Dear Rich: My son has applied for a patent and received a Notice of Publication of Application received from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office indicating that the subject application was published in November 2009. Do we have to get a copyright and trademark for this also? Does this mean it was accepted or do we still have to wait to be granted a patent? Publication of your son's patent application does not mean that the USPTO will ultimately grant (or "issue") a patent. to him. Ever since November, 2000 the USPTO has been publishing applications approximately 18 months after filing (unless the applicant requested nonpublication at the time of filing). Although publication ends the patent's trade secrecy status, it enables certain patent infringement recoveries.
Copyright or trademark? If your son will be selling the invention as a product, he should consider acquiring a trademark registration for the name. As for copyright, he will acquire a copyright automatically for any copyrightable aspects of his invention. There's more on both topics in
this book.
The correct answer is (d). Why the baby photo? (a) It signifies the 'birth' of your son's patent, (b) it signifies the new year (or new decade), (c) It's a sad attempt at search engine optimization ("cute baby, patent"), or (d) it was available in the free photo bin at istockphoto.com.
