What is intellectual property? Basically, intellectual property is the creation of intangible assets, and special rights have been given to the creators to protect such assets. Creators such as innovators, artists, and business owners are entitled to those special rights only for a limited period of time. IP can help businesses by allowing them the confidence to invest in or work with other companies. Also, business owners can franchise, license out, or transact their IPs, thus, using their IP to the fullest. Examples of IPs would be: business owners, as they are entitled to exclusive rights on the use of trademarks and geographical indications that they themselves have made, artists, as they can use copyright to protect their musical, literary, dramatic and artistic creations, and lastly innovators, as they can protect their patents, industrial designs, trade secrets, confidential information and layout designs for circuits due to these special rights that have been put in place. IPs are advantageous to innovators, as they can protect patents. Patents are rights which are granted to owners, so that their inventions will not be used, remade, imported or sold without the creator's permission. Patents are therefore beneficial as they allow you to raise funds for your business, sell your invention, as well as make commercials out of them with the help of third parties, or the like, under a license. However, for an invention to be patented, it must first fulfill certain criterias such as being new. It must not be known anywhere in the world, in any way. This is to so that the public will not compromise the novelty of the item. The invention must also be something that is an improvement of an already existing product, or process. L... ... middle of paper ... ...who know the confidential information, having employees sign contracts to make sure that the information given to them remains secret, making sure that individuals also sign contracts so as to not spill the beans, and lastly to keep records of any deals that have been made that contain confidential information. It is not possible to maintain a patent while ensuring that information of the same invention remains confidential as the owner of the invention has to fully disclose information about their invention during the patent process. However, material can be protected by both copyright and and the law protecting confidential information. In Singapore, this would be the case for protecting confidential information. However in other countries, protecting confidential information may come under separate laws. And thus, this is the conclusion for background of IPs.
Confidentiality has several different levels that include employee, management, and business information. Employee data includes personal identifying information, disability and medical information, etc. Keeping this material confidential is important because the information could lead to criminal activity to include fraud or discrimination; this can result in decreased productivity and affect employee morale. Management information covers impending layoffs, terminations, workplace investigation of employee misconduct, etc. It should go without saying that sensitive data should only be available to management. Lastly, the business portion includes business plans, company forecasts, and special ingredients/recipes, information that would not be readily available to competitors. Employees and managers should receive training on how to properly handle confidential information (Jules Halpern Associates, LLC,
It is important to protect a patent because of the potential economic value of the intellectual property. New machinery or industry processes can be sold or licensed to companies wanting to use the innovation for their own
a car, wallet, photograph, shirt, pen and phone and so on) (Roger, 2012). The intangible personal property, on the other hand, is personal property that by its very nature does not have a physical existence as such, but is merely a right that can be owned as opposed to a real, tangible objects (i.e. stocks and bonds) (Roger, 2012). Overall, the real, intellectual and personal property has the same rights under the law, but their circumstances are very different in
Intellectual property is an incredibly complicated facet of the law. In the United States, we have many laws in place to control and limit profiting from others intellectual property. The issue is not only profiting from others intellectual property, but not purchasing the property from the originator as well. We will discuss why it is important to protect this property as well as why it is tremendously difficult to regulate all these safe guards. “Intellectual Property has the shelf life of a banana.” Bill Gates
Intellectual Property Law used to only protect art, music, and literature, but because of technological development, Intellectual Property Law now also protects a greater variety of innovations including designs, inventions, symbols, discoveries, and words. The phrase “intellectual property” was first known to be used in the late 1700’s; however, it was not widely talked about, nor was the Intellectual Property Law in actuality commonly implemented. Intellectual Property Rights slowly gained more attention by mid-1800’s after the Industrial Revolution had taken place: more companies were created, competition between corporations became fiercer, and owning unique innovations were crucial to winning the competition. However, as Intellectual Property
Filing information and documents (manually and using computerised databases) and being able to find them again when necessary. They must also ensure confidentiality of private and sensitive information.
...elated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) has not only made it easier for companies to register their trademark in one country or another but it has also extended their level of protection against competitors or counterfeiters.
...ividuals and systems should be developed to encourage innovation in a flexible way with few legal restrictions. Government and investors should work towards improving the infrastructure of the nation by providing facilities and platforms making it simple for any individual to innovate.
Intellectual property is property resulting from intellectual, creative processes. A product that was created because of someone’s individual thought process. Examples includes books, designs, music, art work, and computer files. (Miller R. J., 2011, p. 114) In the music industry a copyright is an important tool for artist to use to protect themselves from infringers. A copyright is the exclusive right of an author or originator of a literary or artistic production to publish, print, or sell that production for a statutory period of time. A copyright has the same monopolistic nature as a patent or trademark, but it differs in that it applies exclusively to works of art, literature, and other works of authorship (including computer programs). (Miller R. J., 2011, p. 125)
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.
There are many reason that why is it important to protect one’s intellectual property. Some of the reason are Creator being accused as a theft, Loss of Reputation, Loss of income, Loss of Asset and Loss of Authority Rights.
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.
Maintenance of Records - ensures all Employment Equity records are maintained in a secure fashion to ensure strictest confidentiality.
Intellectual property is the ownership of ideas as well as the control over the tangible or virtual representation of those ideas. Software is intellectual property, as are books, movies, and music.Like music performers and authors, software developers use copyright laws to protect their work and their investment in the field. The theft of intellectual property thus eliminates the resources used to develop newer and better products.
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.