Posts Tagged ‘copyright’
Patents help an inventor to check unlawful use of his or her invention by others for their own economic advantage in an illegal and unauthorized manner. They allow the inventor to prosecute a person or company for trying to make such unauthorized use of the product or the process. However, you should keep certain things in mind when looking for a legal solution to deal with such an infringement.
Firstly, you should make sure that there has been a complete and perceptible infringement of your product protected by patent. In other words, it should infringe all the essential aspects of your patented product. In certain cases even if not all these aspects have been copied by the alleged offender, the patent can still be treated as having been infringed. However, this requires strong evidence to the effect that there are substantial similarities and that the final effect that the imitated product creates is significantly similar to the original product.
Secondly, you cannot be a third party and take legal action against the infringer, which means that you should have some legitimate interest in the patent. That is, you ought to be the owner or licensee of the patent for being eligible to fight against its infringement. You also have to consider the law of limitation of the jurisdiction and take legal action within the time allotted for such suits, as otherwise the claim would be considered as expired.
Although you can take legal action against not only the manufacturer of the counterfeit product but also against the person who uses the product, any such step can be taken only while the patent subsists. After the expiry of the patent, no use of the product can be termed as a violation of the patent.
Last but not the least, though patents stand on the principle of strict liability, you should keep in mind that the usage of a patent for research purposes is allowed and it is not considered as tantamount to infringement.
Discover more about trademarks and learn how does an patents protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.
Any creation of the mind that has commercial worth has to be protected from unscrupulous individuals who might want to use it for their own profit. Intellectual property rights offer legal recognition to your creation or idea and discourage others from using it illegally. Here are some practical choices available to you to safeguard your intellectual property.
First and foremost, you must make sure that no one other than you has a comprehensive knowledge of the idea that is sought to be protected. You must be very careful while sharing your idea with people, especially in public or on internet. If you need to communicate your idea to colleagues via email, you should ensure the security of your account with a good password.
It also helps to have some basic idea of the intellectual property related laws. This knowledge will help you shape your company’s policies to guard your intellectual property and prosecute those who infringe upon it. For instance, when you hire a team of experts to work upon the idea, you can convey to them that the provided information is classified. An apt way of doing this is to ask them to sign non-disclosure agreements, which will help you take legal action if required.
It is always recommended to take suggestion from a lawyer, who can find out the relevant provisions of law for safeguarding your rights. Intellectual property laws normally involve complexities that in turn require a law expert to comprehend the intricacies of these laws. The law experts can then recommend to you ways of protecting your work, whether by patent or copyright.
It is important to remember that the nascent stages of the idea development are the most appropriate time for engaging an IP lawyer. The earlier an application for your patent or copyright is filed, the lower will be the hassle at a later stage.
Discover more about Trademark Registration Singapore and discover how does an Intellectual Property protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.
Trademarks provide legal safety for certain terms, logos, images and other symbols used by firms for running their business. They provide the trademark holders with the authority to take legal action against the violators or imitators of their mark and at the same time prevent the customers from falling into the trap of fake items available in the market.
The main causes of legal action for violation under the trademark law are intentional dilution of the trademark of a popular brand or deliberate attempts to create confusion from resemblance in marks.
A trademark is considered to be diluted when an individual or firm tries to damage the distinctiveness of the trademarked products of a famous firm, which in turn might cause harm to the image of the latter firm in the eyes of the consumers. For example, if the trademark of a pesticide manufacturer is identical or even similar to that of a well known food manufacturer, customers might think that the firm is diverting from its speciality, which might adversely affect its quality of products.
The likelihood of confusion arises in instances of use of trademarks that are exactly alike or so deceptively similar that the consumers will fail to differentiate the two. The misunderstanding could be related to anything from the nature of the item to the identity of the manufacturer. The underlying assumption behind such a violation is that an average customer cannot be expected to remember the precise specifications of all the products in the marketplace. In such a scenario, the real trademark owner is at a danger of significant revenue and reputation loss on account of a deliberate infringement by another company.
These are not the only allegations of infringement that can be brought with respect to trademarks. The trademark holder can take punitive action against a company that attempts to sell off its items as ones coming from the firm that owns the trademark. In the same way, legal action can also be taken for unfair competition and other such allegations.
Discover more about Trademarks and learn how does an Patents protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.
Intellectual property (IP) is a number of certain types of legal monopolies over creations of the idea, both artistic and commercial, and the related areas of law. Under intellectual property law, owners have exclusive rights to some intangibles such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries, and inventions; and words. phrases, symbols, and designs. Intellectual property has been categorized into four main kinds namely patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.
Copyrights safeguard original creations, either published or unpublished. They safeguard the ownership of pieces like musical scores, poetry, films, novels etc. They permit the users to exclusively use various forms of their creation in different mediums with sole legal rights of replication, adaptation, sale etc for a certain period of time. The owner has a claim over his work for more than 50 years, which remains even after his demise and any infringement of the creation within this period is actionable.
Patents are legal and registered rights that allow inventors to prevent others from manufacturing or marketing their invention. They are usually applicable to cases like significant biological discoveries, new theories in science and technical inventions. Most of the nations provide patent cover only for a period of 20 years, following which the invention no longer remains in the private domain and the owner loses his legal rights over the invention.
Trade secrets are those secret ideas or information that a company can use for an advantage over its competitors. A trade secret can be anything from a tabulation chart to the ingredients of a dish, or a database containing addresses and phone numbers of high profile customers. Usually, trade secrets are not governed by the state machinery but by strict internal rules and by-laws of the particular company. The most common means of protecting trade secrets is by confining the information to only a few important personnel and not everyone, or by depositing it safely in a bank along with other valuable items and papers.
Trademarks cover words, symbols or graphics that are used in connection with a specific brand or product in order to distinguish it from products of competitors. Trademarks act as a quick recall of the manufacturer in the consumer’s mind and give rise to a particular brand identity. Generally, a trademark certification remains valid for a decade after which it has to be renewed.
Discover more about Trademark Registration Singapore and discover how does an Intellectual Property protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.