The intellectual property cookbook: a guide for the novice health-care telemedicine provider working with industry

Telemedicine is a new field and many health-care providers are developing t heir own products with the help of industry. Most practitioners are novices in the legal tools necessary to protect their own work with regard to any future commercialization. To summarize these issues for the telemedicine pr actitioner, a review of intellectual property protection has been performed . Intellectual property can be protected by tools such as copyrights, paten ts, non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, integrated circuit topog raphies and industrial design. Knowledge of the intellectual property backg round should allow telemedicine providers to protect their own work when wo rking with industry.