Kelly Burris: Intellectual Property

By Bud on January 4, 2009 Comments (24)

Angel investors and venture capitalists often cite intellectual property (IP) as one of an early stage company's most important assets. If a company does not have sufficient claim over the ideas on which it is basing its business, it has nothing.

Filed under: Ann Arbor, MI | Brinks Hofer Gilson and Lione | Early Stage Innovation | Intellectual Property | Kelly Burris

IP is a thorny and difficult to understand topic. In this segment, Kelly Burris, attorney at Brinks, Hofer, Gilson, and Lione provides us an overview of the four broad categories of intellectual property:

Patents — there are three types: utility, design, and plant. In a future segment, Kelly will describe the difference between these types of patents and the process involved in obtaining them.
Trademarks — These protect brand identification. Again, in a future episode, Kelly will further elaborate on the value of trademarks and the value of obtaining them.
Copyrights — These are perhaps the easiest type of IP to claim in that it only requires attaching a copyright notice.
Trade secrtes — As Kelly will explain further in a future segment, trade secrets are information that has value if kept secret. A key point is that reasonable efforts must be extended in maintaining the secrets.

This overview gives a good idea of the types of intellectual property one should consider protecting while bringing an innovative product or service to market. We look forward to future segments for some of the details and practical considerations involved.

24 Comments

Samantha Kies on March 25, 2009 2:24 PM

Kelly Burke brings up a very important topic in the business world that can be hard to understand and completely comprehend. If you have a unique product or service, or even a unique saying, to not get that copyrighted or a patent for it, you can lose your product, your business, even your livelihood. Businesses are always popping up, touting the new greatest thing, and if you don't have an exclusive license to sell the product that you're pushing, you have nothing. It is very similar to the gold rush in that sense - if you didn't stake the claim and have it registered, when someone else came in and started taking over, there was nothing that you could do about it because you hadn't gone through the correct channels and laid claim to your product from the beginning. This is essential in the business world today and while it is difficult to understand the full complexities of these, getting a trademark or a patent or a copyright is essential if you want to keep your business your own and bypass future trouble with someone else coming along and claiming what is yours. Where would Coca-Cola or Busch’s be today if their recipes for their products hadn’t been trade secrets and had simply leaked out? They wouldn’t be the corporations they are today and we’d have numerous companies with products following their recipes springing up every day and they would lose their individuality and uniqueness that makes them well-known and sought after. By following these guidelines, companies are ensuring that their product will remain their own and that they will be able to find a niche in the market that they can cultivate until something new comes along, which is inevitable in the advancing world today.

Natalie Starbuck on March 30, 2009 6:50 PM

This is a very important topic that Kelly Burris is discussing. There are so many people out there today that are trying to take other people’s ideas and claiming them as their own. So it’s very important that you make sure your property, products or services are secure. Theft of intellectual property costs U.S businesses $250 billion per year. That’s why patents, trademarks, and copyrights are important tools. Robert Kearns, the man who waged an obsessive crusade against the auto industry for stealing his invention of the windshield wiper had the hardest time proving that it was indeed his invention. Even though he did end up winning the dispute it cost him his marriage and he had a mental breakdown. But not everyone who gets their ideas and inventions stolen away from them wins in the long run. That’s why you need to take the steps in getting a patent, trademark, or a copyright depending on what your invention is. If you write a song for example, even something as simple as putting your lyrics in an envelope with the date on it, sealing it and then mailing it to yourself and never opening it, can protect your lyrics if someone were to try and steal it. Although this isn’t the best way to do it, at least it’s some type of proof that the song was your idea.

