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| Introduction | |
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| About This Book | |
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| Conventions Used in This Book | |
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| Foolish Assumptions | |
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| How This Book Is Organized | |
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| Icons Used in This Book | |
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| Where to Go from Here | |
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| Covering Your Assets: Intellectual Property Basics | |
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| Examining the Tools in Your IP Box | |
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| Buying into Intellectual Property | |
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| Exploring the Patent Process | |
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| Copyrighting Your Creations | |
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| Claiming Your Identity: Trademarks and Other Commercial Handles | |
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| Keeping It Quiet: Trade Secrets | |
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| Putting It in Writing: Looking at Contractual IP Rights | |
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| Putting Your IP to Work at Home and Abroad | |
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| Protecting Your Intellectual Property | |
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| Examining Your Motives | |
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| Implementing an IP Program | |
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| Dealing with Professionals and Picking Up the Tab | |
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| Getting the Help That You Need | |
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| Finding and Retaining an IP Professional | |
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| Staying within Your Meager Means | |
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| Working with Foreign IP Professionals | |
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| Coordinating with Other Professionals | |
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| If You Build It, They Will Come: Patenting Your Product | |
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| Understanding Patents and How They Work | |
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| Presenting a Patent Explanation | |
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| Dissecting the Beast: The Three Types of Patents | |
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| Checking Out the Mechanics: Specifications and Claims | |
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| Playing by the Rules: The Three-Part Patentability Test | |
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| Testing the Water Before You File for a Patent | |
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| Assessing What You Have | |
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| Making Sure a Patent Is Right for You | |
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| Starting Things Off on the Right Foot | |
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| The Quest for the Unholy Grail: The Patent Search | |
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| To Search or Not to Search | |
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| Conducting an Anticipation Search | |
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| Looking at Other Patent Searches | |
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| Preparing Your Patent Application | |
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| Understanding the Patent Application | |
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| Choosing between Formal and Provisional Applications | |
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| Deconstructing the Patent Application | |
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| Disclosing Your Invention in the Specification | |
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| Arguing Your Case for Patentability | |
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| Staking Your Claims | |
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| Actively Participating in Application Preparation | |
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| Filing Your Patent Application | |
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| Packaging the Application | |
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| Letting Go: Sending Your Application to the USPTO | |
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| Meeting Your Filing Deadlines | |
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| Keeping Your Application Under Wraps | |
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| Asking for Special Status | |
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| Preparing and Filing Some Simplified Patent Applications | |
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| Making Money and Taking Precautions While You Wait for Your Patent | |
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| Filing Again: Entering a Continuation Application | |
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| Wrestling with the Patent Examiner | |
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| Touring the USPTO | |
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| Clearing Initial Administrative Hurdles | |
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| Splitting Up Is Hard to Do: Restricting the Application | |
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| Getting In on the Action--The Office Action | |
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| Reacting to a Final Rejection | |
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| Getting Flagged for Interference | |
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| Requesting a Statutory Invention Registration | |
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| Avoiding a Third-Party Protest | |
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| Entering the Home Stretch: Getting Your Patent Issued | |
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| Getting the Green Light | |
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| Put the Champagne Down: Taking Corrective Action | |
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| Dealing with Defective Patents | |
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| Submitting to Reexamination | |
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| Changing the Names of the Inventors or Assignees | |
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| Remembering to Pay Maintenance Fees | |
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| Marking Your Widgets with the Patent Number | |
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| Knowing Your Copyrights | |
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| Entering the Whimsical World of Copyrights | |
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| Getting to Know the Copyright | |
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| Defining an Original Work of Authorship | |
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| Determining What Is Copyrighted and What Isn't | |
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| The Scope of Copyright Protection | |
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| So What Does a Copyright Do for Me? | |
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| Untangling Ownership Issues | |
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| Staking a Claim: Making Sure That You Own the Copyright | |
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| Changing Owners: Transferring Interest in a Copyright | |
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| Investigating the Status of a Copyright | |
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| Giving Your Copyright Fangs | |
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| Making It Official: Registration | |
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| Finding and Filling Out Forms | |
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| Depositing Copies of the Work | |
