“A patent is an intellectual property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States” for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.” ("Patents," 2014) There are three types of patents, utility, design, and plant. Utility patents protect useful process, machines, article of manufacture, and composition of matter. Design patents pro...
A trademark is a distinctive indicator that used by a company or business to identify the brand, products or services. And the trademark can represent a logo, symbol, word and graphic. You can protect your logo or signature by applying/register through IPOS so that others will not have the chance to grab your ideas or even modify to look similar. Once acquired, a trademark can last indefi...
Patents have always represented a mutually beneficial a relationship between inventor and public. The inventor gets 17 years of basic monopoly on his invention so that he ...
A patent is a way to protect your invention. A patent makes sure that no other person can make, sell, offer for sale, or import your invention for a certain amount of time, in Canada it is 20 years. Since you have put a lot of time and effort into creating and producing your product, a patent prohibits others from copying your creation so all of your time doesn’t go to waste. This allows you to properly market your creation and prevent competition in the early stages of your commercialization effort. Patentable material includes any “new and useful art, process, machine, manufacture or composition of ...
Intellectual property refers to copyrights, patents and other … over non-physical things. Ideas, inventions, formulas etc. are all subject to copyright or patent.
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, a word, a symbol, or device or any combination thereof, adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify his goods and distinguish them from those manufactured and sold by others. (Miaoulis 1978)
Intellectual property rights are personal property rights acknowledged and protected as trademark, patent or copyrights. A registration of the invention or creation is necessary to gain protection through law and regulations. When we compare copyrights, trademarks and patents we can distinguish that they have differences in respect to areas of protection. While patents protect new inventions, copyright protects its unauthorized production or counterfeiting while Trademark is a brand serves to mark the goods or services of a company thus protects this good name or reputation.
Lehman, Bruce. 2003. “The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Patent System”. International Intellectual Property Institute. Pages 1-14.
Before Information Technology, tangible property such as land, buildings, goods, equipment etc. was the most valuable asset of a business. Now economic power is in the monetization of knowledge, ideas and innovation. Work or invention which results from creativity such as a new design or manuscript gives the creator the right to apply for a patent, copyright or trademark and to benefit from their authorship of scientific, literary or artistic creations.
The United States Patent Office (“USPTO”) faces criticism from its users and legislators that the timeliness of the patent process and ultimate quality of issued patents are inadequate. In order to address this criticism Congress made several changes to the authorities of the USPTO in the last decade and considered more changes in 2009. Nevertheless, problems persist and some stakeholders argue that reorganizing the USPTO as a government corporation would best alleviate these problems by broadening its authorities even further and releasing it from external constraints.
April 15, 2011 marks the date that kick-started the most high-profile US design patent cases of all time; a lawsuit that could possibly change the face of technology as we know it. Apple Inc. sued Samsung Electronics Co. on the grounds that Samsung’s smartphones as well as tablets infringed upon Apple’s technology and design patents (Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., 2013). Deemed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to be “The Patent Trial of the Century”, the case drew an extraordinary amount of worldwide attention, grabbing the headlines and taking center stage. The jury found that Samsung had infringed Apple’s design patents on the home button, and rounded corners of the phone, as well as their utility patents covering the “bounce back effect,” and “tap to zoom” functions (L., 2013). Samsung was asked to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages (Stern, 2012). The case is likely to be re-examined, however, as appeals have already been filed. Impacting the product design of new technologies for years to come, this lawsuit has provided an opportunity for experts to further understand the scope of design rights and determine how close is too close in regards to design patent infringement (Carani, 2012). Patent laws are impeding to the point of prohibiting new products created by emerging or existing companies from entering the market; furthermore, patent laws have made it possible for current technology-producing companies to seemingly create a monopoly on technology design.
Intellectual property protection has become increasingly popular in the last century. Many factors have probed interest in this area of the law. A few of those factors include musicians seeking protection of their musical talents through use of copyrights, companies seek to protect inventions of advanced production capabilities, companies create trademarks that differentiate their unique goods from competitors, and companies like Coca-Cola protect their undisclosed ingredients for their products through use of trade secrets. These examples are to gain an understanding of how and why intellectual property rights help companies seek advantages in the marketplace. Furthermore, as the world shrinks because of advancements in transportation and computer technology, intellectual property rights become a large part of entrepreneurship and product development. This paper will discuss the interesting and challenging topic of intellectual property protection. The four basic types of intellectual property include copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets; we will discuss the intellectual properties in the order in which they are listed.
As we said above patents grant exclusive rights to an invention or a process of making and invention. So what does a patent cover? Chemical patents cover the structure of a molecule and also the process in which the molecule is made. This is a good thing for pharmaceutical companies who take out these patents as they can regulate the market. Because these companies own the rights of a molecule or drug exclusively they can restrict competition from competitors. Companies that have patents on drugs have the added benefit that they are the sole distributor of that drug and all profits go to them. Other companies cannot repl...
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.
They are a type of intellectual property, similar to trademarks and copyrights. A patented invention is stamped with the word patent, and a number assigned to the patent. Some are marked with the location of the patent for example ‘China Patent’ and a number, indicating it was patented China. One item can be covered by more than one patent, as in the case of a laptop. After a patent application is submitted, a candidate is allowed to mark a product patent pending, but that does not convey any legal protection. It is illegal to mark an item as patented if it doesn’t have a patent.