Intellectual

Property
Law
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
What is intellectual property?
WIPO’s role current activities
Fields of Intellectual Property
Protection
Entrepreneurship and
entrepreneurship law
Innovation
 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Intellectual property, very broadly, means the legal rights which result from intellectual
activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Countries have laws to protect
intellectual property for two main reasons. One is to give statutory expression to the moral and
economic rights of creators in their creations and the rights of the public in access to those
creations. The second is to promote, as a deliberate act of Government policy, creativity and the
dissemination and application of its results and to encourage fair trading which would contribute to
economic and social development.
Intellectual Property id divided into 2 parts: industrial property , copyright
The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), concluded in
Stockholm on July 14, 1967 (Article 2(viii)) provides that intellectual property shall include rights
relating to:

- literary, artistic and scientific works,

- performances of performing artists, phonograms and broadcasts,
- inventions in all fields of human endeavor,
- scientific discoveries,
- industrial designs,
- trademarks, service marks and commercial names and designations,
- protection against unfair competition,
and all other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic
fields.

The areas mentioned as literary, artistic and scientific works belong to the copyright branch
of intellectual property. The areas mentioned as performances of performing artists, phonograms
and broadcasts are usually called “related rights,” that is, rights related to copyright. The areas
mentioned as inventions, industrial designs, trademarks, service marks and commercial names and
designations constitute the industrial property branch of intellectual property.
 Scientific discoveries, the remaining area mentioned in the WIPO Convention, are not the
same as inventions. The Geneva Treaty on the International Recording of Scientific Discoveries
(1978) defines a scientific discovery as “the recognition of phenomena, properties or laws of the
material universe not hitherto recognized and capable of verification” (Article 1(1)(i)). Inventions are
new solutions to specific technical problems. Such solutions must, naturally, rely on the properties
or laws of the material universe (otherwise they could not be materially or “technically” applied),
but those properties or laws need not be properties or laws “not hitherto recognized.” An
invention puts to new use, to new technical use, the said properties or laws, whether they are
recognized (“discovered”) simultaneously with the making of the invention or whether they were
already recognized (“discovered”) before, and independently of, the invention.
 WIPO HISTORY
 1873 – international exhibitions in Vienna

 1883 - birth of Paris convention for the protection of Industrial Property

 1886 – adoption of Berne Convention for Protection of literary and artistic works

 Paris Berne convention each set up an International Bureau

 1893-BIRPI

 1960 – BIRPI moved to Geneva

 1970 – WIPO was established

 1974 – WIPO became specialized agency

 Mission and Activities
 The mission of WIPO is to promote through international cooperation the creation,
dissemination, use and protection of works of the human mind for the economic, cultural and social
progress of all mankind. Its effect is to contribute to a balance between the stimulation of creativity
worldwide, by sufficiently protecting the moral and material interests of creators on the one hand,
and providing access to the socio-economic and cultural benefits of such creativity worldwide on
the other.

 WIPO’s cooperation for development program is closely interwoven with governmental and
intergovernmental cooperation, including WIPO’s agreement with the World Trade Organization
(WTO), whereby WIPO assists developing countries in the implementation of WTO’s Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

 The problem of development is compounded by rapid technological and scientific progress. WIPO’s
approach is twofold: It is to identify and to promote international solutions to the legal and
administrative problems posed by digital technology, especially the Internet, to the traditional
notions and practices of intellectual property.
Status: Intergovernmental Organization

Member states: 184

Staff:1500

Treaties administered: 24

Guiding principles:
Transparency, Accountability, Consensus
 Main activities
Norm setting:

Registration:

International classification and standardization activities

Program activities : IP for Development

Fields of Intellectual
Property Protection:

1) Patents
2)Copyrights
3)Trademarks
4)Trade secrets
5)Protection against
unfair protection
 1)Trademarks
 Any distinctive work, name, symbol, or device (image or appearance) or combination used to
distinguish its goods or services from others. The owner has exclusive right to use that mark or
trade dress
 "Descriptive" marks must acquire distinctiveness through secondary meaning - consumers have
come to recognize the mark as a source indicator - to be protectable. "Generic" terms are used
to refer to the product or service itself and cannot be used as trademarks.
 Distinctiveness of trademarks
Fanciful marks
Arbitrary marks
Suggestive marks
Descriptive marks
Generic terms
Trade dress is a legal term of art that generally refers to characteristics of the visual appearance of
a product or its packaging (or even the design of a building) that signify the source of the product
to consumers. Trade dress is a form of intellectual property.
Legal requirements: It can be difficult to obtain protection for trade dress, as applicants must prove
that the design has secondary meaning to consumers and is then further limited by the functionality
doctrine
What things can be Trademarked:
-name
-word
-phrase
-logo
-design
-image
-distinctive mark
-motto,
-device
-implement that manufacturer stamps, prints,
or affixes to goods

