A program of the United States Patent and Trademark Office - www.uspto.gov

IMAGE: Under Secretary Jon Dudas speaks at Phoenix IP seminar.
IMAGE: Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) speaks to attendees at Austin IP seminar.

“This is the best use of my taxes that I have ever seen.”
- USPTO IP Seminar Participant, San Diego, January, 2006

Intellectual property theft poses a serious threat to all U.S. businesses. Industry estimates are that $250 billion and 750,000 jobs are lost per year because of IP theft. Small businesses can be at a particular disadvantage because they often lack the resources and expertise available to larger corporations. Small businesses also are often unfamiliar with the process of protecting intellectual property.

The USPTO’s Small Business Education Campaign, inaugurated last year, identifies the vulnerabilities of America’s entrepreneurs and informs small-business owners about how to protect their intellectual property from pirates and counterfeiters, both in the United States and abroad.

During the first year of the campaign, over 3.5 million Americans were reached through local and national print and broadcast stories. Audiences ranging from readers of the New York Times and Miami Herald to viewers of Fox-7 News Austin and CNN en Española have been alerted to the dangers of IP theft and the availability of help from the USPTO. Additionally, targeted outreach resulted in stories in publications that serve business sectors that are particularly hard hit, such as Travel Goods Showcase (trade show industry), Furniture World (furniture industry) and Editors Only (publications industry).

In conjunction with the campaign, conferences on ”Intellectual Property in the Global Marketplace” are held in cities throughout the United States. These widely attended seminars feature IP experts, including the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, Jon Dudas, and Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, Steve Pinkos. These highly informative sessions connect small business people with USPTO specialists who provide entrepreneurs with the knowledge needed to protect their IP.

The stopfakes.gov/smallbusiness web site - a special adjunct to the government’s stopfakes.gov/smallbusiness web site - was created by the USPTO as a “one-stop shop” for information about counterfeiting and piracy. It has received over 50,000 hits and visitors, who have viewed more than 1.3 million pages of valuable informational and educational materials. The USPTO has alerted small businesses to the resources available on the Web site through outreach to blogs dedicated to IP issues and through links posted on other sites frequented by small business owners. This outreach has made the USPTO’s Small Business Education Campaign the 7th most talked about topic among IP Web sites.

Informational materials—brochures, fact sheets and frequently asked questions—have been distributed at events and on-line to help guide small businesses through the process of protecting their ideas against IP theft.

More than 400 national and 300 regional stakeholder organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The National Association of Manufacturers and the National Federation of Independent Business, have been encouraged to alert their members to the campaign’s resources through newsletter articles and links to the campaign Web site.

“The whole program shattered the myth of lazy, apathetic federal government workers. Great program.”
- USPTO IP Seminar Participant, Austin, September, 2005

“More government agencies should follow this model of bringing the government to the grassroots level”
- USPTO IP Seminar Participant, San Diego, January, 2006

Applying for IP Protection
Whether to file for IP protection is a decision only you can make, and involves cost/benefit analysis and other business considerations. If you decide IP protection is right for you:

Know when to apply.
Whether filing in the United States or overseas, the best time to apply is before the product is brought to market. For patents, in particular, it may be important to file for protection prior to publication.

Know what to apply for.
A business’ product or service may be eligible for more than one type of IP protection. For example, the company name could be protected by trademark, its product patented, and its promotional materials protected by copyright. Decide which protections are right for you.

Know where to apply.
In the United States, patent and trademark applications are filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The U.S. Copyright Office handles copyright registration.

Know how to apply.
Visit www.stopfakes.gov/smallbusiness for information on filing for patents and registering trademarks and copyrights. Applicants unfamiliar with IP law are encouraged to obtain legal advice.

Protect Your Small Business

Be vigilant.

Much of today's intellectual property theft occurs on-line, so monitor the Internet for potential counterfeiting in addition to your marketplace monitoring. You also may wish to monitor trade journals to learn about foreign markets or industry sectors being exploited by intellectual property thieves.

Learn More.

To learn more about protecting your intellectual property rights, please visit:

• www.stopfakes.gov/smallbusiness
The U.S. government site dedicated to small businesses.

• www.uspto.gov
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site, a comprehensive go-to source for intellectual property information.

• www.copyright.gov
The U.S. Copyright Office site with comprehensive information on copyright.

• www.cbp.gov
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) site, with
information on recordation of registered U.S. trademarks and copyrighted works with the CBP.

• 1-866-999-HALT to report IP theft.

• www.wipo.int
The web site of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), with information on the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Madrid Protocol.