An Overview of the Singapore Intellectual Property Rights written by: Cecilia Karanja Intellectual Property, abbreviated as IP and known also as Industrial Property, refers to various kinds of creations of the human mind for which exclusive rights are recognized. The Intellectual property Law exists to grant business owners, artistes and innovators exclusive intellectual rights regarding many intangible assets and these are for a specified duration.
Examples
• Business owners are given exclusive rights regarding the use of their trademarks as well as geographical indications that were established by the business owners
• Innovators get protection for their industrial designs, patents, confidential information and trade secrets.
• Creative artists, on the other hand, are given exclusive copyrights concerning musical, dramatic, artistic and literary works which they have created.
Types of intellectual properties in Singapore
The law in Singapore recognizes several kinds of intellectual properties and the major ones are explained below.
1. Trademarks
Basically, a trademark refers to a sign which you use to distinguish the goods or services you produce from those of other manufacturers. Graphically, a trademark could be represented as a signature or a logo of your company.
Using a registered trademark, it is possible to protect your brand through restricting the use of the logo or the name by other people. After you have acquired it, it will last indefinitely. You only need to renew it after every 10 years. Given the fact that a trademark is a type of intellectual property, it can be licensed or assigned to others.
Importance of registering a trademark
The law does not force anyone to register a trademark in Singapore. Howe...
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...es of shapes, ornament or patterns, or configurations applied to articles using any industrial process. By registering a design, you effectively protect an article’s external appearance. Primarily, registered designs are meant to safeguard designs for use industrially.
Why register a design
Through registration of a design, you not only get an exclusive right to ownership but also the right to stop other people using your design without your express authorization. There are many ways through which you may exploit your design. When you prevent copying by other people, it will safeguard your market share. Also, you could sell the design or license it to others for a fee.
5. Common Law Rights
Things such as goodwill, reputation, know-how and confidential information are protected using common law. However, Singapore does not have a specific statutory legalization.
In every given business, the name itself portrays different meanings. This serves as the reference point and sometimes the basis of customers on what to expect within the company. Since personality affects product image (Langmeyer & Shank, 1994), the presence of brand helps in the realization of this concept. Traditionally, brand is a symbolic manifestation of all the information connected with a company, product, or service (Nilson, 2003; Olin, 2003). A brand is typically composed of a name, logo, and other visual elements such as images, colors, and icons (Gillooley & Varley, 2001; Laforet & Saunders, 1994)). It is believed that a brand puts an impression to the consumer on what to expect to the product or service being offered (Mere, 1995). In other application, brand may be referred as trademark, which is legally appropriate term. The brand is the most powerful weapon in the market (LePla & Parker, 1999). Brands possess personality in which people associate their experience. Oftentimes, they are related to the core values the company executes.
Passing off is not confined to that resulting from the use of registered trade marks. While the TMA 1994 protects trade marks as property immediately upon registration, the law of passing off is said to protect as property the trade goodwill that develops in the market place. Although, passing off does not confer monopoly rights, passing off and trade mark law deal with overlapping factual situations, although, s 2(2) of the TMA 1994 s 2(2) maintains passing off as a separate cause of action. Passing off seeks to protect not the claimant’s sign as such but the claimant’s customer connection or "goodwill" built up around that sign or the claimant’s business. According to Alice Blythe, “Passing off seeks to protect business goodwill, which is the trading reputation of the economic undertaking proclaimed by the sign. The business goodwill proclaimed by the sign will be perceived by consumers in a very similar way to which Laddie J described for trademarks.” This a strong similarity to trade mark
Intellectual property is the product of creative thought. Intellectual property law establishes rules for the registration, administration, sale, licensing, and dispute resolution of intellectual property (Stim, 2017). By taking the necessary steps to claim
“Copyright is a fundamental right of ownership and protection common to all of the arts” (O’Hara & Beard, 2006, p. 8). “It is a form of intellectual Property (IP)” and it gives the owner exclusive rights to the copyright (O’Hara & Beard, 2006, p. 11).
