What You Need to Know About Intellectual Property Rights

Within the realm of innovation, intellectual property stands as a guardian for the seeds of creativity. From revolutionary inventions in medicine and technology to the artistic expressions that bring joy and inspiration worldwide, intellectual property rights play a pivotal role. They offer creators protection against exploitation, securing their literary, musical, or artistic works, as well as inventions, products, symbols, and brand names.

These rights serve as a shield, preventing unauthorized and unfair use of creations by others. The significance of understanding intellectual property rights extends beyond creators to encompass entrepreneurs, business owners, and consumers. Knowing the types of rights associated with different properties and understanding the implications for owners and users is essential. It not only helps avoid legal troubles but also ensures the preservation and protection of what rightfully belongs to each individual or entity in the dynamic landscape of intellectual property.

Why Intellectual Property Rights are Important

Simply publishing or releasing a creative work, invention or discovery isn’t enough to protect it from infringers. These rights drive innovation and provide an incentive for individuals and organizations to create new and exciting works, with the security that their creations will be protected.

Even with proof that a creator was “first to market” or with a documented first publication date, the creator would not be necessarily granted certain intellectual property rights that would have been available had they filed for a trademark, copyright or a patent. This leaves the creator vulnerable to others “legally” copying their work or building upon it, offering it for their benefit.

Common Types of Intellectual Property

• Copyright
• Trademark
• Patent
• Service mark

Copyright

Copyright refers the exclusive right granted to the creator of a “creative work” such as art, graphics, music, lyrics, or other literary creation including but not limited to books, poems, blogs, articles, etc.

These rights give the creator the exclusive right to use, reproduce, publish, distribute, sell, or otherwise do as they please with the copyrighted work for a limited time.

Avoiding Infringement

It is easy to unintentionally copy or “borrow” from a piece of existing content when writing or creating visual works. This may lead to copyright infringement and subsequent penalties and lawsuits. Having an intellectual property lawyer like Privacy Law in your corner can mean the difference between hefty fines, a large settlement, or in egregious cases, even jail time.

Tips to Avoid Infringement:

• Remember to properly cite all information used from papers, books, journals, news, blogs, and other sources in your work.
• Any information that is copyrighted cannot be used without permission from the holder
• Information that is in the “public domain” or for which the copyright has expired may be used freely
• Works as part of the creative commons license can be used freely

Patents – What are They?

Patent protection covers “ideas” or inventions. If issued, a patent provides the owner with the legal and unencumbered right to prevent others from producing, selling and using the invention for a designated time frame. These rights are granted by the federal government. In the United States, this is done through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Patents are offered on a per-country basis, however, some countries participate in what is a “Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)”, allowing the inventor to apply in multiple countries at the same time.

Inventions that are considered to be “patentable”:

• Novel (i.e. unique and new)
• An “inventive” step
• Have industrial applicability

Types of Patents:

• Design (the conceptual design)
• Utility (the invention’s intended use in practice)

Trademark / Service Mark

Trademarks and service marks represent types of intellectual property rights that encompass a recognizable design, expression, or sign (trademark), or the process of providing a service (service mark).

A service or trademark readily distinguishes the source of the service or product from that of another party. Examples commonly include brand names, colors, logos, and slogans.

In contrast to copyrights, trademarks do not expire as long as the mark remains in “use”