Protecting your Intellectual Property Rights

Posted on: 25/10/2023

Category: For your business

Intellectual property is a vital business asset. Rights in intellectual property play a crucial role in safeguarding the creative and innovative works within a business. They are there to ensure that ideas and creations are protected and can be fully used and exploited by the rightful owner. Receivers of protected works need to also be sure that they have a legal right to the use of the intellectual property without fear of being sued.

What Are Intellectual Property Rights?

Intellectual property rights encompass a broad spectrum of works and creations of the human mind or intellect. These creations can include inventions, literary and artistic works, music and performances, designs, symbols, names, images and computer programs. The protection afforded by establishing an intellectual property right in such works and creations is to protect the idea rather than the physical presence.

There are four main groups of intellectual property. Confidential information and know how can be swept up within a contract definition of intellectual property but is often dealt with as a separate protectable asset.

Copyright: Copyright protection safeguards cultural products such as books, music, films, and software. It gives creators the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, and display their works. Copyright arises automatically and vests in the author. As a general rule it lasts for 70 years from the year in which the author dies. Although there are exceptions. One of which is computer generated works which encompasses AI where protection lasts for 50 years from the end of the year it was developed. Following a 2022 government consultation proposals to exempt or limit AI from copyright protection have been dropped. As AI develops this will no doubt be revisited as the government is committed to becoming a leading country for AI.

Trademarks: Trademarks are distinctive signs, symbols, or logos used to distinguish a business’s goods and services. They help identify and associate products with specific brands. Trademark owners are granted exclusive rights to use and protect their symbols and a registered trademark will offer an initial period of protection of 10 years followed by subsequent 10-year periods indefinitely so long as it continues to be a distinguishing mark.

Patents: Patents protect new inventions and technological innovations. They grant inventors exclusive rights to manufacture, use, and sell their inventions for a specified period, typically 20 years. They are made public to share knowledge but allow the inventor 20 years to recoup research and development investment.

Design rights: These are more concerned with the way that things look. There are two categories being (i) a registered design right which protects the external appearance for 25 years and (ii) an unregistered design right which arises automatically in a design document for up to a maximum of 15 years.

Why Protect Your Intellectual Property?

Business asset: intellectual property has a value and is classed as a business asset on a sale. If the business has created something to sell, then it needs to be protected just as any other asset. This maybe through registration but also consider contractual.

Don’t give away something that should be paid for and ensure that it is also protected by those that have use or access.

Competitive edge: if a business has developed a valuable asset, then that will give them an advantage over competitors. To keep that advantage, care must be taken to ensure the full financial value is realised by the business.

Protection: owning your intellectual property will hopefully prevent claims by others that they created the works first.

Reputation and Branding: intellectual property is key to a business’s reputation and brand. They readily identify the quality and origin of products and services, which can be invaluable in building a strong customer base and future growth. This also helps global recognition.

Contracts and Intellectual Property

Most well drafted contracts will include a clause or section on intellectual property. Usually, the wording is to identify the owner, ring fence what they are offering and to give them control of any infringement claims. There maybe indemnities given around possible claims for infringement of intellectual property from a third party which need careful consideration. Licenses and assignments are common contractual documents that transfer rights to use or to own intellectual property that need to be in writing.

Conclusion

For the modern business, intellectual property rights are of paramount importance. They must be handled with care and respectively considered in all forms of business contract and even more so with the rapidly developing computer generated world.