INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Legislation - Protecting Your Designs

Intellectual property is key to protecting the name of your product or brand, your inventions, the design and look of your products or elements you write, make or produce. Types of intellectual property include copyright, patents, designs and trademarks. Intellectual property can also have more than one owner, belong to people or businesses or can be sold or transferred. Protecting your intellectual property is a way of preventing anyone stealing or copying your work as it makes it easier to take legal action if required.

There are certain types of intellectual property that get automatic protection. Copyright covers writing & literary works, art, photography, films, music, web content and sound recordings. Design right covers shapes of objects. (For more information on Copyright Laws click here)

The following types of intellectual property need to have an application submitted to the Intellectual Property Office before protection is granted. This includes trademarks for product names, logos and jingles and even smells. Registered designs for the appearance of a product, and Patents for inventions and products.

Other areas which can be covered are slogans, so long as the words are not laudatory or in common usage. Colours can be trademarked via different business sectors. For example, Vodafone can use red as its business is telecommunications whereas Ferrari can also use red as it is automobile construction. Domain names are also covered. Inserting another companies name into your domain name will be an infringement of intellectual property.

Some examples of exceptions for copyright usage are for private study, news reporting, reviews, education, research and official reports.

If you are an intellectual property owner, you can become a licensor and charge third parties if they wish to use your work. You can also sell or transfer your copyright agreement through a signed contract known as an assignment.

Please note that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to any other group or individual. To ensure you are fully compliant with all current legislation, please take legal/professional advice and do not rely solely on the information provided in these articles.