CONTRACTS, PATENTS and

COPYRIGHTS

By:
John Carlos M. Critica
CONTRACTS
 Basic Idea: Nothing you do on
Facebook is private.

This means that Facebook is being paid for supplying your

endorsement (which you indicate by liking a page) to brands or
companies. You can even find outhow much your data is worthto
Facebook by using theFBME applicationfromDisconnect, Inc.
CONTRACT
Acontractis a meeting of the minds between
two persons whereby one binds himself, with
respect to the other, to give something or to
render some services.
A contract is also defined as a juridical
convention manifested in legal form, by virtue of
which one or more persons bind themselves in
favor of another or others, or reciprocally, to the
fulfillment of a prestation to give, to do, or not to
do. A contract binds both contracting parties
and has the force of law between them.
What is the difference between a
contract and an agreement?
AGREEMENT CONTRACT
DEFINITION An arrangement A formal arrangement
(usually informal) between two or more party
between two or more that, by its terms and
parties that is not elements, is enforceable by
enforceable by law. law.
BASIS OF Mutual acceptance by Mutual acceptance by both
VALIDITY both (or all) parties (or all) parties involved.
involved.
DOES IT No. No, except for some specific
NEED TO kinds of contracts, such as
BE IN those involving land or
WRITING? which cannot be completed
within one year.
LEGAL An agreement that A contract is legally binding
EFFECT lacks any of the and its terms may be
required elements of enforceable in a court of
a contract has no law.
 KEY ELEMENTS OF A
CONTRACT
1. OFFER
2. ACCEPTANCE
3. CONSIDERATION
 KEY ELEMENTS OF A
CONTRACT
1. OFFER
An offer is an expression of willingness
to contract on certain terms. It must
be with the intention that it will
become binding upon acceptance.
There must be no further
negotiations or discussions required.
Sample
 Is this an offer?

It is in fact an offer. An offer to the

world subject under UNILATERAL
CONTRACT
The same as this
 Is this an offer?

No. Display of GOODS is an invitation to

treat. It may or may not conduct a business
but there is an intention. The same as in
auction bidders.
 Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co.
(US 1893)

A medical firm advertised that its new

drug, a carbolic smoke ball, would
cure flu, and if it did not, buyers
would receive $100. When sued,
Carbolic argued that advert was not
to be taken as legally binding offer; it
is merely an invitation to treat, a
mere puff or gimmick.
 KEY ELEMENTS OF A
CONTRACT
. ACCEPTANCE
Acceptance may be defined as an
unconditional assent, communicated
by the offeree to the offeror, to all
terms of the offer, made with the
intention of accepting.
 I do. <3
Will you
marry me?

Offeree (who
accepts the
Offeror (who contract)
come up w/ the DETRIMENTS
contract)
BENEFITS
 Question:
You offer to buy a kilo of oranges to
Mang Lito through text. Nothing
further is said nor do you receive
written acceptance of the order. Then
the next day Mang Lito went to your
house and brought you a kilo of
oranges, asking you to pay for it. He
said that he didnt replied because
he has no aload.
Is there valid acceptance of the
contract?
Does UNILATERAL CONTRACT
applies?
Acceptance has no legal effect
until it is communicated to the
offeror. Because meeting of the
mind cannot be done in silence.
End of Unaccepted Offer

Change of mind
If the offer is not fulfilled
If the offeror die
Lapse of an offer
 KEY ELEMENTS OF A
CONTRACT
. CONSIDERATIONS

Consideration is something of value

which is given for a promise and is
required in order to make the
promise enforceable as a contract.
This is traditionally either some
detriment to the promisee and/or
benefit to the promisor.
Payment by a buyer is consideration
for sellers promise to deliver goods,
and delivery of goods is sellers
consideration to buyers payment.

