Posts Tagged ‘IP law’
The number of various types of legal monopolies over creations of idea, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law is called Intellectual property (IP). Under intellectual property law, owners have exclusive rights to several intangibles such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries, and inventions; and words. phrases, symbols, and designs. Copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets are four main kinds of intellectual property.
Copyrights give lawful rights to published and unpublished original works. They protect the owner’s rights over pieces like musical scores, poetry, films, novels etc. It gives legal rights to the creator to use the expression of his or her original work in addition to reproducing, distributing, exhibiting or even selling it with complete freedom within the time decided by law. The creator has a claim over his work for more than 50 years, which is valid even after his death and any unlawful use of the creation within this time is treated as an offence.
Patents on the other hand are lawful and official rights that enable an inventor to prevent others from reproducing or selling his or her invention. Typically they are applicable to new theories in the realm of science, inventions in the field of technology and even biological discoveries. The legal cover offered by a patent in most nations is for a span of two decades, after which the invention ceases to be the sole property of the patent owner.
Trade secrets are certain confidential pieces of information that enable a company to score over its competitors in the market. A trade secret could mean anything ranging from a customer database with the contact information of most valuable customers to a unique recipe or even a confidential report. Usually, trade secrets are not governed by any government agency but by strict internal standards and policies of the particular company. Two methods used most often to protect a trade secret are storing it in a bank vault or confining it to a restricted number of executives, so that it is not accessible to several people and thus stays secure.
Trademarks are words, logos and designs that symbolize a particular brand or firm and separate it from the rival brands. Trademarks develop an exclusive brand identity for a firm and generate quick recall in the minds of consumers. Mostly trademarks hold good for 10 years after which a renewal is often required.
Discover more about trademark registration Singapore and discover how does an patent lawyer and IP protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.
categories: trademarks,patents,ideas protection,business idea protection,protecting business ideas,business value,copyright,Intellectual property,IP law
Trademark is an intellectual property right that safeguards certain images, texts etc of a company from being misused by others. The basic objective of trademarks is to ensure that people can purchase the correct products without being influenced by the spurious or counterfeited ones.
A trademark must be unique and distinct enough for the customers to identify it easily even amongst a crowd of similar products in the market. This distinctiveness of trademarks is recognized by slotting them into four basic categories – suggestive, descriptive, generic, and arbitrary or fanciful.
A descriptive mark is one that describes a product with respect to its quality or features like smell, functionality, form etc. Unlike other marks that are unique to a particular commodity, a descriptive mark is not unique and is not capable of being trademarked unless it has acquired a secondary identification and the customers start associating it exclusively with the commodity.
Suggestive marks on the other hand indicate a specific feature of the product. However, consumers might have to stretch their imagination to identify the real relationship between the product and the mark as there is no obvious connection between the two. For instance, ‘Hush Puppies’ is a popular brand name that sells footwear products that guarantee comfort and prevent soreness of your feet. The basic reason behind the brand name is that the problem of sore feet is loosely referred to as ‘barking dogs’ in some states in the US.
Arbitrary marks are those marks that do not have any connection whatsoever with the commodity itself. For example, the use of trademark ‘Apple’ with a logo of a half eaten apple is not at all related to the computers sold under the mark. Likewise, there is no relationship between the fanciful name Exxon and the items sold under the name as the name is a fruit of the creative mind of the marketing agents of the firm.
The final category of generic marks clearly identifies the items, like ‘camping gear’, and they cannot be given any trademark protection due to lack of distinctiveness.
Discover more about trademark registration Singapore and discover how does a patent lawyer and IP protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.
categories: copyright,business idea protection,protecting business ideas,business value,Intellectual property,IP law,IP lawyer,trademarks,patents
In this period of widespread internet usage, trademark laws gain special significance in the cyber world, especially in terms of trademarks for domain names. This is critical if you want to spread the word about your goods or services across to the consumers with the help of your domain name.
A trademarked domain name helps you in taking legal action against any individual, who steals your trademark and attempts to coerce people into believing that their products and services actually originate from you and that you are affiliated to their website.
Getting a domain name trademarked must always be preceded by comprehensive research, in order to prevent any possibility of trademark infringement. The search should involve a detailed study of marks that are quite similar in appearance, pronunciation or even meaning to the domain name you have chosen for your website. Get your trademark registered only after confirming that it will not lead to any potential trademark infringement claims.