Jim Drabek on March 30, 2009 6:53 PM

Entrepreneurs involved in importing goods must protect their intellectual property. A common problem entrepreneurs have encountered with outsourcing is “knockoffs.” It is important for business’ to do their homework when selecting suppliers in a foreign country. Some foreign manufactures see nothing wrong with copying a product for a company and sell their own version. It is crucial to have a formal contract that prohibits the illegal use of patents or trademarks in the source country and the U.S. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office has issued over 7 million patents, and it receives more than 400,000 new applications each year. Of the four broad categories mentioned, Copyright issues have recently flooded the news. With the advancement of technology, and the creation of the internet, a lot of violations have come up. For example, Napster was sued by many recording artists and labels for sharing copyrighted music for free. People have the access to download movies before they are out on video or even in the theaters. Students can copy others information to use as their own when doing research papers. Business ethics and personal morality play a huge role in this situation but governments have procedures in place to protect this type of activity.

Shalita Roberson on March 30, 2009 7:46 PM

Kelly Burris offers a very detailed response to the question of intellectual property. Many people do not know of understand intellectual property and what falls under this category. It is very important and critical for any person who has an idea or product to protect it. She cleared up some questions on the subject and offered examples of what each item that falls under the intellectual property category. When a person has a product that is new and different or an idea and they have not got it protected, it is not safe for the next person to come and claim it as theirs. I believe that she did a good job of informing people of what and why this needs to be done and she touched on the first steps to take in getting it done. In doing a business plan for a class, I may worry about protecting my product since had to do something to do with a clothing line. I do believe that it is important to get advice from a lawyer like Kelly Burris because there are many procedures that must be done in protecting a person’s ideas and products and outside help from a skilled professional is always good.

Anthony Harbin on March 30, 2009 10:15 PM

Kelly Burris' job of protecting intellectual property is a very important one when it comes to new businesses and existing businesses. I think she gave clear explanations about the four categories of intellectual property. I believe that the most interesting of the four is the "trademark". I have followed the different lawsuits that Starbucks has had over their trademark since I am involved in the coffee industry. I also think the copyright protection is very important because people can steal so much today especially with the internet. I am surprised that she did mention cyberlaw.

Anthony Harbin on March 30, 2009 10:18 PM

Anne on March 31, 2009 9:28 AM

How to protect your intellectual property can be complicated. There is a reason that we have lawyers for this. However as a business person it is important that you make an effort to familiarize yourself with this topic and learn some of the basic differences. There are many websites where you can post things, whether an object or literary work, and they have built in protection, but like Facebook you have to make sure that they are trying to protect the author of the work, not themselves. When you are doing business it is good to know what you need to protect and what you dont need to. Your ideas made reality through your hard work should be protected, otherwise someone could steal them from you. Keep in mind that this doesnt just apply to your own business ventures, as I said, make sure that you read the terms of service when using a site that you will be putting information or loading media onto. You need to be aware if that site is going to claim everything you put on it as their own and retain the rights to it. It is important to familiarize yourself so you can be savvy about it, and know what you are getting into.

Jodie Randolph on March 31, 2009 10:26 AM

I found this segemnt very interesting. I know about patents and trademarks, but I think of that associated with inventions, such as an item that is new and different. What I don't often associate it with is books, articles, and other writings. Kelly Burris spoke about that and how pieces of original writing should be copyrighted. I am in the process of writing an extensive curriculum for ballet, jazz, tap, and modern dance unlike anything on the market today. I would like to offer the product for sale when I am finished, but I do not want others copying it and selling it as their own. I wonder if there are other steps to take so that this does not happen. I wonder if it is possible to prohibit someone from using your information as a source for their own writing.

Crystal Bartlett on March 31, 2009 11:37 AM

Kelly Burris touches issues in this clip that addresses some of the major concerns that I have. Somethings that you right may spark ideas for others to reword your work and pose it off as if their own. This leads me to believe that copyrights and patents are the only secure aspect of protecting your work. Something so minor as an idea for a product could be taken by an individual and completed into a finished product if someone does not protect thier idea. After attending my ethics class at Eastern Michigan University, I have discovered though that things such as blogs become automatically protected once you post them. I pondered on this for several months before hearing that in class because I love to write poetry and post blogs on Myspace or Facebook. I was thrilled to learn that but even more thrilled that Burris addressed the issue.

