Patents
A Patent protects
new inventions and covers how things work, what they do, how they do it, what
their made of and how they are made. If a patent is granted, the owner can take
legal action towards those infringing it. This will stop or try to stop others from
copying, making, using or selling the invention without permission. This will
involve suing the alleged infringer through a court of law, this process can be
costly and time consuming as it requires a lot time and expert legal advice. The
owner of the patent has to fund these themselves although there is a chance of
the money being refunded if they win their case.
In order to
apply for a patent your invention must be: new, have an inventive step that is
not obvious to others with knowledge of the subject and be capable of being
made and used in some kind of industry. It must not be a scientific or mathematical
discovery, theory or method, a literal, dramatic, musical or artist work, a
method of medical treatment or diagnosis, the presentation of information, or
some computer programs, a way of performing a mental act, playing a game or
doing business, an animal or plant variety, against public policy or morality.
Design rights
A registered
design is a legal right which protects the overall visual appearance of a
product or a part of a product in the country or countries you register it. The
protection is given to the way the product looks. The appearance of a certain
product may result in a combination of elements like shape, colour(s) or
material(s). However references to texture or materials may not be granted for
the feel or texture of it or what the product is actually made from. Only that
these features may influence what the product in over view looks like.
Registering
a design can be a valuable intellectual property right. It can form a base of an
infringement action against others and will help in stopping them from creating
designs that are too similar to your own; if they are within the same geographical
area you have protected your design in.
Copyrights
A copyright
can protect: literary works, including novels, instruction manuals, computer
programs, song lyrics, newspaper articles and some types of database, dramatic
works, including dance or mine, musical works, artistic works, including
paintings, photographs, sculptures, architecture, technical drawings, diagrams,
maps and logos, layouts or typographical arrangements used to publish works and
many more things.
Copyright
applies to any medium. This means that you must not reproduce copyright
protected works in another medium without permission. This includes, posting
photographs of a physical work on the internet, making a sound recording of a
book or a painting of a photograph and so on. A copyright protected work can
have more than one copyright, or another intellectual property right, connected
to it. Take an album of music for example; it can have separate copyrights for
individual songs, sound recordings, artworks and so on. Whilst copyright can
protect the artist logo and you can also register is for a trade mark.
No comments:
Post a Comment