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| Marking Your Copyrighted Work | |
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| Getting Help from Uncle Sam | |
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| Recording Copyright Documents | |
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| Making Your Mark: Protecting Your Commercial Identity | |
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| Solving Your Identity Crisis | |
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| Hitting the Right Mark: A Commercial Identifier Inventory | |
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| Putting Commercial Identifiers to Work | |
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| Testing the Legal Strength of Commercial Identifiers | |
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| Creating the Next Household Name | |
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| Marketing Muscle: The Components of Good Commercial Identifiers | |
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| Trying the Tricks of the Trade | |
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| Avoiding the Seven Deadly Identifier Sins | |
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| Conducting an Availability Search | |
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| Practicing Prudence | |
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| Defining the Scope of Your Search | |
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| Carrying Out Your Search | |
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| Analyzing the Results | |
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| Establishing and Registering Your Commercial Identifier | |
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| Gaining Exclusive Rights to a Commercial Identifier | |
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| Registering Your Commercial Identifier | |
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| Preparing Your In-Use or ITU Application | |
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| Pushing Your Application Through the USPTO | |
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| Keeping Your Registration Up to Snuff | |
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| Losing Your Commercial Identifier | |
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| Exploiting and Enforcing Your IP Rights | |
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| All Abroad: Protecting Your IP Rights in Other Countries | |
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| Pros and Cons of International Patents | |
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| First Things First: Three Basic Rules of Filing for Foreign Patents | |
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| Charting a Course: Where Should You File Your Patent Application? | |
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| Filing for Design Protection Abroad | |
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| Protecting Your Plant Overseas | |
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| Protecting Your Mark Abroad | |
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| Copyrighting Overseas | |
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| Making 'Em Pay: Licensing Your IP Rights | |
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| Types of Licenses | |
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| Inspecting Basic Elements of a License | |
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| Assigning Rather Than Licensing | |
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| Getting Down to the Government Stuff | |
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| Adopting a Licensing Strategy | |
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| Making Beautiful Music Business | |
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| Nailing the Bad Guys (The Infringers) | |
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| Determining Infringement | |
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| Stopping Infringement Cold | |
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| The Part of Tens | |
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| Top Ten Patent Application Pitfalls | |
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| Choosing a Utility Patent When Other Protection Will Fit the Bill | |
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| Filing When You Can't Afford It | |
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| Going It Alone | |
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| Concealing the Past | |
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| Showing Your Hand | |
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| Naming a Non-Inventor | |
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| Disclosing Too Little | |
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| Disclosing Too Much | |
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| Waiting Too Long | |
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| Accepting Money in Exchange for a Share of the Profits | |
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| Ten Common Copyright Questions | |
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| I Wrote a Children's Story: Can I Get a Copyright? | |
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| I Coined a Campaign Slogan for the Next Election: Can I Copyright It? | |
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| I Have an Idea for a TV Show: How Do I Get It Copyrighted? | |
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| How Much of a Copyrighted Work Can I Copy without Infringing the Copyright? | |
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| I'm Designing a Web Site: Can I Use Graphics Copied from a Magazine? | |
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| Can I Use a Popular Song in a Video Clip of My Dog to Send to America's Funniest Animals? | |
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| I'm a Teacher: Can I Copy a Page from a Book and Give the Copies to My Students? | |
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| How Long Does a Copyright Last? | |
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| Where Can I Get Permission to Copy a Protected Work? | |
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| Can I Protect Software with a Copyright and a Patent? | |
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| The Ten Worst Naming Blunders | |
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| Using Your Family Name | |
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| Mimicking Another Company's Brand | |
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| Describing Your Product or Service | |
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| Having Brainstorming Sessions | |
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| Holding a Naming Contest | |
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| Ignoring the Customer | |
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| Creating Techno-Babble | |
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| Choosing Availability over Exclusivity | |
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| Relying on the Logo | |
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| Leaving Your Mark Unprotected | |
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| More Than Ten Great IP Resources | |
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| Contacting the USPTO for General Info | |
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| Contacting the U.S. Copyright Office | |
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| Accessing Online Applications | |
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| Old-Fashioned Application Access | |
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| Getting Down with Government Manuals | |
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| The Government Printing Office | |
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| Inquiring about IP Litigation Info | |
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| Further Reading for the IP-Addicted | |
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| Appendix | |
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| Index | |