Not Trademarked
-Color
-Sound
Unless have secondary meaning
Types of trademark
 Word Marks
For example: KODAK

 Design Marks
For example: Nike

 Composite Marks
For example: McDonald’s
 2)Patents
 Definition: A patent is a document, issued, upon application, by a government office (or a
regional
office acting for several countries), which describes an invention and creates a legal situation in
which the patented invention can normally only be exploited (manufactured, used, sold, imported)
with the authorization of the owner of the patent. “Invention” means a solution to a specific
problem in the field of technology. An invention may relate to a product or a process. The
protection conferred by the patent is limited in time (generally 20 years).
 In a number of countries, inventions are also protectable through registration under the
name of “utility model” or “short-term patent.” The requirements are somewhat less strict than
for patents, in particular in respect of inventive step, and in comparison with patents the fees are
lower, and the duration of protection is shorter, but otherwise the rights under the utility model or
short-term patent are similar.

There are three types of patents: utility patents, plant patents, and design
patents
Subject matter which may be excluded from patentability includes the following (see also
Article 27.3 of the TRIPS Agreement). Examples of fields of technology which may be excluded
from the scope of patentable subject matter includes the following:

- discoveries of materials or substances already existing in nature;

- scientific theories or mathematical methods;
- plants and animals other than microorganisms, and essentially biological processes for the
production of plants and animals, other than non-biological and microbiological processes;
- schemes, rules or methods, such as those for doing business, performing purely mental
acts or playing games;
- methods of treatment for humans or animals, or diagnostic methods practiced on humans
or animals (but not products for use in such methods).
 Disclosure of the Invention
 An additional requirement of patentability is whether or not the invention is sufficiently
disclosed in the application.
 The application must disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear for the invention to
be carried out by a person skilled in the art.
 The description should set out at least one mode for carrying out the invention claimed. This
should be done in terms of examples, where appropriate, and with reference to the drawings, if
any. In some countries, the description is required to disclose the best mode for carrying out the
invention known to the applicant.
 Whether or not there is an examination as to substance, some jurisdictions provide for an
opposition procedure which may be instituted either before or after the grant of a patent. An
opposition procedure is designed to allow third parties to present objections to the grant of a
patent.
 So that oppositions may be filed, the public must be informed of the content of the
application, and this is done by the Patent Office by publication of a notice in an official journal or
gazette to the effect that:
- the application is open to public inspection; and/or
- the Patent Office will, unless opposition is filed within a prescribed period, grant a patent;
or
- a patent has been granted on the application
 3)Trade Secrets
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, commercial
method, or compilation of information not generally known or reasonably
ascertainable by others by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over
competitors or customers.
The precise language by which a trade secret is defined varies by jurisdiction (as do
the particular types of information that are subject to trade secret protection).
However, there are three factors that, although subject to differing interpretations, are
common to all such definitions: a trade secret is information that:

 Is not generally known to the public;

 Confers some sort of economic benefit on its holder (where this benefit must
derive specifically from its not being publicly known, not just from the value of
the information itself);
 Is the subject of reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.
 These three aspects are also incorporated in the TRIPS Agreement in Article 39.
 4)Copyrights
Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that
grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use
and distribution. This is usually only for a limited time. The
exclusive rights are not absolute but limited by limitations and
exceptions to copyright law, including fair use. A major limitation
on copyright is that copyright protects only the original
expression of ideas, and not the underlying ideas themselves.
Copyright is a form of intellectual property, applicable to certain
forms of creative work. Some, but not all jurisdictions require
"fixing" copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared
among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use
or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights
holders. These rights frequently include reproduction, control
over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and
moral rights such as attribution.
 5)Protection against unfair
competition
As a general rule, any act or practice carried out in the course of industrial or commercial activities contrary to
honest practices constitutes an act of unfair competition; the decisive criterion being “contrary to honest practices”.
In Belgium and Luxembourg honest practices are sometimes referred to as “honest trade practices”, in Switzerland
and Spain as “the principle of good faith” and in Italy as “professional correctness”.

