Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property: A Practical Guide to Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents and Trade Secrets

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This book offers a comprehensive overview of intellectual property issues, suitable for (among others) high-tech executives, entrepreneurs, and investors in early stage companies (all of which describe me). Its coverage includes trademarks (6 chapters, 70 pages), copyrights (5 chapters, 68 pages), patents (4 chapters, 40 pages), and trade secrets (1 chapter, 18 pages), plus chapters on unfair competition, owning IP created by employees and independent contractors, and conducting internal IP audits. I have experience with software copyrights and biotechnology patents; this book is fairly strong on the former, but only briefly mentions the latter. The material on internal IP audits is rather brief (12 pages) but includes a fairly good audit checklist, and an action plan for protecting a company's IP; also, the first chapter should be required reading for managers, since it points out the many places in a business where valuable IP may be found, department by department.The writing is very clear -- certainly not "obtuse" as one reviewer claimed -- and the book is quite current, with good coverage of the Internet's impact on copyright and other IP issues, and coverage of recent changes in the law such as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The book is a high-level overview for managers rather than a lawyer's or practitioner's guide, but it does describe the application process for trademarks, copyrights, and patents, all in reasonable detail. Yet this book is just 250 pages of highly readable text -- not a huge tome -- which I think makes it suitable for managers, early stage investors, or board members, especially in high-tech companies.

In the interests of safety, we'll refrain from quoting this fine book by Deborah E. Bouchoux, a specialist in intellectual property who teamed with AMACOM to create that rarest of volumes: a straightforward book about law that is simple to read (it's a formula she should patent). This comprehensive volume covers the nuts and bolts of U.S. patent and trademark law. It also gives advice on how to protect your intellectual property and avoid infringement, and reports on the latest patent trends in high tech. Of most concern for general business managers, Bouchoux reviews how (and why) to conduct intellectual property audits within your organization. With intellectual property emerging as the new corporate treasure of the knowledge economy, we [...] suggest that research and development managers and executives of every stripe study this volume carefully. Why should your attorney be the only one who understands what you really own?