Protecting Your Ideas Designs and Brands Through Correct Use of Patents, Copyrights and Design Registration

1. Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys
Being Proactive in Protecting Your Business

2. Emma Johnson
Associate

3. Introduction
• What is intellectual property, and why should
it be protected?
• An overview of the different types of
Intellectual Property (IP) right
• Steps you can take to protect your rights

4. Intellectual Property (IP)
What is it?
• Virtually anything that is the product
of creative thought
For examples:
®
• Designs
• Photographs & Pictures
• Trade marks
• Text
• Inventions

5. Why should we protect our IP?
• It costs you something to create it
• It has a value to your business
• That value can be reduced if it is misused
Ask yourself:
“Would I be annoyed if someone else used my photographs,
website text, designs, brand names?”

6. Yes?

7. You need to protect the IP concerned

8. Main Forms of IP protection
• Copyright
• Design right
• Registered designs
• Registered trade marks
• Patents

9. Copyright

10. Copyright
• Covers:
– Written works,
©
– Artistic creations, such as paintings,
– Photographs,
– Music, including lyrics,
– Broadcasts and films,
– Spoken word and performances,
– Computer programs and databases,
– And more…

11. Copyright
• Automatically created when the picture is taken, text written,
etc.
• No need to register copyright in the UK
• The work needs to be original
• Generally lasts for the life of the creator plus 70 years
• Only infringed by copying
• Need good records of creation to enforce

12. Copyright – who owns it?
• The creator is the first owner, unless
– the work is created by an employee in the course of their
employment – then the first owner is the employer
• IMPORTANT:
If you commission someone to create copyright works you
should obtain a written assignment of the copyright

13. Designs

14. Design Right (Unregistered designs)
• Covers the shape or configuration of industrially produced
items
• There are some exceptions:
– 2-dimensional patterns
– Designs which are ordinary or “commonplace”
– Features which must have a certain appearance in order
to fit another part or which must match another part
• Comes into existence automatically – does not have to be
registered
• Life span max 15 years

15. Design Right (Unregistered designs)
• Only infringed by copying
• Need good records of creation to enforce
• Creator is the first owner, unless:
– The design is created as part of employment, in which
case the employer is first owner, or
– The design is created as a result of a commission – then
commissioner is owner

16. Registered Designs
• Need to apply for protection
– generally within 1 year of publishing the design
– before disclosure out of confidence if you want protection
in some countries outside of Europe
• Need to file application which includes “representations”, i.e.
drawings or photographs of the design
• Protects what a product looks like

17. Registered Designs - advantages
• Can protect 2-dimensional designs, e.g. patterns, as well as
3D designs
• Last up to 25 years if renewal fees paid every 5 years
• Infringed by making something that looks the same or very
similar – no need for copying
• Can be complementary to patent protection

18. Patents

19. Patents
• Protect inventions
– e.g. a product, or how it is made, or how it works
• The invention needs to fulfil the patentability criteria
• Lasts for up to 20 years if annual renewal fees paid
• Infringed by anyone who uses the patented invention, in the
relevant territory, without permission
• Person entitled to apply is the inventor, unless an invention is
made in the course of employment when it is the employer
• Again beware if you commission a development

20. Is a patent the right form of protection?
• YES, if you want to:
– protect a market and keep competitors out
– use as a bargaining tool
– irritate a competitor
• NO, if:
– Obtaining patent protection will not be cost-effective
– for example your product will have a short life
– Your proposal is already known

21. Confidentiality
• Avoid disclosure before filing a patent
application, if possible
• If the invention must be disclosed:
− the disclosure should be minimal
− must be made in confidence
(preferably only after signing a
confidentiality agreement)

22. Trade Marks

23. Trade Marks
• Protect your trade mark (word, logo, scent,
jingle, slogan, etc.)
• Trade marks should be distinctive and not
descriptive of the goods or services you
intend to provide
• Can be very valuable

24. Types of trade marks
KODAK
®

25. Registered Trade Marks
• Easier to enforce than unregistered
rights
®
• Can last indefinitely
• Infringed by the use of the same or
similar mark used in connection with the
same or similar goods/services
• Renewal fees (payable every 10 years
in most territories)

26. A real life example…
Apple and iPhone are The appearance of the
registered trade marks phone is protected by
registered designs
The technical features of The software which
the phone are protected makes the phone work,
by a multitude of patents the user manuals and
promotional materials are
protected by copyright

27. Thank you for your attention
ejohnson@forresters.co.uk

28. More Information
Where to find us…
• Forresters Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys
www.forresters.co.uk
Other useful links
• UK Intellectual Property Office
www.ipo.gov.uk
• Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA)
www.cipa.org.uk
• Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA)
www.itma.org.uk
• Business Insight/Creative Insight – Birmingham Central
Library
http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/businessinsight