Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property

1. Rights governed by statute that provide individuals with a right to prevent others from exploiting or abusing their intellectual creations.

   • Patents
     • Legal title granted to an applicant for protection of an invention
       • It must be applied for at a patent office by submission of a ‘patent specification’ disclosing how the invention works
         • Conventions and treaties: Every country’s legislation includes laws for the protection of IP. Every country’s legislation includes laws for the protection of IP,
           • The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property of 1883 is the oldest treaty in the world dealing with the protection of IPR
             • REQUERIMENTS The invention must be novel (new); It must involve an inventive step (not obvious); It must be capable of industrial application; and It must not fall into the ‘excluded’ category for non-patentable matter.
   • Trade Marks
     • Is the symbol by which the goods of a particular manufacturer or trader can be identified and distinguished from the goods of others
       • It must registering their company or business name at a companies’ registration office (CRO)
         • Every country’s legislation includes laws for the protection of IP.
           • Protection for a trade mark is granted by the patent and trade mark office in the country in which protection is sought
             • Must be distinctive; Must not be descriptive of the goods; and Must not be capable of deception or confusion with marks already applied for or registered.
   • Copyright
     • Protect the rights of a creator of literary and artistic works, computer programs and databases
       • copyright does not require any formal application or registration for protection of a creative work. Copyright comes into operation automatically the moment a work is completed – that is, it subsists in that work for the creator.
         • there are international treaties that deal with copyright and to which most countries have signed up, notably the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works, and the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC).
           • The Berne Convention of 1886 is the oldest international treaty governing the protection of copyright
             • The laws of some countries do require registration in order to have a formal record of the work that is protected by copyright
   • Design Rights
     • Now directed towards the ‘individual character’ of a design.
       • While each country has its own IP laws that include protection for designs, there are two important international systems in operation for the protection of industrial designs: the Community Design system and the Hague Agreement.
         • In October 1998, the EU introduced Directive 98/71/EC, which harmonised the national systems for protection of designs across the member states. This was followed by the creation of a single unified system for the protection of designs across the Community when the Community Design Regulation (EC) No.6/2002 entered into force in March 2002.
           • For a design to be recognised as qualifying for protection under the Community Design Regulation, it must comply with the following three requirements: It must fall within the definition of a ‘design’; It must be novel (absolute worldwide novelty, similar to patent law); and It must have ‘individual character’. It also must have industrial application, but is important to note that design rights do not provide protection for designs dictated by a function or any technical feature
   • Know How
     • Process or manufacturing method, which is not patented either because it does not satisfy the criteria for patentability, or because a decision is made not to patent it,
       • To avoid having a valuable industrial process being published in the patent specification for all to see, a strategic business decision may be made to maintain it as confidential industrial know-how or as a trade secret
         • Only where it is absolutely necessary and then only under terms of a confidential or non-disclosure agreement
           • For added protection, valuable confidential information that is important to the operation of a business should be carefully copied and stored preferably in a fireproof safe. As a fall-back, a duplicate also should be stored safely in another location.
             • Know-how may be exploited solely by the company that is using it, or it can also be exploited just like other IPRs, where the owner of the know-how decides to maximise value in the technology by licensing it to third parties for payment