3: FORMS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

3: FORMS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. The more common forms of IPR are patents, trade marks, copyright, design rights, confidential information and know-how, and all of these play an important role in the innovation process.

   • Other very important, but specialised, forms of IPR include plant variety rights (also plant breeders’ rights) used in the plant breeding industry, database rights for the ICT, Internet and publishing sectors and chip topography rights (also mask work rights) in the electronics and computer chip manufacturing industries.
     • PATENTS
       • A patent is a legal title granted to an applicant for protection of an invention. It is a registerable form of IP. It must be applied for at a patent office by submission of a ‘patent specification’ disclosing how the invention works. The patent is granted for a limited period by the patent office, acting as an instrument of the government in the country in which the patent is applied for.
         • Conventions and treaties
           • 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.
     • 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. Trade marks and service marks provide protection for the goodwill and reputation of a company in its products and services, as opposed to protection of the products per se.
         • Registration of a Trade Mark
           • It may be possible in certain countries for a company to assert ‘unregistered rights’ over a mark if it has been used by the company in the marketplace for some time and has become synonymous with the company and its goods
     • 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 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.
         • Registration of Copyright
           • there is no requirement to register a work in order to obtain copyright protection. However, the laws of some countries do require registration in order to have a formal record of the work that is protected by copyright.