Robert Hoeft on March 31, 2009 7:41 PM

In the business world today, great ideas are abundant. However, protecting these ideas is what makes great business sense. Who wants to see profits disappear as a competiting business steals an unprotected idea? Not too many. That is why it makes great sense if your starting a business or already in business to meet with an attorney...doing so could save you or your business a lot of money.

AydenG on April 18, 2009 5:38 AM

Kelly Burris' job of shielding intellectual property is a very significant one when it comes to new businesses and existing businesses. We must be very careful in making decisions when it comes to business, so much more when now we are in recession. So far lot of people are out there looking for new job. There are many reasons to get a new job, like better pay or more interesting work. (You don't REALLY like writing copy and filling out TPS reports, admit it – nobody does. Thinking about it gives me narcolepsy.) Or it could be you are about to lose your job or quit your job, and don't want to get short-term loans to float you. Being an unplaced worker isn't a pleasant place to be in. It beats having to get online payday loans if you have a new job already lined up. Remember in this world there is nothing comes for free.

Julie on October 5, 2009 11:31 AM

Attorney, Kelly Burris, At Brinks, has a very important job since she overlooks businesses intellectual property. Business owners should be very familiar with patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets before attempting to create their own. It is very important for business owners to be familiar with not only what these terms mean, but also familiar with what similar businesses are using as their current patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets to ensure that they do not infringe on other businesses. The last thing a business owner needs is to be accused of stealing another businesses idea and being accused of copying. Once the business owner is sure of the fact that no other business has the same thing that he or she wants to make known, then it is very important for the business owner to make the company put into writing what it is patenting, trade marking, copyrighting and what it’s trade secrets are in order to insure that no other company will copy off of them. Being first in the business world is very important when establishing patents, trademarks, and so forth. Writing a well thought out business plan will also help a business owner to stay on track since they will be able to understand everything about the company and what it stands for. A great business plan will not only lead the company in the right direction, but it will also help the company decide what it is that the company would like to patent and put trademarks on, if any.

Jessica Van Pelt on November 23, 2009 5:06 PM

Hello, my name is Jessica and I am a senior at Eastern Michigan University. In many of my business classes we have learned a lot about the importance of protecting products and technology through copy rights, trade marks and patents. It is true that if you don’t have one of those protecting your company then you have nothing. In today’s day and age, it is equally important to protect the technology that helps create your product or service. Other companies that can get a hold of that kind of knowledge are going to be a nightmare for the company they took it from. I have been creating a business plan for an entrepreneur class that I am taking and trademarks are apart of my plan. This business plan hits close to home because it is an actual business that I started a few years ago. It is no longer going partly because I started school and didn’t have time to expand on it but if I did, a trademark would have been the first protection I would have put in place.

Nichole Washington on November 23, 2009 10:30 PM

Intellectual Property Company brings additional details to owning a business that should be considered during the business plan process. The entrepreneur should be aware of their business and if it requires any intellectual property, copyrights or patent application. I always try to think about these topics and how they relate to my current employment. When assisting with writing research protocols, UM ask if they’re any patents or proprietary information involved in the protocol so UM makes sure they’re not posting non – public information. Also, when submitting information to a granting agency the same question is asked to protect the researcher investment. By protecting the researcher’s time and investment if they leave UM they’re still able to take they’re patent or copyright with them. Versus not disclosing the information and then it becomes property of the UM to do what ever they feel. I thought about making my information in my business plan proprietary because I felt my business plan had a lot of great ideas that someone could potentially make their own and create a market niche on recruiting for clinical studies. Then I thought the broad layout of being in clinical research is helping people. I also understand that hiring a company to complete the task versus working on the task yourself can be overwhelming and very important documents can be lost in the shuffle. This type of error a researcher or entrepreneur can afford to make because once the information is out there it’s gone and it’s not the responsibility of the copyright agency to protect anything not written in the document. I believe all company’s especially company’s looking to market a new device or new innovation should check with legal experts to verify if their idea merits protection. I’ve heard once the idea is out you can forget about it. Nichole Washington

