Every week, The Competitive Insight lists the Utah patents and trademarks pursued by Utah businesses.  I'll be giving recognition to the most interesting ones that come across my desks.  Here's my favorite from this week.

Patent of the Week

20070223779

Image watermarking systems and methods

Donald B. Curtis, Highland, UT

MyFamily.com, Inc., Orem, UT

I've always encouraged people to protect their intellectual property (IP).  In fact, sometimes pre-emptive protection is the best protection because it can be difficult to discover or even prove stolen IP after the fact.  Here's a company that's protecting its way of protecting its IP. 

Trademark (Application) of the Week

BYU

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

Provo, UT

Still using our IP protection idea, my first thought was:  Well, its about time!  BYU's goods and services for application 77080889 are:

Educational services, namely, providing classes, courses and seminars at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels; and entertainment services, namely, conducting athletic and cultural events, and live musical, dance theatrical and dramatic performances. FIRST USE: 1903/12/31

I suppose better late than never.  You'd think that after filing in 1989 for trademarks on jewelry, hats and clothing (Serial # 73757802) that they *could* have thought about education.  However, BYU now appears to be getting its act together and protecting its marks.  For everyone else, I suggest registering your marks  during the first century of use.