Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property rights (IPR) cover the legal ownership of new ideas or brand names. They can be sold or licenced - and can also be used to stop people exploiting assets without permission.

The term covers:

* patents;
* registered designs and the design right;
* registered trademarks; and
* copyright.

Patents:
Patents are often associated with gadgets and gimmicks, but virtually all machines, products and processes (and their individual parts) are patentable. To be patentable they must be new, inventive and capable of industrial application.

If you invent something, you don’t have to patent your invention. You may choose to exploit your invention alone. However, without a patent your invention may be invented and exploited independently by someone else and you will have no legal protection. The Patent Office is responsible for granted patents, registered designs and registered trade marks. Ex: The UK Patent Office grants rights that are effective in the UK only.

Designs
The outward shape and configuration of products can be protected in two ways: either by registered design (which requires an application to the Patent Office) or by the (unregistered) design right, which gives automatic, but weaker, protection.

For example, A new mechanism in a camera will be patentable but the look of the casing that encloses the mechanism will be protectable by a registered design or the design right.

Trademarks
Trade marks are signs which distinguish the goods and services of one trader from those of others. They provide protection for the goodwill and reputation of a firm in its products and services.

Trade marks do not have to be registered. For example, if sufficient reputation and goodwill has been built against a particular mark, a degree of protection is afforded at common law against others who may wish to pass off their goods and services as those of the person entitled to the reputation of the mark.

Copyright
Copyright offers rights to the creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, published editions of works, sound recordings, films and videos, broadcasts and cable programmes, and computer programmes. Some databases may also be protected by copyright.

Copyright protects these creators from other people copying, adapting, publishing, performing or broadcasting protected material without permission.
Copyright is automatic. This means you don’t need to register but you do bear responsibility for proving the right is yours. Unlike other intellectual property rights, material does not have to have novelty value to be protected by copyright. It simply has to be the result of independent intellectual effort.

International protection
If you do not obtain protection abroad, others are free to exploit your product or services in those territories without protection. Most countries have intellectual property laws but particular provisions may vary.