WHAT IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY?
Intellectual property (IP) law involves a wide range of forms of protection for intellectual property. It is the most basic form of property that uses the mind to create it. The law recognises the creators’ right to reward for his handwork (i.e. a man should own what he produces). IP encompasses statutory and common law arrangements. It has aspects which are shaped by international, European and national considerations.
IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Intellectual property rights are vital for the organs of business, commerce and industry. Under intellectual property, a significant number of intellectual property rights (IPRs) exists; each is tailored to protect a particular type of intellectual property (copyrights, trademarks, breach of confidence and passing off).
Intellectual property is concerned with identifying, controlling permissible and impermissible dealings with an intellectual product, usually by reference to the consent of the right holder, at least in the first instance. For many businesses, intellectual property protects more than just an idea or a concept.
Universally, trademark counterfeiting, patent infringement, and copyright piracy have become significant problems to businesses in society. Businesses face legal and safety risks. Theft, piracy, counterfeiting of intellectual property assets all pose serious threat businesses. So, it is always imperative to protect your intellectual property.
A business, which exports its intellectual property protected merchandises abroad or sources its parts and products overseas must take into account the conceivable widespread intellectual property theft internationally.
It is often foreseeable that small-scale businesses do not know that they need to file for intellectual property protection abroad. Consequently, they may be a detriment as they perhaps lack the experience, expertise and recourses needed to avoid and protect their products and ideas against theft.
Appointing operations and personnel’s overseas who will remain cautious of the business intellectual property in order to avoid concealed theft of products is an essential necessity to small and large-scale business owners. There are free developed tools and resources generated to improve facilitation and efficiently deal with intellectual property enforcement and protection internationally and at home.
In order to promote innovation, it is crucial to protect intellectual property. But for protection, businesses, proposals and individuals will not acquire the potential profits of their inventions. This consequently instigates less emphasis on investigation and development.
Research shows that businesses have discovered that foreign manufacturers duplicate their products, proposals and packaging; bearing in mind they had never done business abroad. Foreign fraudsters can easily steal your design, invention, or proposals from your website. As a result, they proceed to register your property as theirs in their country if it is not registered in that particular country.
HOW TO PROTECT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
There are different effective ways to protect your property, but the following are the types of intellectual property you should familiarise your self with before doing business abroad.
- Patents (Patent Act 1977) law protects inventions, which are described as technical problems. An invention can be a product or a process. It is also a paradigmatic example of industrial property.
- Copyright(Copyright, Design and Patent Act 1988) is an automatic right which applies when the work is fixed, that is written or recorded in some way. Copyright law protects aesthetic and artistic creations such as literary, musical, dramatic and artistic works.
- Design (Registered Design Acts 1949 and Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988) law protects the way a product or article looks. In the UK, designs are protected by registration or automatically through; unregistered design protection, on the creation of a design document or an article embodying the design.
- Passing off relies on common law tort, rather than the Trade Marks Act 1994.
- Trademarks (Trade Mark Act 1994) operate to distinguish the goods and services of one enterprise from those of another. They exist as badges of origin and help the consumer to avoid confusion between goods or services of variable quality. I.e. symbols that distinguish goods and services in the marketplace like logos and brand names. A badge of origin distinguishes goods and services from one organization from those of another.
- Breach of Confidence Protects the misuse of confidential information by those to whom it has been divulged in confidence.
