How an Intellectual Property Lawyer can Protect Your IP Rights
Intellectual property is the collective reference for the intangible rights owned by an individual or business over their non-monetary products. Although intangible, intellectual property (also known as IP) can be sold, assigned, licensed much like ordinary assets.
Intellectual property is enormously valuable to a business but often remains disregarded and unprotected. If you own a business and recognize some aspects of your business in the following article, make sure that you contact a specialist intellectual property lawyer to discuss how to protect your IP.
There are four main types of UK intellectual property:
1. Copyright - copyright is an automatic privilege granted over someone's personal work, for example literature, art or music. If the original work is copyrighted then the owner has control over when it can be sold, copied, published and who is allowed to do this. Copyright does not apply to ideas, theories or methods; the work that is protected must be in physical form and permanent.
2. Patents - a patent is used to protect an invention, product or an original idea. In order to qualify for patenting, the invention or idea must not be currently in use, must not be a scientific theory or method, a method of medical treatment or animal or plant.
3. Trade Marks - trade marks are usually given to individual logos, brand names or distinctive designs. A trade mark identifies something as being legally owned and therefore cannot be reproduced without permission from the owners. A trade marked object should not be currently generically used, make reference to a particular product, make reference to the quality of a product or make reference to a geographical area.
4. Registered Designs - a registered design number is given when an individual or company want to protect an original design. The design must not have been previously published. The registered number gives protection for the design's individualistic features such as colour, shape and texture. The registration must be made in reference to a specific geographical area. Once registered it prevents others from using not only the same, but also similar designs.
These different forms of intellectual property can be registered and protected by applying online to the 'Intellectual Property Office', which is a government owned body.
The benefits of having your UK Intellectual Property Rights protected:
- Copyright: it gives the owner of the original material the legal right to take action against someone who is utilising their copyrighted material without permission. The presence of the