Re: An IP gripe

On Fri, 13 Aug 1999, Bob Cumbow <rcumbow[_at_]grahamdunn.com> wrote:
>
> I identify six kinds of intellectual property: patents, trademarks,
> copyrights, domain names, trade secrets, and rights of publicity. I
> think each of these six things is legitimately considered a separate
> form of i.p., because the applicable law, the standards for protection,
> and the relevant licensing policies vary greatly from one to the next.
> I continue to regard trade dress as a subset of trademark, [snip]

Shortly you may need to add "collections of information" to your list.

My experience has been that the general public and many attorneys have no idea what intellectual property is or the differences among patent, trandemark and copyright, let alone the others. I believe that practice of treating patent as the only intellectual property stems from lawyers who practice only patent and can, at least in St. Louis, charge a lot more for it than for copyright and trademark work. The "intellectual property" firms in St. Louis maintain paralegals who do the vast majority of copyright and trademark registration, with a lawyer or two to handle cancellations or oppositions. Trademark and copyright are relagated by many of these folks to secondary status.

Part of this may be attributable to St. Louis not being and entertainment or Internet center.

Bernard Gerdelman
Paule, Camazine & Blumenthal, P.C.
165 N. Meramec, 6th Floor
St. Louis, Missouri 63105
attorney[_at_]i1.net
(314)727-2266 Received on Sun Aug 15 1999 - 22:34:04 GMT