Gail Baird on February 15, 2010 3:20 PM

I found Kelly Burris’ discussion of protecting intellectual property both educating and a necessary tool for businesses to retain their competitive creations. Kelly Burris, an intellectual property attorney, discusses the importance of securing and protecting valuable intellectual property business assets through tools such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Patents would cover items such as inventions; trademarks protect brand identifier words, symbols, designs, names, and logos like the “Whopper” for Burger King or the infamous golden arches found on the McDonald’s sign; copyrights protect authorship such as books, songs, movies, and artwork (but only in the form it was expressed, not the idea itself); and trade secrets protect confidential items such as famous recipes. Without protection of your inventions, ideas, and namesakes they can easily be acquired by the competitor before you even have a chance to launch it; these tools act as safety deposit boxes for a business’s competitive creations. Currently there are 1.5 million trademarks registered in the United States, 900,000 are currently being used. To further a company’s authentic protection, many corporations will create a trade secret policy and put it in writing, this is the company’s Trade Secret Protection Policy which an IP attorney can aid in executing. Some businesses may have new employees sign a contract regarding the safety of trade secrets, this contractual agreement disables the employee from discussing or sharing “top secret” company information legally with anyone especially competitors. Patenting their product paid off for Louis Vuitton in 2008 when the upscale designer wins a dispute against a French retailer manufacturing knock-off products; a hotel in Bejing, China also suffers charges as they rented space to the fraudulent French retailer who sold the merchandise in their hotel.

Nick Peterson on March 27, 2010 1:43 PM

I found this short interview pretty informative. Intellectual property is so important to a company because it provides such a competitive advantage over its competitors and is the main reason the company is in business. I find it hard to differentiate trade secrets which can be kept from the public and other companies and laws that state how companies prepare their products and what ingredients they use to produce them. These days’ celebrities and TV personalities are copyrighting the phrases they use in order to obtain that extra dollar and increase their popularity. I find this absurd and am disappointed that society is turning into what is has become. They are trying to trademark their look, they way they act, and even the names the go by. I always thought trademarks, copyrights, and patents were to be used in businesses and the scientific world. Society seems to be abusing these privileges and pretty soon every word, phrase, and look will be claimed and no one will be able to do anything without getting into trouble for doing it. I think an intellectual property lawyer would be a difficult profession with millions of copyrights and patents to understand and even more pending. They all have expiration dates and must be renewed every so often. If someone one messes up one little thing, it could cost companies millions of dollars. On one occasion this type of mistake cost one of the major beverage company more than 3 billion dollars because someone stole an idea and did not check with the patent office.

Michael Moore on March 28, 2010 10:28 PM

The importance of intellectual property is often understated in many organizations. Kelly Burris covers all of these different types of intellectual property quickly and accurately. As is mentioned in the lecture, the copyright is the easiest to obtain so it is also the most prevalent. Copyrights are useful in that they can protect a wide variety of types of property from print media to lines of code in a computer program. Copyrights are often violated by people using protected media without paying for the right. Patents are harder to come by and more limited in scope. They cover the way something looks, the way it's made or specific plant life. They are also less often violated but still necessary. Trademarks are used to protect the value provided by brand names. An example is the acronym WWF used by the World Wildlife Fund. The same acronym was used by the World Wrestling Federation despite the trademark used by the World Wildlife Fund. The World Wrestling Federation was ultimately forced to change its name. Finally trade secrets involve protecting processes or recipes that are used to give a business a competitive advantage over others. This could be anything from the way Volvo performs a safety audit to the ingredients Dunkin Donuts uses to make its donuts. In most countries, these types of intellectual property protections extend across borders. The Berne Convention signatory countries all respect the property rights of each other, and this includes the wide majority of the world. That is a great indicator of how important intellectual property rights are to the world economy. Michael Moore

