A room full of Squamish Chamber of Commerce members got a lesson in protecting their product at the organization's monthly luncheon at the Copper House Restaurant Tuesday (April 13).
Konrad Sechley, who works at Gowlings law firm in Vancouver, launched into an explanation of trade secrets, patents, trademarks, copyrights and industrial designs, using concrete examples to illustrate each concept.
"A trade secret is any confidential information used in business to give your business a competitive edge," said Sechley. "It could be business lists or even a method used in the workplace.
"The difficulty with a trade secret is that it's only valuable as a secret. If someone else comes up with the same thing, it's worthless."
If individuals discovered Coca Cola's secret formula, for example, and patented it as their own, the company would no longer be able to manufacture their product, according to Sechley.
"That's why if something is really unique and you don't think anyone else could come up with the idea, you keep it as a secret formula," said Sechley. "But if it's something simple but original, you patent it."
Patenting a product is a time-consuming process, and once the process has begun, the patentee only has 20 years to exclude others from manufacturing the product. It's also an expensive process, and in Canada only 60 to 70 per cent of patents requested are granted.
It's also important to note that every country has its own patent system, and patenting a product in one country doesn't exclude other countries from manufacturing the same thing.
For example, if a product is patented in Canada and also created in China, the Chinese can manufacture and sell it there, but can't sell the product to Canadians, said Sechley.
"You can patent your product in other countries as well but it's quite expensive," he said. "Nokia patented 140 countries."
Sechley said entrepreneurs should thoroughly research their ideas because so many products have already been realized.
"An invention must be new, useful and non-obvious."
He also discussed trademarks and their importance to any company, saying that all trademarks should be registered. It distinguishes the products or services of one person or business from those of others in the marketplace.
"Owning a registered trademark gives you the exclusive use to its use throughout Canada for 15 years and is renewable after that," he said.
However trademarks are restricted to use, said Sechley. The company that manufactures Barbie dolls tried to sue restaurant owners for naming their business Barbie, but because it was a completely different use, the suit was thrown out.
Sechley also briefly discussed copyrights and industrial designs, though he emphasized those were not his areas of expertise.
After the presentation, numerous local business owners stayed behind for a private consultation from Sechley.
"It was very interesting," said Dave Weale, co-owner of Leon Lebeniste, a new architectural woodworking and fine furnishings business in Squamish. "Because of the nature of our designs, we should really be looking into this."
The sponsor of this month's luncheon, was Double Shutter Images, a joint venture made possible by combining two local businesses.
Cindy Cardiff of Trek Photography and Michael Kanka of Kanka Photography announced a new approach to business where like-minded entrepreneurs join together instead of viewing one another as competition.
"Our philosophy is to join instead of fight," said Cardiff.
Double Shutter Images offers on-location photography, studio portraiture, commercial photography and image and print services.
