Balm is an unincorporated, rural community located in southeastern Hillsborough County, Florida, approximately 18 miles southeast of Tampa. It is the location of Goodson Farms packing house and vegetable/fruit stand. In 2005, Goodsons had begun rebuilding the stand on the intersection of McGrady Road and 301. It was completed in late 2006. There are also four tropical fish farms and a small holding area for Barnum and Bailey's circus animals. One well known landmark is the Balm post office, which has been part of the community for over 50 years. The small town is undergoing construction of new houses and may eventually be upgraded to a suburb, hopefully bringing mail delivery and broadband Internet service to the area. As of today, the town is constantly being neglected by the county. On January 17, 2007, it was announced that a previously scheduled mitigation project had been canceled. This was attributed to the weak real-estate.

What is intellectual property law?

Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets. Intellectual property law involves advising and assisting individuals and businesses on the development, use, and protection of intellectual property -- which includes ideas, artistic creations, engineering processes, scientific inventions, and more.

Answers to intellectual property law issues in Florida

A patent is a document issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) that grants a monopoly for a limited...

Some types of inventions will not qualify for a patent, no matter how interesting or important they are. For example...

In the context of a patent application, an invention is considered novel when it is different from all...

Once a patent is issued, it is up to the owner to enforce it. If friendly negotiations fail, enforcement involves...

Patent protection usually ends when the patent expires.

For all utility patents filed before June 8, 1995,...

Typically, inventor-employees who invent in the course of their employment are bound by employment agreements that...

On its own, a patent has no value. A patent becomes valuable only when a patent owner takes action to profit from...

Copyright protects works such as poetry, movies, video games, videos, DVDs, plays, paintings, sheet music, recorded...

For works published after 1977, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. However, if the work...

The term "trademark" is commonly used to describe many different types of devices that label, identify, and...