Trademarks are "signs", according to Alan Davidson, which distinguish particular goods and services (268). Davidson's position is that a trademark means a representation of a company’s logo which “is protected under common law and the Trade Marks Act 1995” (268). Lundi suggests this protection is not absolute, and that if trademarks are commonly used, they lose legal protections by becoming "too valuable" (18). In essence, they become public property. There are many such product examples including the use of the word Kleenex for a tissue and Skidoo for a snow-mobile. In the case of Aladdin Industries Inc. v. Canadian Thermos Products Limited. In this case, the court held that the primary issue was distinctiveness. The position of the court was that the word “thermos” was properly registered in 1907. But, as the first action claiming copyright infringement was not heard until 1964, too long a period had passed. The word “thermos” in the last 57 years has passed into common parlance and thus genericized. This early case set the standard and created the assumption that genericization must always be negative. However, once a product or service becomes synonymous with the company itself, it can accrue a significant competitive advantage to the originator. Bernard Gova presents compelling evidence regarding how popular Google has become. In 1998, "about 85% of all searches (in Europe) were performed" using Google (364). Thus, Google may be genericized, but most internet searches are conducted using the Google search engine. This means that Google holds a monopoly on the market and being genericized has, if anything, aided in the popularity of their
The World Intellectual Property Organization, Intellectual property is the ‘products of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, any symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce’. Intellectual Properties such as Patents, designs, trademarks and copyrights are protected by laws. The US government offers different types of protection for these properties. The Lanham Act (15 U.S.C.A. Section 1051 et seq., also known as the Trademark Act of 1946, provides protection for trademarks. A trademark is defined as a name, word, symbol, or device or any combination thereof, adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify its goods and distinguish them from those manufactured and sold by others.
Intellectual property (IP) is defined as property that is developed through an intellectual and creative processes. Intellectual property falls under the category of property known as intangible rights, which includes patents (inventions of processes, machines, manufactures, and compositions of matter), copyrights (original artistic and literary works of), trademarks (commercial symbols), and trade secrets ((product formulas, patterns, designs). Intellectual property rights has a significant value to both individuals and businesses, providing in the case of large companies, over one half of their value on return. Since intellectual property rights are so important to the U.S. economy and its citizens, federal and state law provides protection, for example, civil damages and criminal penalties to be assessed against infringers. Due to the importance of intellectual property to a business, I don’t think that its protection and enforcement is going to be a thing of the past.
People move away from their extended families, and traditions can fade, which is why it is important to have a trademark that easily identifies your ...
At the end of the day, the decision on if and how intellectual property (IP) protection is sought must be made in the context of an organizations IP strategy and keeping in line with the organization goals and objectives. For company who prefer to compete in the free market, copyrighted software is sufficient in protecting the legal rights of the software created. For company whose main objective is to collect licensing rights and back end deals that comes with patent protection, than it is advisable to seek for patent protection. For me, a copyright is more than sufficient to acknowledge an invention and the inventor’s rights to claim.
When developing the name of the company, there are many requirements to be met by entrepreneurs to achieve success with a trademark. Names like Coca-Cola, Google, Snickers, Nike, Yahoo, and many other worldwide known brands may serve an example for the future merchandisers that the coinage is the core ele...
Copyright is a protection for authors, composers or artists and other creators who create innovative idea base work. Copyright law is important because of its role to protect the interests of the creator, while allowing others to gain access to it legally. It designed to make sure that creators receive appropriate rights for their own ideas and creativity, and to promote artistic creativity by protecting the creator.
Intellectual property laws, principles and best practices can vary tremendously from nation to nation and are subject to almost constant change, particularly in the rapidly developing Asian market. In order to be distinctive and successful, therefore, it’s imperative that the company’s strategy has been specifically tailored to the Asian market based on environmental analysis.
Intellectual property is information, original ideas and expressions of the persons mind that have profitable value and are protected under copyright, patent, service mark, trademark/trade secret regulation from replication, violation, and dilution. Intellectual property includes brand items, formulas, inventions, data, designs and the work of artists. It is one of the most tradable properties in the technology market.
An intellectual property (IP) policy is a set of guidelines. These guidelines provide employees with the principles applicable in dealing with intellectual property that belongs to third parties and businesses. An IP policy is an effective means of protection against unintentional infringement.
Intellectual Property Rights are the rights that given to persons over the creations of their minds, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, and symbols, names or images that used in commerce. In the other words, it is refers to the ownership of intangible and non-physical goods. It is also the general term for the assignment of property rights through patents, copyrights and trademarks. They usually give the creator exclusive rights over the use of their creation for a certain period of time.