Intellectual Property

What is Intellectual Property

• Legal rights that result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields.

• Whether you're an inventor, an artist, or an entrepreneur, you have the right for protection of your intellectual property.

Common Types of Intellectual Property

• Patents protect the processes that make things work

• Trade-marks protect logos that distinguish goods and services

• Industrial Designs protect the look of three-dimensional shapes

• Copyright protects material only when it is written down or recorded

• Integrated Circuit Topographies (ICT) protect your innovative three dimensional circuit designs.

Patents

• Patents protect the features and processes that make things work. This lets inventors profit from their inventions.

• It 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. It gives the owner the right to prevent others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without permission.

What can you Patent?

• Suppose you are the proud inventor of an electric door lock. How do you know if you can get a patent for it? There are three basic criteria for patentability:

• The invention must show novelty (be the first in the world).

• It must show utility (be functional and operative).• It must show inventive ingenuity and not be

obvious to someone skilled in that area.

Patentable?• In order to be patentable, your invention must show

novelty, utility, and ingenuity.• Novelty: To be granted a patent, you must be the original

inventor of your door lock (or the assignee of the inventor), and the door lock must be the first of its kind in the world.

• Utility: A valid patent cannot be obtained for something that does not work, or that has no useful function. If your door lock doesn't work, it will fail the utility test.

• Ingenuity: To be patentable, your invention must be a development or an improvement that would not have been obvious beforehand to workers of average skill in the technology involved. Your door lock must make other designers in the field say, "Why didn't I think of that"?

What can you Patent?

• Yes– new kind of door lock– apparatus for building door locks– process for lubricating door locks– method of making door locks– improvements on any of these

• No– E = MC2;– Romeo and Juliet

Trade-mark

• What is a Trade-mark?• Trade-marks are symbols (like logos and brand

names) that distinguish goods and services in the marketplace.

• Original, distinct, unique. It's all about standing out.

• Your trade-mark helps your customers distinguish your products and services from others in the marketplace.

There are 3 Types of Trade-marks

• An ordinary mark consists in a word (or words), a design, or a combination of these, used to identify the goods or services of one person or organization and to distinguish these goods or services from those of others in the marketplace.

• For example, suppose that you started a courier business, which you chose to call “Giddy-up.” You could register these words as a trade-mark (assuming all legal requirements were met) in regard to the service that you offer.

Trade-mark Type 2

• A certification mark is used by an individual or organization and licensed to others for the purpose of identifying goods or services that meet a defined standard.

• for example, the XBOX design, owned by Microsoft, for use on video game packaging and other goods.

Trade-mark Type 3

• A distinguishing guise consists in the shaping of goods or their containers, or a mode of wrapping or packaging goods, which distinguishes them as being produced by a specific individual or firm.

• For example, if you manufactured butterfly-shaped candy, you could register the butterfly shape as a distinguishing guise.

Trade-mark

• A trade-mark registration provides evidence of ownership.

• In a dispute, the registered owner does not have to prove ownership; the onus is on the challenger.

• Your trade-mark registration also gives you the exclusive right to use the mark across Canada for 15 years. Your registration is renewable every 15 years after that.

What is Industrial Design

• An industrial design is the visual features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament—or any combination of these features—applied to a finished article made by hand, tool or machine.

• The design must have features that appeal to the eye. To be eligible for registration, your design must be original.

Why Register?

• There is no protection without registration. • Once registered, industrial designs are available

for public inspection. • Keep in mind that it is best to apply for

registration before marketing your product.• You invest a lot into your industrial designs. • Registration can prevent your design from being

copied and imitated by competitors. • It pays to protect your hard work.

Who can apply for registration?

• Only the proprietor (owner) of a design may apply for and receive registration for an industrial design.

• Usually you are considered the proprietor if you have created the design; however, if you have been hired under contract to develop a design for someone else, then that someone else is considered the proprietor, and only that person may apply.

Who can apply for registration?

• If you are an employee of a company and develop a design as part of your employment, then your employer is considered to be the proprietor, and is the only one who may apply.

• If you work together with other people to create a design, you should file as joint proprietors (unless you are all working under contract or commission).

Before filing for Registration..

• You must make sure that:– the design is applied to a fully assembled finished

article or set;– the design features are not ruled only by the

article's function; – the description portion of the application

describes visual features, not functional or manufacturing aspects.

