Your new business client needs help with registering a trademark, copyright, or patent. You are an expert in other legal areas, but intellectual property law is not one of them. So you refer the client to a competent IP lawyer and relax. We thank you for helping everyone win!
You will not have to worry about the specialized areas of copyrights, trademarks or patents. You should be aware that the inventions we handle as patent attorneys are not always complicated. It is true that the technologies we need to learn in order to do patent work can be complex, but this does not always happen. Clients may have come up with a simple but elegant, cost-effective, and marketable answer to a problem others didn’t even know existed.
This concept will be illustrated with an example you’ve all seen (and perhaps even used). We’ll take you to the bathroom for this short discussion.
A group of Minnesotans spotted a problem no one had ever addressed and came up with a solution which is now used almost everywhere. Their business lawyer founded JBJ Industries, Inc. in 1986 and set out to change the face of public restrooms forever. You’ll find a baby changing station on the wall of any restroom, whether it is in a McDonalds, Target, airport, or arena.
They recognized that things were changing. Both parents were now working, and there were many new babies being born. Families were always on the move, and there was nowhere private to change a dirty diaper (except the bathroom floor!). McDonalds and Target, the two first large companies to adopt this concept of convenience for customers (a wall mounted baby changing station), quickly took off.
JBJ Industries was acquired after its founders retired and made millions. A simple folding shelf from this small company revolutionized the public restroom industry.
For an invention to be eligible for a U.S. Utility Patent, it must be novel, useful, and not obvious over the prior art. A U.S. Design Patent requires that the invention be original, novel and be an article manufactured. JBJ Industries obtained a U.S. Design Patent in 1991 for their baby changing station, but the company’s commercial success wasn’t based on its patentability. We’re certain that it was helpful to promote this product as “Patent Pending.”
JBJ Industries created a brand that was a great convenience for retailers like McDonalds and Target who wanted to attract growing families. The brand has been shortened to KOALA KARE from the original KOALA BEAR KARE. Today’s products look like this:
This product’s brand is perfect. It features a cute logo and an alliteration of the word “parent” to show a parent taking care of their dependent child.
This is a great example of “fanciful trademarks”. The words “koala”, “kare”, and “kare-car” are not descriptive of the product. The trademark image does not either describe the product. We encourage our clients adopt this type of trademark, since it can be protected immediately as an unique and registerable mark.
It is not necessary for a new product to be complex to be successful.
The article Koala Kare – A Winning Formula that is Conveniently Easy first appeared on Attorney at Law Magazine.