Intellectual Property
These right are known as Intellectual property (IP). This is any form of original creations that can be brought or sold from music to machinery. There are four main types of IP rights:
- Patents
- Trade Marks
- Design
- Copyright
Patents
Patents
protects new inventions and covers how things work, what they do, how
they do it, what they are made of and how they are made. If the
application is granted then it gives the owner the ability to take a
legal action under civil law to try and stop others from importing,
selling, making and using the invention without permission.
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| Example of a Patent: 5th Generation iPod Touch |
For the invention to be accepted for a patent it must:
- Be new
- Have an inventive step that is not obvious to someone with knowledge and experience in the subject
- Be capable of being made or used in some kind of industry
Trade Marks
A
trade mark is a sign which can distinguish your goods and services from
those of your competitors (these may be refereed as "brand") . It can
be for example words; logo or a combination of both. The only way to
register your trade mark is to apply to IPO (Intellectual Property
Office). So, you can use the trade mark as a marketing tool so that
customers can recognize your products or services.
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| Examples of Trade Marks: WHSmith & Imperial Leather |
Trade
marks are only accepted if they are: distinctive for the goods and
services which you provide. In other words they can recognized as signs
that differentiates your goods or services as different from someone
else.
What is a brand?
A brand on the other hand is a promise of an experience and
conveys to consumers a certain assurance as to the nature of the
product or service they will receive. IP rights can provide legal
protection for some of the most important aspects of a brand.
Designs
A
registered design is a legal right which protects
the overall visual appearance of a product or a part of a product in the
country or other countries you register it. For the purpose of the
registration, as design is legally defined as being "the appearance of
the whole or part of a product resulting from the features of, in
particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture or materials of
the product or ornamentation."
This
means that the protection is given to the way a product looks. The
appearance of your product may result from a combination of elements
such as shapes, colours and materials. So, for the registration to be
valid the design must be:
- New
- Have individual character
Copyrights
Copyright can protect:
- Literary Works: this includes novels, instruction manuals, computer programs, song lyrics, newspaper articles and some types of database.
- Dramatic Works: this includes a dance or a mime.
- Musical Works
- Artistic Works: this includes paintings, engravings, photographs, sculptures, collages, architecture, technical drawings, diagrams, maps and logos.
- Layouts or Typographical Arrangements: which are used to publish work, for example a book.
- Recordings: this includes sound and film
- Broadcast: of a work.
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| Example of Copyright: Katatonia - Discouraged Ones |
Copyright
applies to any medium. This means that you must not reproduce copyright
protected work in another medium without permission. This includes,
publishing photographs on the internet, making a sound recording of a
book, a painting of a photograph etc. However, copyright does not
protect ideas of a work. It is only when the work itself is fixed, for
example in writing, that copyright automatically protects it. This means
that you do not have to apply for copyright.
There
is also another way of using materials without having to ask or pay for
the rights of use. This is known as Creative Commons.
Creative Commons
Creative
commons n is a non-profit organization that enables the sharing and use
of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. The free,
easy-to-use copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to
give the public permission to share and use your creative work - on
conditions of your choice. CC licenses let you easily change your
copyright terms from the default of "all rights reserved" to "some
rights reserved".
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| Creative Commons Logo |
Creative
Commons licences are not alternative to copyright, but they work
alongside copyright and enables you to modify your copyright terms to
best suit your needs. Here are the licenses which are available for use:
- Attribution CC BY: This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licences offered.
- Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA: This license lets other remix, tweak and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creation under identical terms. This license is often compared to copyleft free and open source software licenses.
- Attribution-NoDerivs CC BY-ND: This license allow for distribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in while, with credit to you.
- Attribution- NonCommercial CC BY-NC: This license lets others remix, tweak and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must be also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, tehy dont have to licence their derivative works on the same terms.
- Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA: This license lets others remix,tweak and build upon your work non-commerically, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
- Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDervis CC BY-NC-ND: This license is the most restrictive of all the six main licenses, only allowing others to download your work and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can change them in any way or use them commercially.
As
I am a student none of this really applies to me as it is for
educational purposes. However, if I was to do this a future career then I
would take into account the rights of works, but also take into account
creative commons website which would aid me through my work.
Web References:
- Intellectual Property Office. Patients, Trade Mark, Design & Copyright [Online] Available at: < http://www.ipo.gov.uk/home.htm> [Accessed on 6th April 2014]
- Creative Commons. Creative Commons Licenses [Online] Available at: <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/> [Accessed on 6th April 2014]
Image References:
- iPod Touch 5th Generation [Online Image] Available at: <http://www.apple.com/support/assets/images/products/ipodtouch/hero_ipodtouch5_2013.png> [Accessed on 6th April 2014]
- WHSmith & Imperial Leather Logos [Online Image] Available at: <http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm/t-about/t-whatis.htm> [Accessed on 6th April 2014]
- Katatonia - Discouraged Ones Album Cover [Online Image] Available at: <http://www.on-parole.com/shop/28176-31726-thickbox/katatonia-discouraged-ones-2-lp-dlp.jpg> [Accessed on 6th April 2014]
- Creative Commons Logo [Online Image] Available at: <http://www.explainafile.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/creative-commons2.jpg> [Accessed on 6th April 2014]
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