Intellectual Properties

When proposing a design, it is important to consider trademarks ( or service marks), copyrights (or licenses), and patents (or standards) of the design. Now, trademarks, copyrights, and patents are all essential to the protection of Intellectual Property, and they all have their own advantages and disadvantages. To start off, a trademark is advantageous since it is renewable every 5 years, has unlimited time limits (they can just be simply renewed), and provides legal protection. However, the disadvantage of a trademark is that it only belongs to its owners if it does not become used generically to identify the product type. Moreover, a copyright is advantageous since the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998 extended terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier. On the other hand, the disadvantages of a trademark are that the time limit, although lengthy, is nevertheless finite (after the copyright production has expired, the work enters the public domain) and that it only protects the specific form of expression and not the idea or concept itself. Now, the advantage of a patent is that utility patents now provide 20 years of protection, and during this time, others are excluded from making, selling, or using the invention. However, the disadvantage of a patent is that it is nonrenewable.

Furthermore, in relation to our proposed design, it is also important to consider trademarks, copyrights, and patents. To start with trademarks, there is no trademark(s) placed on the exact design we are proposing. There are a plethora of application softwares that propose a solution that is similar to ours in our design. However, the solution is not exactly the same. There are applications like LivingSocial, Groupon, and Shopular, all of which are trademarked. These applications provide users with local discounts and deals, so they have a similar goal to our proposed design, which is to help users save money and shop in a more cost-effective method. The difference between other applications and our proposed design is that our application not only shows discounts and deals, but also serves to find a place for users to purchase any item they desire at the cheapest possible price. Thus, while there are trademarks on applications softwares similar to our idea, there are no trademarks on any application softwares that exhibit the same idea as our proposed design. In addition, it is also vital to acknowledge that no relevant copyrights exist in relation to our proposed design. While there are other application softwares that serve a purpose similar to ours, they do not possess any copyrights. Lastly, while there are not many relevant patents that relate to our proposed design, Groupon has a myriad of patents, one of which was recently assigned to the company on January 31, 2023. The patents that Groupon owns are related to its e-commerce business and its overall application software. However, none of the patents are related to the exact idea exhibited in our proposed design.