Intellectual Property: Legal Overview

Intellectual Property: Legal Overview

Have you ever been worried that someone would steal your idea, your logo or your special mark? When starting a new business, you will undoubtedly prioritize your clients and every asset that will help your clients to differentiate you from other competitors. While an important number of entrepreneurs neglect the intellectual property of their business, others are keen on protecting every asset of their company. This is why you would go to such lengths to safeguard this asset.

When you are about to start a business, Intellectual Property (or what is commonly referred to as IP) is an important aspect you should consider, create and protect to increase the valuation of your company

This is where the value of intellectual property and legal framework of protecting it comes into play.

What is Intellectual Property?

In simple words, IP is just like any other property right, having one main difference: IP is tangible. It results from human mental activity and refers to the mind’s creations, such as inventions, literary and artistic creative works, designs, and symbols, names, and pictures used in business and commerce.

IP’s legal protections allows people to profit financially or get notoriety for they innovate or produce. The IP system strives to establish an environment where creativity and innovation may flourish by finding the correct balance between inventors’ interests and the larger public interest.

The major thing to know if that IP can be registered locally, regionally or internationally. The essential IP authorities are:

-???????The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and

-???????The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Now that we have introduced a simple definition of Intellectual Property, we will outline the main types of IP, including trademarks, copyrights, patents and trade secrets.

1.????Trademarks

A trademark is any word, name, symbol, or device or any combination used by a person to identify and distinguish the goods and services of such person (including a unique product) from those manufactured and sold by others. Your company’s trademark serves as a brand identification.

Trademarks can be applied to images, phrases and colors. The process of registering a trademark should pass through the following processes:

-???????Choose a distinctive name of your business;

-???????Conduct trademark research to check if someone else chose the same trademark before yourself, and

-???????Initiate the registration process. Your lawyer can put you on the right trach and better draft your registration application.

2.????Copyrights

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, Copyright (or author’s right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings. This implies that if you authored anything or made something that you don’t want other people to use without your permission, you have the right to copyright it. People who wish to use or repurpose your work must contact you first, credit you as the creator and use it for the purpose you think suitable.

This regulation has an exception which is the fair use: it is permissible for someone to use a piece for your work for educational, parody, commentary or journalistic reasons.

Legislations do not provide an exhaustive list of works covered by copyright. Works commonly protected by copyright throughout the world include:

-???????literary works such as novels, poems, plays, reference

-???????works, newspaper articles;

-???????computer programs, databases;

-???????films, musical compositions, and choreography;

-???????artistic works such as paintings, drawings, photographs,

-???????and sculpture;

-???????architecture; and

-???????advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.

3.????Patents

A patent is an exclusive right given for an invention, which is a product or a technique that offers a new technological solution to a problem or provides a new way of doing something in general (WIPO). For a company owner or innovator, this implies that if you find a new way to create something or a new product that you’d want to bring to market, you should first patent the concept so that no one else can claim it as their own. To qualify for a patent, an invention must meet the following three criteria:

-???????Should be Useful: it has to serve a purpose or improve upon something that is already useful;

-???????Novel: the invention cannot be known of or described in writing anywhere else before your application; and

-???????Non-obvious: what you are patenting has to be significantly different from existing items.

4.????Trade Secrets

According to the USPTO, trade secrets are:

-???????Information that has either actual or potential independent economic value by not being generally known;

-???????Has to value to others who cannot legitimately obtain the information, and

-???????Is subject to reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.

All three elements are required; if any element ceases to exist, then the trade secret will also cease to exist.

A trade secret is any piece of sensitive confidential corporate knowledge that offers a company a competitive advantage. Take Coca-Cola for example, its secret recipe may be deemed a trade secret.

Trade secrets are typically disclosed by corporate espionage and violation of contract. Before a trade secret is leaked, it must be identified as such. When working with partner firms and personnel, use nondisclosure agreements and identify materials as trade secrets in contracts.

Understanding the many forms of intellectual property can be complicated, and registering for those protections can be much more challenging. At Dimassi Law firm, we manage all aspects of your intellectual property protection, from determining the type of intellectual property protection you require to maintaining the documents and paperwork necessary to get that protection. Contact [email protected] to connect with our team of lawyers and assist you in finding answers to all of your inquiries.