News & Events
Wednesday, June. 2nd 2010
Your Intellectual Property Rights
When asked the question “what are your business assets?” people immediately think of tangible assets such as land, buildings, cash, machinery, furniture, tools and equipment. However, your intellectual property is one of your most valuable business assets. If correctly protected, it can give you an edge over your competitors and contribute to the success of your business.
Intellectual property assets are often overlooked and consequentially left vulnerable and unprotected because they cannot be seen or touched. People often don’t realise that everyone, even individuals have intellectual property assets. For example, if your business has a name, a logo, a slogan, a colour theme, designs, plans, specialist knowledge and trade secrets, these are all examples of intellectual property assets which your business owns.
What are intellectual property rights?
Broadly speaking, they are rights granted to the creators and owners of works that are the result of human intellectual creativity. Intellectual property rights consist of trade marks, patents, copyright and various design rights.
Why should you protect your IP?
Protection of your intellectual property rights is important for your business success. If others try to copy anything which you have protected or used without your permission, they are infringing your intellectual property rights. If the correct protection is in place, you can stop the infringement and possibly even seek damages. For example, counterfeiting (production of fake goods) and piracy (illegal copying of property) are prevalent and can destroy a market, goodwill and reputation. Also, intellectual property assets are like all other forms of property. You can therefore buy, sell and license intellectual property. The better the protection of your intellectual property rights, the more valuable they are to your business success.
Patents
A patent is protection for an invention, either a new product or a new process of doing something, including a new technical solution to an existing problem. It is a registered right granted by the Patent Office.
Trade Marks
A trade mark is a distinctive sign or trading style, which identifies and distinguishes your goods and services from those of other businesses. Trade marks can be used to protect a brand name, words, logos, pictures, three dimensional signs such as the shape and packaging of goods, audible signs that produce musical or vocal sounds, fragrances or colours. Your trade mark is a valuable marketing tool that customers will be able to recognise.
Trade marks don’t have to be registered but by registering a trade mark, it is quicker, cheaper and easier to sue for infringement. You can register a trade mark before you start using it so the trade mark of a new product is protected before the product is even launched. There is a public record for trade marks which records both applications and registered trade marks. By registering your trade mark, you will be warning others off. If you do not register your trade mark, you run the risk that someone else will register the same mark and stop you from using it.
Passing Off
Passing off is about stopping an infringer from selling his goods or services off the back of your business reputation. The classic case of passing off is where an infringer adopts the mark, sign or other distinguishing feature (such as the appearance of the packaging of the goods) which customers associate with your business. The infringer uses this or something confusingly similar to it for his own business purposes with the result that customers are fooled into thinking that they are buying your product or services.
Copyright
Copyright is a right which protects the expression of an idea but not the idea itself. It is a right which prevents copying of the expression of the idea. Copyright protects amongst other things, sound recordings, broadcasts and original artistic, musical, dramatic and literary works as well as software and data. Examples of assets which have copyright protection include websites, photographs, computer programs, books, videos, databases and logos. There is an automatic right, which lasts for 70 years after the death of the author.
Designs
Design rights protect the physical appearance of an item or a part of it. There are two types of design rights, registered and unregistered design right. In essence, unregistered design right protects three dimensional shapes, both appealing ones and those that are merely functional, whether visible or not. The purpose of unregistered design right is to protect functional objects. This automatic right lasts for 10 years. Registered design rights protects the external appearance of consumer items which includes, lines, contours, shape, texture and the materials of the product or its ornamentation for up to 25 years from the date of registration.
Confidentiality
Whilst the law of confidence is not an intellectual property right in a pure sense, it is important to consider confidential information alongside your intellectual property rights. For example, you may wish to keep your invention secret before submitting a patent application to avoid the destruction of the inventions novelty value.
The law of confidential information also protects against disclosure of secret information concerning your business such as know-how, pricing strategies, methodologies, technical information, commercial intelligence and customer lists.
Intellectual property is one of your greatest business assets with real financial value. Like any of your other business assets, you can profit by selling or licensing your intellectual property as well as producing a product or providing a service yourself. Therefore, like any of your other business assets, you should seek to protect your intellectual property assets.
At Kirwans, we offer free intellectual property audits which help to identify what assets you own and to make practical suggestions and how you can protect them to ensure that they work harder whilst minimising the risk of infringement or adverse exploitation by your competitors.