Description
Understanding the basics of intellectual property is an important objective for non-profit organizations, board members, and counsel. Nonprofit organizations face a variety of IP-related issues daily – ranging from managing the ownership and licensing of IP in grants and program-related investments to trademarking the organization’s name and logos. Your organization’s IP can be a valuable asset, but the laws protecting it present many traps for the unwary.
Register for this program to learn how to protect your IP rights and how your tax-exempt status may impact your approach to ownership and licensing IP in your organization’s agreements with third parties.
During this 60-minute program, you’ll learn about the different types of intellectual property and how each can be protected. Time will also be spent examining how IP comes up in the everyday life of the nonprofit, particularly when contracting with third parties such as grantees and consultants and the special considerations nonprofit organizations have in those circumstances. Topics of discussion include:
> Types of intellectual property: Copyright, trademark, patent and trade secret
> Copyright
- What is copyright and what it protects?
- What is not protected?
- Ownership default rules/works make for hire
- Protection term
- Notice and registration
> Trademark
- What is a trademark?
- Protection term
- Benefits of registration
- All trademarks are not equal: Tips on choosing a strong mark
> Patent
- Types of patents
- What can be patented and term?
> Trade Secrets
- What are they and how are they protected?
- Protection term
> Licenses and exceptions/alternatives
- What is a license and what are the main terms?
- Do you always need a license? (Discussion of Public Domain, Fair Use, Creative Commons)
> Specific applications: IP provisions in non-profit contracts
- IRS considerations: Private benefit/self-dealing/commerciality issues
- Types of agreements involving IP: Independent contractor/consulting agreements,
- Grants/PRIs, licensing agreements, NDAs
- General tips and takeaways when addressing IP sections of agreements
> Responding to a demand letter alleging infringement