Conflicts

• Should another person apply to register essentially the same design as yours, the application with the earlier filing date will be registered.

The Search

• A good first step is to undertake a search of existing industrial designs.

• This will help you to determine whether your design is original, and it will also let you see other registered designs.

• The Industrial Design Division maintains records of all industrial designs filed and registered in Canada dating back to 1861.

What can you register?

• Yes– a repeat pattern applied to wallpaper– the shape of a perfume bottle– the ornamentation applied to a t-shirt– the visual features of a running shoe

• No– the way an MP3 player functions– the material of which a protective mask is made– the idea of putting advertising on bus shelters

What is Copyright

• In the simplest terms, "copyright" means "the right to copy.”

• In general, only the copyright owner, often the creator of the work, is allowed to produce or reproduce the work or to permit anyone else to do so.

What is covered by copyright?

• Copyright applies to all original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. These include books, other writings, music, sculptures, paintings, photographs, films, plays, television and radio programs, and computer programs.

• Copyright also applies to other subject matter, which includes sound recordings (such as records, cassettes or compact discs), performer's performances and communication signals.

What can you copyright?

• Yes– a song– a novel– a play– a magazine article– a computer program

What can you not copyright?

• No– a title for a song– the idea for a plot– a method of staging a play– Hamlet (a work in the public domain)– the facts in an article– the name of a computer program

Who owns the copyright?• Generally, the owner of the copyright is:• the creator of the work;• the employer, if the work was created in the

course of employment unless there is an agreement to the contrary;

• the person who commissions a photograph, portrait, engraving or print (which has been paid) unless there is an agreement to the contrary;

• some other party, if the original owner has transferred the rights.

Copyright protection

• Copyright exists automatically when an original work is created; however, registration gives you a certificate that states that you are the owner, which can be used in court as evidence of ownership

• You file an application with the Copyright Office along with a prescribed fee. An application form and instructions for filling it out are available from the Copyright Office.

Why Register?

• A poem, painting, musical score, performer's performance and a computer program are all valuable creations worth protecting.

• Although copyright in a work exists automatically when an original work is created, a certificate of registration is evidence that your creation is protected by copyright and that you, the person registered, are the owner. It can be used in court as evidence of ownership.

Marking your work with notice of copyright.

• This isn't necessary to be protected in Canada; however, you may mark your work with the symbol ©, the name of the copyright owner and the year of first publication.

• Some other countries require this marking to be protected.

• Even though it is not always required, marking is useful since it serves as a general reminder to everyone that the work is protected by copyright.

How long to copyrights last?

• The general rule is that copyright lasts for the life of the author, the remainder of the calendar year in which the author dies, and for 50 years following the end of the calendar year.

Integrated Circuit Topographies• ICTs (integrated circuit topographies) refer to the

three-dimensional configurations of electronic integrated circuit products or layout designs

• ICTs are all around us: in modern technology, communications, entertainment, manufacturing, medical and space technologies, and even ordinary household appliances.

• The Integrated Circuit Topography Act, which came into force on May 1, 1993, is one of Canada's newest pieces of legislation that protects intellectual property rights

What is an ICT?• An ICT refers to the three-dimensional

configuration of the electronic circuits used in microchips and semiconductor chips.

• Registration grants you exclusive rights for 10 years on your original circuit design.

• Protection can extend to the layout design as well as to the finished product.

• To register, you must apply within two years of the first commercial use of the design. Your application must include a copy of the circuit layout and design

Why obtain ICT Protection?• If you are a manufacturer or creator of integrated

circuits, ICT protection will give you exclusive rights over the copying of the topography and the commercialization of circuits that contain the topography.

• This form of protection complements any patent protection you may obtain for the circuit itself.

• ICT protection lasts to the end of the tenth year (December 31):– from the date of filing of the application; or– from the date of first commercial exploitation of the

topography, whichever is earlier.

Requirements to apply for ICT Protection.

• To get an ICT registration, you must submit an application form with copies of the overlay sheets and a description of the function or nature of the circuit.

• You must also submit the filing fee. • Approved applications are then registered,

and a registration certificate is sent to the applicant.

Sourcescipo.ic.gc.ca Canadian Intellectual Property

Officehttp://www.ipo.gov.uk/