Using Patents to Protect Your Products (E115)

Rich GoldsteinPatent Attorney Bio: Rich Goldstein is a patent attorney that helps Amazon sellers to protect their products and brands. He has obtained more than 2000 patents for his clients and is the author of the American Bar Association’s "Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent”. Rich is passionate about helping Amazon sellers to become ‘patent savvy’ so that they make good business decisions and protect themselves while avoiding problems with other sellers. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: goldsteinpatentlaw.comBook: The ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent Transcript: Charles (00:00): In this episode of the business of eCommerce. I talked with rich Goldstein about using patents to protect your products. This is the business of eCommerce. Episode one 15 Charles (00:15): Welcome to the business of eCommerce, the show that helps eCommerce retailers start launch and grow their eCommerce business. I mean it was child's plus ski and I'm here today with rich Goldstein. Rich is a patent attorney that has helped Amazon sellers protect their products and brands. He has obtained with the 2000 patents for his clients and he's authored a book for the American bar association called consumer's guide to obtaining a pattern. I just listen to the show tonight to chat about how you can use patterns, connect your products and Amazon listings. So, Hey rich, how are you doing today? Doing well. I'll ask him to have your show. Thanks for coming on. I love the, this is one of the topics we don't talk about often enough and I feel with especially a lot of Amazon sellers, they don't really get enough exposure to kind of how to protect themselves legally. Charles (01:02): With this, right. So you do a lot of work with, is it mainly Amazon folks or is it all kinds of just private label in general? What do you kind of focus typically? Well, I've been working with entrepreneurs for 25 years and the last few years it's been very much e-commerce, Amazon entrepreneurs. And and yeah, I, I agree with you totally. I think patents is a topic that Amazon sellers at e-commerce people don't focus on enough. And I think it's the thing that could have the biggest impact on their business that they probably know the least about. So it is something that Richard (01:37): It's very important to talk about. I think it's very important for Amazon sellers to learn about and just to get a reasonable level of competence with how patents work and, Charles (01:47): And how to better utilize it in their, in their business. Okay. Yeah, I see this a lot. And also this is my, I have a childlike understanding of how the legal system works, but the difference between patterns and trademarks, cause I know trademarks is also another big thing, especially on Amazon. How does, how does a trademark play into that? So do you need a, do you need a patent to get a trademark or are they not at all related? Richard (02:13): They are not at all related. There are different subject matter altogether. And so when you think patents think products like product ideas themselves, the way a product functions, the way product looks, that's what a patent could be used to protect. Trademarks on the other hand offer branding. Okay. So you know, trademarks are for the, the name that you use to sell your product, the logo that you have. And in general they protect Charles (02:46): Different types of things so they serve different purposes. Okay. I see. So in which case, let's say you're selling an Amazon if you're doing any sort of private, would that be the time when you want to look at pattern or is it, if you're completely producing a new product from the ground up, like when would you cross the line of being, you know, wine, that kind of protection? Richard (03:09): Yeah, I mean in general, if you, if you're white labeling