Consideration must be sufficient but

not necessarily adequate.
 OFFER

ACCEPTANCE
CONTRAC
TS CONSIDERATIONS

LEGAL
INTENTIONS
An agreement, even if supported by
consideration, is not binding as a contract if it
was made without an intention to create legal
intention. Domestic arrangements are normally
unenforceable.
 Question:
Supposedly your company made a contract to
Regan Corp., stating that Regan will supply
you 50 tons of steel coils every 2 months at
the price of 10 million for 5 years. However
on the second year China has opened its
new mega mining companies causing a
dramatic drops of steel price in the market.
You, upon knowing this news, requested
Regan Corp. to decrease their steel price in
accordance to global market. What is the
legality of this request?
 Promissory Estoppel
The doctrine of promissory estoppel
is concerned with the modification of
existing contracts. The position under
the classical common law of contract
was that such modification would
only be binding if consideration was
supplied and a new contract was
formed.
 END OF CONTRACT
EXPIRATION
TERMINATION
BREACH
VITIATION
FRUSTRATION
PATENTS
 On 2015, a designer named John Leyson raised a
complaint to IPO Phil about the copyright of its logo.
PATENT
Apatentis an exclusive right granted
for an invention, which is a product
or a process that provides, in
general, a new way of doing
something, or offers a new technical
solution to a problem. To get a
patent, technical information about
the invention must be disclosed to
the public in apatentapplication.
 Sec. 4 Phil. IP Code states that
intelectual property right consist of:
1. Copyright and related rights
2. Trademarks and service marks
3. Geographical indications
4. Industrial designs
5. Patents
6. Lay-out designs
7. Protection of undisclosed
information
PATENTABLE INVENTIONS
A Technical Solution to a Problem
It must be NEW
It must involve an INVENTIVE STEP
It must be INDUSTRIALLY
APPLICABLE
 Statutory Classes of
Invention
A useful machine
A product or composition
A method or process, or
An improvement of any of the
foregoing
Microorganism
Non-biological & microbiological
process
REQUIREMENT FOR
PATENTABILITY

NOVELTY
INVENTIVE STEP
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY
 INVENTIVE STEP
An invention involves an inventive step,if
having regard to prior art;it is not obvious to
a personskilled in the art

OBVIOUSNESS
Not beyond normal progress of technology
Follows plainly or logically from the prior art
Does not require any skill or ability beyond
that to be expected of the person skilled in
the art
 Requirements for Filing a
Patent
1. Request for the Grant of Patent
2. Description of the Invention
(Specification and Claim/s)
3. Drawings necessary for the
Invention (if any)
4. Filing Fee
CONTENTS OF THE SPECIFICATION

1. Title of the Invention

2. Abstract of the Disclosure
3. Background of the Invention
4. Summary of the Invention
5. Brief Description of the Drawings
6. Detailed Description
7. Claim/s
 Question:
Is the applicant required to specify
the invention up to smallest
detail?
 Sufficiency of Disclosure

Sec. 49, IP Code: any amendment to the application

should not include new matter outside the scope of the
disclosure contained in the application as filed.

If disclosure is seriously insufficient, such a deficiency

may not be cured subsequently by adding further
examples or features without violating Sec. 49
 Enablement
A document may not be considered prior
art if there is no enabling disclosure.
 Non-Patentable Inventions
1. Discovery
2. Scientific theory
3. Mathematical methods
4. Scheme, rule and method of
- performing mental act
- playing games
- doing business
- program for computer
5. Method for treatment human or animal body
by surgery or therapy & diagnostic method
6. Plant variety or animal breed or essentially
biological processes for the production of plants
and animals
7. Aesthetic creation
8. Contrary to public order ormorality (Sec. 22, IP
 Now Lets Patent!

Let us help Bobby patent his

invention which is a cute fluffy toy
ball!
The Invention: Toy Ball

How can you protect from imitation?

Fun to Use ---- cannot be protected

Looks Nice ---- registered design
Easy to Catch - Technical Function --
Patentable
Lets patent this invention: Claim It!

Patent Claim: A ball that is easy to

catch.
Making a ball easy to catch is a technical
problem. Problems cannot be patented but
specific solutions can. What is the technical
feature of the ball that makes it easy to catch?
Patent Claim: A ball comprising a core
region and plural elastomeric filaments
radiating from the core region.
That is circumventing. What if they make the
toy square and not a circle. Delimit your claims
as wide as possible.
Patent Claim: An amusement device comprising a
core region and plural elastomeric filaments
radiating from the core region.
Now let us search for the prior arts and find out
if the claim is new.
 Comparison of the two
inventions
Bobbys Invention
An amusement device
comprising a core region and
plural elastomeric filaments
radiating from the core region.
Angularly offset planes
sphere.
US 3759518
A toy of a disc like body
including a plurality of
flexible strands radiating
outwardly from said
center having sufficient
inherent rigidity to retain the
pattern of a circular plane.
Claim 1: An amusement device comprising a core
region and plural elastomeric filaments radiating
in plural angularly offset plane from the core
region.
Claim 2: A device according to claim 1,
characterised in that it has substantially
spherical configuration.
Claim 3: A device according to claim 1,
characterised in that it has outer ends of
at least some of the filaments includes
enlargement.

