FORMS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

FORMS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. PATENTS

   • A patent is a legal title granted to an applicant for protection of an invention. It is a registerable form of IP.
     • FEATURES
       • 1. The title granted provides the owner with a monopoly on exploitation (making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing) of the invention and enables the owner to exclude others from any of these activities falling within the scope of the invention, in the country in which the patent has been granted. 2. The period of limited exclusivity granted by the patent certificate is 20 years in most countries. 3. After that , the patent is no longer in force and the country that has granted the patent now has the benefit of the invention, by allowing everyone to access it freely and to use the information disclosed in the patent document to further economic benefit. 4. the every country’s legislation includes laws for the protection of IP, in which there is a provision for patent laws to govern the protection of inventions in that country
         • Requirements for a Patent
           • 1. The invention must be novel (new); 2. It must involve an inventive step (not obvious); 3. It must be capable of industrial application; 4. and It must not fall into the ‘excluded’ category for non-patentable matter. Note: Additionally, the applicant is required to disclose sufficient information in the patent application to show how the invention works.
   • Organisation (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations
     • charged with administration of the Paris Convention is the World Intellectual Property, stablished in 1967 under the WIPO Convention to promote the protection of IP worldwide.
       • International Treatry
         • Patent Cooperation Treaty
           • In 1995, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) introduced an agreement to cover all aspects of IP as it relates to international trading. This agreement, referred to as TRIPS (Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights), is the first and most comprehensive international agreement to date on IP law in this regard. The PCT was established in 1970 and currently has a membership of 144 contracting states. The benefit of a country being a party to this treaty is that a national or resident of a PCT state needs to file only one application in order to obtain patent protection in any of the countries that are members of the PCT treaty
         • European Patent Convention
           • The (EPC) is another international patent treaty, established European Patent Convention under the European Patent Convention of 1973 and brought into force in 1977. The convention, through the institution of the European Patent Office (EPO), introduced an autonomous legal framework for the provision of patent protection in its member states. This treaty is separate from the EU and includes states that are not members of the EU. Today, there are 38 European countries contracted to this convention. The benefit of the EPC system is that one application may be filed at the European Patent Officein Munich (or one of its branch offices) and a European patent is then granted for the member states in which the applicant seeks protection. However, similar to the PCT system, the granted patent is not a single patent covering all the requested states, but rather a series of individual patents, which have to be ‘validated’ by the national patent offices of each Member State. The system is more co

2. TRADE MARKS

   • A trade mark is the symbol by which the goods of a particular manufacturer or trader can be identified and distinguished from the goods of others. The brand or trade mark, in which a business wants to create value and become identified by in the market, can be a word, a signature, a monogram, a picture or symbol, a logo or a combination of these.
     • Registration of a Trade Mark
       • It is important for the company, therefore, to secure this value by ensuring it controls the rights over use of its brand by having it registered as a trade mark.
         • Requirements
           • 1. Must be distinctive; 2. Must not be descriptive of the goods; 3. and Must not be capable of deception or confusion with marks already applied for or registered.
     • Duration of a Trade Mark
       • The term of a trade mark in most countries is for 10 years, which may be renewed indefinitely for subsequent 10-year terms. The term and maintenance of a trade mark, however, is conditional upon the owner demonstrating use of the mark.

3. KNOW-HOW

   • ‘know-how’ and ‘trade secrets’. This form of IP usually relates to a technology process or manufacturing method, which is not patented either because it does not satisfy the criteria for atentability, or because a decision is made not to patent it, since in order to apply for a patent, full details of the process must be disclosed.
     • 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.

4. COPYRIGHT

   • Copyright is a form of IP designed to protect the rights of a creator of literary and artistic works, computer programs and databases. Copyright allows the creators to control the use and exploitation of their works, and derivative works thereof, and covers the copying, adapting, publishing, performing and broadcasting of such works. copyright does not provide the creator with a monopoly on his work. Copyright typically is enforced to prevent copying, plagiarism, and misuse of a work, but it does not prevent a third party from independent development of the idea or a similar work.
     • Granting of Copyright
       • 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.
     • Works Protected by Copyright
       • Original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, published editions of works, sound recordings, films, videos, broadcasts and cable programmes, computer programs and databases
     • International Protection
       • 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). Each country has its own laws for the protection of IP, which include copyright laws.
     • Registration 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. The advantage of registering a work in a formal copyright depository is that there is a public record established for the copyright claim, which subsequently can be used as clear evidence of the original date and content of the work in the event of a dispute regarding infringement and other abuses of the copyright.
     • Duration of Copyright
       • International treaties have done much to harmonise copyright law across territories. Within the EU and in most of the European region, as well as in the US, generally the duration of copyright today for literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, computer programs and databases, begins with the date of creation by the author and expires 70 years after his death.

5. DESIGN RIGHTS

   • Traditionally, most EU Member States operated a system for protection of industrial designs However, this is no longer the important determining feature, as design rights are now directed towards the ‘individual character’ of a design.
     • Requirements of a Design
       • 1. must comply with the following three requirements. 2. It must fall within the definition of a ‘design’; 3. It must be novel; 4. and It must have ‘individual character’.
     • Registered Community Design
       • An application is examined for conformance to the definition of a ‘design’ in accordance with the Community Design Regulation and also to decide whether it is contrary to morality or public policy. Unlike the patent system, there is no examination for novelty and no opposition procedure, so the test for novelty only comes into play in the case of objections and disputes over the validity of the registered design.