Intellectual Property Info

Intellectual property or IP rights are the privileges given to person for his/her distinctive creation/conception of their minds.  These rights give the inventor /creator a special right over the use of his/her invention/creation for a particular period of time. The most common types of intellectual property include patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial invent rights, trade-secrets and in some cases jurisdiction too.

It is imagination made real. It is the ownership of dream, an idea, an improvement, an emotion that we can touch, see, hear, and feel. It is an asset just like your home, your car, or your bank account. Just like other kinds of property, intellectual property needs to be protected from unauthorized use. 

There are four ways to protect different types of intellectual property:

	PATENTS provide rights for up to 20 years for inventions in three broad categories:
	Utility patents protect useful processes, machines, articles of manufacture, and compositions of matter. Some examples: fiber optics, computer hardware, medications.
	Design patents guard the unauthorized use of new, original, and ornamental designs for articles of manufacture. The look of an athletic shoe, a bicycle helmet, the Star Wars characters are all protected by design patents.
	Plant patents are the way we protect invented or discovered, asexually reproduced plant varieties. Hybrid tea roses, Silver Queen corn, Better Boy tomatoes are all types of plant patents.
	TRADEMARKS protect words, names, symbols, sounds, or colors that distinguish goods and services. Trademarks, unlike patents, can be renewed forever as long as they are being used in business. The roar of the MGM lion, the pink of the Owens-Corning insulation, and the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle are familiar trademarks.
	COPYRIGHTS protect works of authorship, such as writings, music, and works of art that have been tangibly expressed. The Library of Congress registers copyrights which last the life of the author plus 50 years. Gone With The Wind (the book and the film), Beatles recordings, and video games are all works that are copyrighted.
	TRADE SECRETS are information that companies keep secret to give them an advantage over their competitors. The formula for Coca-Cola is the most famous trade secret.

If you are an intellectual property owner, you should protect your rights. If you are a user, you should respect them. It is just as wrong to steal intellectual property as it is to break into a home, steal a car, or rob a bank.

TYPES OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are specific legal rights which protect the owners of IP.

Adequate and effective protection of industrial property rights is essential for ensuring the technological, industrial and commercial development of a country. No nation can achieve an adequate level of economic and technological growth without a strong patents system, without effective protection of its commercial trademarks and trade names and without promoting creativity by protecting designs and other elements. The establishment of a rigorous industrial property system is a powerful tool for economic growth. This system should be set in a legislative framework for acquiring and maintaining these industrial property rights which is modern and efficient.

Nevertheless, registering industrial property rights is worthless if their protection and respect is not effectively ensured. The credibility of an industrial property system lies precisely in the application and effective respect for the rights granted under the system.

Legislative measures are essential in order to achieve the abovementioned objectives, not only from the point of view of sector regulations but also from all legislative spheres, through which proper protection for these types of rights can be obtained. Similarly, the involvement of public institutions and private organizations is vital for achieving these objectives.

According to the Spanish IP law, when granted, an intellectual property right (IPR) will give you the right to prevent others from using your property without your consent. This can give you a monopoly in the market, lasting different periods of time, depending of the type of IPR issued. This protection gives value to your invention, and will increase the technology transfer opportunities available to you.

The state grants such protection in order to provide incentives to investors to develop technologies, products and ideas in order to bring them to market. This ultimately benefits the consumer.

In the extreme case of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, where regulatory bodies require a substantial testing and development regime and investors may spend many millions before a product reaches the market, it is important that this protection exists otherwise very few companies would go to the efforts required.

IPR can be subdivided into the following major categories:

1. Patent
   A legal monopoly lasting 20 years granted in exchange for describing an invention and paying fees to the Patent Office. A patent position is destroyed by public disclosure of the idea before a patent application is filed (except for a short grace period in the US and Japan).
2. Copyright
Applies to literary and dramatic works, artistic and musical works, audio and video recordings, broadcasts and cable transmissions. Copyright is also the usual way of protecting software, although some software may be patented if it is a functional part of an invention. Copyright arises automatically; it does not need to be applied for (but can be for register purposes); and lasts 70 years after the death of the author.
3. Database right
Applies to databases which are not protected by copyright (an EU right only).
4. Design right
Applies to aspects of the shape or configuration of an article. Unregistered design right (which covers computer chips, for example) can protect internal or external features. In the case of registered designs, the features must appeal to and be judged by the eye.
5. Trade mark
A mark (logo) or other distinctive sign applied to or associated with products or services, which does not describe the products or services.
6. Confidential know how
Information that you possess, but is not generally known in your industry, is termed “know-how” “confidential information” or “trade secrets”. It is the information that distinguishes your expertise from those of your competitors or colleagues.
Examples can include:
• particular testing methodologies
• recipes
• manufacturing techniques
• chemical formulations
• experimental conditions
• production methods
Know-how and trade secrets are protected by keeping this information confidential. This means that the information is not made public and prior to any disclosure, confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement must be signed by the person who is to receive the information from you.

WHAT IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY?

Intellectual property, sometimes abbreviated IP, is a legal definition of ideas, inventions (like those generated in laboratory research), artistic works and other commercially viable products created out of one's own mental processes. In the same sense that real estate titles and bills of sale establish ownership of tangible items, intellectual property is protected by such legal means as patents, copyrights, and trademark registrations. Intellectual property is generally handled in the same way as any other tangible product or piece of real estate. Not every idea inside a person's mind can be considered intellectual property, which can only be a good thing in some instances. There is usually a commercial viability angle which needs proper protection to prevent theft of the idea or outright copyright infringement.

IP is divided into two categories: Industrial Property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source; and Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs.

The Spanish law terms this aforementioned concept of ownership of innovative ideas as “Ley de Propiedad Intelectual e Industrial”, and defines it as “a set of exclusive rights protecting the innovative activity behind new products, new procedures or new designs, and the commercial activity that exclusively identifies products and services supplied in the market”.