Jason Emero on June 9, 2010 11:03 PM

Kelly did well to describe the types of protections that are available to inventors and companies. The interview seemed short and it seemed that the interviewer could have allowed her more time to answer. These protections are very important to businesses, large and small. Having a product or a product protected can solidify sales for a period of time as long as the product stays in demand and that a new or improved product is not delivered to the market by a competitor. Making sure infringeent of a copyright can be very tricky and can cause a lot of legal expenses. Most businesses want to avoid any type of infringement because of the possible cost of a suit and poor reputation they might gain due to the inevitable bad publicity. The writer of Harry Potter was recently involved in a Copyright but it seemed to go away pretty quickly, as I recall.

Ravynne G. on November 23, 2010 2:36 AM

A critical issue that entrepreneurs often encounter is counterfeits of their property or services. Entrepreneurs need to secure a nondisclosure agreement with the United States and various overseas countries to insure that behaviors such as counterfeit and knock offs are prohibited and protected by law. Attorney Kelly Burris is correct with her explanation of the three of the most common types of intellectual protection. They consist of Patents: which is a grant from the federal government to the inventor of a product, giving the exclusive right to make, use or sell the invention in the United States for 20 years after the initial form has been completed. Trademarks which protects any distinctive word, phrase, symbol, design, motto, logo, or name the company uses itself. A copyright is a restricted right that protects the creator’s original works such as: literary, musical, and artistic works. It is very important that companies understand that they need to be protected. Ms. Burris did not go into detail about what will happen if your property rights are violated. If an entrepreneur or company has a valid intellectual protection they can send their violators a letter of cease and desist. This will usually stop violators if not companies have no choice but to take their claim to court. Sometimes taking the violator to court may actually be more harmful then the initial violation. Many small start-up companies do not have the capital budget to pay for expensive legal fees that come with suing a violator. Overall I think it is better to be safe than to be sorry. Protecting your intellectual property is one of the most important things an entrepreneur can do for their company. Losing everything you’ve worked for can be a reality if owners simply do not protect their intellectual property by the United States government.

Austin Tracy on November 23, 2010 5:24 AM

There are so many ways to identify intellectual property as your own! Copyright is probably the most common know identifier. Trade secrets and trademarks for some reason get tossed aside when it comes to talking about intellectual property. It's fascinating how a trademark can be so directly associated with a trade secret. If the secret is not kept, the brand will suffer and possibly diminish making it so the trademarks of a business or product have little or no actual value. It is so common for someone to not patent, copyright, or trademark intellectual property that is theirs and there is nothing anyone can do if someone else "got there first." There is a real gray area that is appearing in regards to copyright as of recent. With the rise in music mash ups it's hard to gauge what is new music and what is theft in regards to copyright laws. The same goes for farces in theatre. At what point is something spoofing and the other point theft? This is an important question to use whenever using anyone's property that is not your own, because you never know who is going to turn around and claim your work as their very own.

Wally Gerbus on November 23, 2010 10:34 PM

Intellectual property is such an important part of the business world. Every company has some type of intellectual property, such as a brand name or logo. Kelly Burris is an intellectual property attorney at Brinks, Hofer, Gilson, and Lione. An intellectual property attorney protects the client’s rights of intellectual property. There are four broad categories of intellectual property; those include: patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. Patents cover inventions; trademarks cover brands; copyrights protect original works of authorships such as books, movies, music and artwork; trade secrets cover confidential information. The most famous trade secret is the formula for Coca-Cola. Half of the formula is kept by two different top level managers, which we learned in Intro to Entrepreneurship. This prevents any one single individual to know the whole formula and it helps keep the formula safe for the company. There are three types of patents: utility, design and plant. The utility patent covers the function of how something works; the design covers the ornamental appearance; and the plant covers asexually reproduced plants. Trademarks protect the brand identifiers, such as the Coca-Cola brand and McDonald’s brand. Copyrights are a broad spectrum of the works of authorship and are the easiest type of intellectual property to claim. Trade secrets are defined as information that has economic value in being secret. To me, trade secrets are the biggest concern. Take Coca-Cola for example. If their formula got out to the public, anyone could start-up a cola company that would have the same taste as Coca-Cola. This would significantly hurt Coca-Cola and, perhaps, put them out of business. Intellectual property could possibly be the sole factor of a company succeeding or failing, which tells you that intellectual property should not be taken lightly.

