Lawyers attending the ABA Midyear Meeting program “You, Me and IP: Intellectual Property Issues for Startup Companies and Small Businesses” on Friday were exposed to a whirlwind of basic information on patents, trademarks, inventors’ rights, benefits and challenges of patent protection, licenses and assignments, and an abundance of as many related concepts as could be squeezed into a hour-long presentation.

Intellectual property law expert Leslie J. Lott of Coral Gables, Fla., discusses IP for startup companies and small businesses.

Intellectual property law experts Leslie J. Lott of Coral Gables, Fla., Seth D. Levy of Los Angeles, and Christopher J. McGeehan of Chicago, chair of the ABA Young Lawyers Division Intellectual Property and Internet Law Committee, began by defining a patent as granting its owner a “right to exclude” others from making, using, selling, offering to sell and importing an invention. Patents run for limited terms and are granted by the U.S. government in exchange for the inventor or inventors sharing of the details of their invention.

After briefly explaining how patent law defines an “inventor,” who owns an inventor’s intellectual property, and the requirements for patent protection, the discussion turned to trademark law. Presenters offered the standard definition of trademark as set forth in the Lanham Act, the basis of modern U.S. trademark law, but basically, it means any word, name, symbol, or object that is used in commerce to identify specific goods or services.

Trademarks include words, such as Ford and IBM; designs, such as the Apple computer symbol and the linked Olympic rings; sound, such as the distinctive NBC chimes; color, such as the pink that was developed for Owens Corning Fiberglass; three dimensional objects, such as the Rolls-Royce hood ornament; scents; slogans, such as Morton Salt’s “When it rains, it pours”; and animation, such as movie introductions like the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer roaring lion.

The speakers stressed the importance of a strong mark, noting that the “strength of a mark” is the first factor analyzed by the courts in cases of trademark infringement.

The program was sponsored by the ABA Young Lawyers Division.