It is not easy to find a clear-cut and worldwide definition of what constitutes an act contrary to honest practices.
Standards of ‘honesty’ and ‘fairness’ may differ from country to country to reflect the economic, sociological and
moral concepts of a given society. Therefore, the notion of ‘honesty’ has to be interpreted by the judicial bodies of
the country concerned. Conceptions of honest practices established by international trade should also be taken into
consideration, especially in cases of competition between organisations in different countries.
Protection against unfair competition is an ever-evolving notion that has to adapt to the
evolution of trade, and the development of new principles and obligations for participants
in the business market.
Originally designed to protect the ‘honest businessman’, the scope of protection against
unfair competition has now been enlarged to include protection of the customer.
Nowadays laws against unfair competition aim to ensure fair competition in the interests
of all concerned.
 Entrepreneurship
The capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with
any of its risks in order to make a profit. The most obvious example of entrepreneurship is the
starting of new businesses.
In economics, entrepreneurship combined with land, labor, natural resources and capital can
produce profit. Entrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risk-taking, and is an
essential part of a nation's ability to succeed in an ever changing and increasingly competitive
global marketplace.
 MAIN TERMS
 Attribution Listing focuses on an attribute or an object in order to determine
how the attribute can be improved.

 Lateral thinking solving problems through an indirect or creative approach.

 Brainstorming is a creative-thinking technique involving the identification of as

many different ideas as possible during a certain time frame .

 Synectics bringing different things together to create a unified connection.

 Morphological analysis is symmetrically structuring and investigating many

possible relationships of complex problems.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
LAW OF AR
INNOVATION
Inventions are the bedrock of innovation. An invention is a new solution to a technical problem and can
be protected through patents. Patents protect the interests of inventors whose technologies are truly
groundbreaking and commercially successful, by ensuring that an inventor can control the commercial
use of their invention.

An individual or company that holds a patent has the right to prevent others from making, selling,
retailing, or importing that technology. This creates opportunities for inventors to sell, trade or license
their patented technologies with others who may want to use them.

The criteria that need to be satisfied to obtain a patent are set out in national IP laws and may differ from
one country to another. But generally, to obtain a patent an inventor needs to demonstrate that their
technology is new (novel), useful and not obvious to someone working in the related field. To do this,
they are required to describe how their technology works and what it can do.
A patent can last up to 20 years, but the patent holder usually has to
pay certain fees periodically throughout that 20-year period for the
patent to remain valid. In practice, this means that if a technology
has limited commercial value, the patent holder may decide to
abandon the patent, at which point the technology falls into the
public domain and may be freely used.
 Infringement
Exclusive Right of a Patent Owner
Generally speaking, a patentee acquires the right, enforceable at law, to decide who shall and who shall not exploit his patented invention.
He retains this right for the term of the patent, provided he pays any necessary renewal or maintenance fees.
 The patent owner’s legal rights over his invention are usually limited in a number of quite different ways.
Firstly, the claims which define the monopoly may be subject to amendment or invalidation by the courts in respect of defects which were not
detected prior to the grant of the patent.
 Secondly, where the invention is an improvement or development of an earlier subsisting patent, the patent owner may need to obtain a
license and pay royalties to the earlier patent owner.
 Thirdly, the patent owner’s rights are usually limited by the patent law, quite apart from the
question of validity of his patent. In most patent systems, for example, the patent owner is required to work his invention, either on his own
behalf, or by licensing others to use it, if he wishes to retain his monopoly. A non-voluntary license may, for instance, be granted to third
parties if it can be demonstrated that the patented invention is not worked or is insufficiently worked in the country.
 Finally, a fourth legal limitation on a patent owner’s right to exploit his invention is that patented inventions may often be used by
Government or by third parties authorized by Government, where the public interest so requires, on terms fixed by agreement or by the
courts. With the exception of the limitations just referred to, the grant of a patent allows its owner to exclude others from exploiting the
patented invention. The right of the owner is called exclusive because it allows the exclusion of others from exploiting the invention and
because the owner is the only one allowed to exploit the invention as long as others are not given an authorization, for example, by way
of license to do so. This exclusive right of the patent owner has two main applications in practice, namely protection against infringement
and the possibility of assigning or licensing the right, in part or in whole.