Kaleigh Zebari on November 24, 2010 7:34 AM

Kelly Burris is an intellectual property lawyer at Brinks, Hofer, Gilson, and Lione. I think Kelly Burris has a great job being an intellectual lawyer, I think a lot of people get the four categories patons, trademarks, copy right, and trade secrets all get confusing after awhile. Patons cover the inventions that you think up, trademarks are symbols,copy right is things in print, and trade secret is anything confidential. It is sometimes hard to keep straight which is which. Intellectual property is one of the most important issues in the legal system. Why I think this is because think about all of the brands and sayings from certain companies. Sometimes the sayings is what makes the company. If McDonald's didn't trademark the golden M would the restaurant be as successful? They say that he golden M is one of the things that attracts most customers. What is Target Brand stories haven't trademarked the big red target what would the company be like today? These are things everybody needs to think of. Intellectual property is personal to a lot of people and what people work very hard on.

Jake Schifko on November 24, 2010 9:15 AM

The online website has opened up huge possibilities for every individual in the business world. It allows you to be able to market to anyone anywhere in the world as well as communicate with and transfer ideas with. But without ideas and unique things that set you apart from every other business, the chances are that you will probably fail with the majority of all the other ones. Which is where Kelly Burris comes into place. She takes all of your ideas and everything else that is considered as your intellectual property, and puts a stamp on them that makes them yours. What if you had programmed something and put it on line without getting and copyrights and or patents? Or what if you just left one of your note pads on a library table where you were just sitting at on accident? Well what would most likely happen, would be that someone somewhere would come across your ideas and not only use them, but they would make them their personal intellectual idea. At that point there would not be much that could be done in the aspect of claiming it as yours. That’s when you’re a day late and dollar short comes relevant. So instead of just putting your ideas out there before you get them protected and risking such possibilities happening to yourself, one might come into contact with Kelly Burris. Every day more and more people are realizing how important it actually is to protect your intellectual property. Look at Facebook for example and all of the lawsuits that took place because no one protected their actual ideas but they all called them theirs. So Kelly Burris is in a field that will continue to grow and prosper off of people’s intellectual ideas, or at least the good ones.

Nikole Viltz on November 29, 2010 10:39 AM

Though this interview was quite short I thought that it was extremely helpful and interesting. I was unaware of what a intellectual property attorney was or even if they existed. Now that I am aware of their expertise I think they are in high demand amongst others. The protection of intellectual rights is very important especially with the new ideas, technology, and innovation techniques created daily. When dealing with partnership and third parties with innovative ideas it is key to be protected so that all rights are rightfully given to the creator. Patents and trademarks happen daily. Though there are a lot of requests of both patents and trademarks within the entrepreneur world, over the last few years actual patents and trademarks given to creators has decreased drastically. The request has gone up, but the there is a lack of individualism and difference between products being created now. Kelly also describes the new ideas of identifying products with branding. Because there is a high demand of certain ideas of products or in her example foods, certain companies registered their similar idea, yet different technique and creation to be up with the competitors. Out of all the topics Kelly’s job covers it seems as though the trade secrets is most important protection necessity for companies. When creating new ideas and/or discussing information that cannot be public, trade secrets is what allows companies to protected from those who try to “hack the system”. The example of the recipe of Coke products described the importance for secrecy. If that recipe was to get out into the public, though it cannot be able to be duplicated exactly with the same ingredients, similar products will be purchased with only minor changes and not only with the true taste of Coke products be lost but also the competitive advantage of the one of a kind taste. Kelly Burris’s job allows companies to protect themselves from each other and those who want to get into the market.

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Kelly Burris: Intellectual Property

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