Lets say we filed these claims to IPO, they will

conduct preliminary examination and prior art
searches.
DE 3121758:
Self-adhesive mould elements that are equipped with spike-like
rods or bristles characterised by rods that are attached on a
core and that are made of elastomeric material

IPO sent us a letter, Please amend your claims

if you want your invention to be protected.
What are we going to do?
Did IPO overlook something?

Lets analyze
Comparison between two Prior Arts

Lets combine these features and integrate these to our

invention, this is a form of inventive step and not obvious to
people skill in the art.
Claim : An amusement device comprising a core
region and plural elongate, floppy, elastomeric
filaments each having cross-sectional dimension
which are significantly smaller than its length
radiating in plural angularly offset plane from the
core region.
Detailed Description:
Device 12 is formed with a large plurality of elongate, ,
floppy, elastomeric filaments 10, each of which, is
clearly evident in Fig. 1. As will be more fully explained
shortly, those filaments has cross-sectional dimension
which are extremely small in relation to the length of
its filament this are joined in a central core region in a
manner that they radiate outwardly in a fairly uniform,
dense and bushy fashion, in multiple angularly offset
planes, to form substantially spherical configuration
If you register a patent to IPOPhil, you will be given
a certificate for the invention which right will last
to 20 years maximum with annual license fee.
In spite the protection it offers some
company chose not to disclosed their
inventions
COPYRIGHTS
$624
M
 COPYRIGHTS
Copyright is the legal protection
extended to the owner of the rights
in an original work.

Original work refers to every

production in the literary, scientific
and artistic domain. Among the
literary and artistic works
enumerated in the IP Code includes
books and other writings, musical
Section 172 of the IP Code lists the works covered
by copyright protection from the moment of their
creation, namely:
(a) Books, pamphlets, articles and other writings
(b) Periodicals and newspapers
(c)Lectures, sermons, addresses, dissertations prepared for oral
delivery, whether or not reduced in writing or other material form
(d) Letters
(e) Dramatic or dramatico-musical compositions; choreographic
works or entertainment in dumb shows
(f) Musical compositions, with or without words
(g)Works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving,
lithography or other work of art; models or designs for works of
art
(h)Original ornamental designs or models for articles of
manufacture, whether or not registrable as an industrial design,
and other works of applied art
(i) Illustrations, maps, plans, sketches, charts and
three-dimensional works relative to geography,
topography, architecture or science
(j) Drawings or plastic works of a scientific or
technical character
(k) Photographic works including works produced
by a process analogous to photography; lantern
slides
(l) Audiovisual works and cinematographic works
and works produced by a process analogous to
cinematography or any process for making
audio-visual recordings
(m) Pictorial illustrations and advertisements
(n) Computer programs
(o) Other literary, scholarly, scientific and artistic
TWO TYPES OF RIGHTS
UNDER COPYRIGHT

1. Economic rights
2. Related rights
Economic Rights
Reproduction
Transformation First public distribution
Rental
Public display
Public performance
Other communication to the public of the work.
Moral rights include:
Right of Attribution
Right of Alteration
Right of Integrity
Related Rights
Authors create works to
disseminate them to as large an
audience as possible. Obviously,
they cannot do the dissemination
by themselves. They need the help
of persons or entities who
contribute substantial creative,
technical or organizational skill in
the process of making the works
available to the public and whose
interests ought to be protected to
encourage them to continue with
their work. Hence, their rights are
referred to as related rights or
neighboring rights since they are
related to or are neighboring on the
authors copyright.
 WHAT CONSTITUTES
INFRINGEMENT?
Copyright infringement consists in infringing any right
secured or protected under the Code. The law also
provides for the liability of a person who at the time
when copyright subsists in a work has in his possession
an article which he knows, or ought to know, to be an
infringing copy of the work for the purpose of:

Selling or letting for hire, or by way of trade offering or

exposing for sale or hire, the article;
Distributing the article for the purpose of trade, or for
any other purpose to an extent that will prejudice the
rights of the copyright owner in the work; or
Trade exhibit of the article in public.
 U
K

V
S
U
 Sample
Last year you wrote a short story on
Facebook and it was liked and shared by
your friends. It circulates the social media
overwhelmingly. However suddenly you
realized that it was indeed a great story
and you decided to write a book for this.
The book was published and got its
copyright accordingly. You made a request
to Facebook to stop the circulation of the
story but they didnt respond. Can you sue
Facebook for their action?
A lesson unapplied is
dead. -J. C. Critica