—both here at home and overseas. For example, USPTO and other agencies within the Department of Commerce have joined with other government departments, such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, in a government-wide Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!) initiative, which aims to smash the criminal networks that traffic in fakes, stop trade in pirated and counterfeit goods at America’s borders, block bogus goods around the world and help small businesses secure and enforce their rights in overseas markets.

For more information about the small business education campaign, please visit www.StopFakes.Gov/SmallBusiness. For more information about the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, please visit www.uspto.gov.

“StopFakes.Gov” is a silly domain name, but does prove one thing:  the USPTO does have the ability to create and manage domain names.  Now if they’d only set redirects at www.patent.gov and www.trademark.gov to the relevant pages of the USPTO site.  If the Copyright Office can own www.copyright.gov … why not?

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