For attaining this, it is preferable to hire the services of a cyber law attorney, who can guide you in your online trademark related issues. This will not only enable you to avoid violation claims but also protect you from future conflicts.
It is essential to note in this respect that a domain name can serve as a trademark only if it serves as an identifier of the goods or services of your business, and not just as an online address that brings web users to your site.
Other than domain names and their possible infringement, infringement of keywords is a new problem in cyberspace, wherein original trademarks are infringed and used as keywords in ads posted through Yahoo, Google, and MSN, with the deliberate intention of creating confusion in the minds of consumers.
Making use of such a keyword is not an infringement if the promotional ads result in boosting sales of the products or services behind the genuine trademark, but it is an infringement if the promoter starts making use of it as a weapon for competing against the trademark owner.
Discover more about trademark registration Singapore and discover how does a patent lawyer and IP protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.
categories: copyright,business idea protection,protecting business ideas,business value,Intellectual property,IP law,IP lawyer,trademarks,patents
A patent can prevent dishonest entities from making profits out of your inventions and hard work. However, to safeguard your interests in this respect, you need to get your invention registered by the relevant authorities.
Applying for a patent can be a really hard task. Mentioned below are a few points to aid you in raising the chances of acceptance of your patent application.
The first and most important factor is that your patent must establish itself as novel, utilitarian and non-obvious (NUN). In other words, your idea must be innovative and must be capable of business viability as well as marketability, as no governmental organisation would want to issue a patent for an ineffectual invention. You must hence ensure that your invention is not similar to some other commercial concept or should not be something that does not have a long term market worth. In addition, it must be non-obvious to other persons in that field, in the sense that others should not be able to come up with/arrive at the same idea easily.
You are also required to furnish all vital details of your invention when you are applying for a patent. In a few cases, you might also be required to incorporate designs of your invention in addition to the detailed description. This is essential because unless you have expressed the complex details of your development, the authorities will not be able to assess it exhaustively and compare it against existing products and other pending applications. Non inclusion of a comprehensive description can even lead to your patent filing being rejected.
The lengthy evaluation involved in patenting makes it a long and tedious process in many countries. Therefore, it is always better to engage the services of a lawyer, who has good expertise in working on patents or at a minimum in general intellectual property issues. This would not only save you time and effort, but also minimize the chances of your patent application being rejected.
Discover more about trademark registration Singapore and discover how does a patent lawyer and IP protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.
categories: IP law,trademarks,patents,IP lawyer,ideas protection,copyright,business idea protection,law,protecting business ideas,business value
Any intangible creation that is capable of being marketed needs to be protected against dishonest people, who might want to take advantage of others’ efforts. Intellectual property or IP rights enable you to safeguard your idea legally as well as to prosecute violators. Here are a few practical alternatives available to you to safeguard your intellectual property.
First and foremost, you should ensure that no one other than you has the details of the idea that needs to be safeguarded. You must be very careful while discussing your idea with people, particularly in public or on internet. If you need to convey your idea to colleagues by email, you should ensure the security of your account with a strong password.
It is good to be personally conscious of some of the basic intellectual property laws. This knowledge will help you safeguard your intellectual property through proper policies and provide protection to your idea against any sort of infringement. One such case is when you hire an external party to develop your idea. You must legally bind them to not disclose or make an unauthorized use of the provided information for any other aim. The proper way of ensuring this is to make them sign non-disclosure agreements, which will entitle you to take legal measures if the need arises.
However, it is also important to call in a legal expert to figure out the detailed provisions available to you to protect your idea. The related laws can many times be very complicated and it is advisable to rely on an intellectual property lawyer for these matters. The lawyer will then let you know the means of patenting or copyrighting your work, so that no one can infringe it.
You should also keep in mind that the preliminary phase of the development of an idea is the most suitable time for engaging an intellectual property lawyer. An early application for patent or copyright can spare you a lot of time and effort later.
Discover more about trademark registration Singapore and discover how does a patent lawyer and IP protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.
categories: copyright,Intellectual property,IP law,IP lawyer,trademarks,patents,ideas protection,business idea protection,protecting business ideas
