Lecture 3

Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Rights granted to creators and owners of works that are results of human intellectual creativity. These works can be in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic domain. For example, we could publish a book based on someone else's, or pirate software. Things such as software and a story in the book are intangible - they can't be physically stolen - and are called intellectual property.

IPR (cont)
Such creative works and inventions may be valuable because their creators may benefit from selling them or licensing others to use them. Society, therefore, gives the creator intellectual property rights

IPR issues(cont)
Countries generally have laws to protect intellectual property for two main reasons: One is to give rights to owners so that they can get all the economical and moral gains. The second is to promote creativity which would contribute to economic and social development.

Trade Marks & Service Marks

A trademark is a distinctive sign which identifies certain goods as those produced or provided by a specific person or enterprise. A service mark is used to identify a service rather than a product. A service mark differs from a trademark in that the mark is used on the advertising of the service rather than on the packaging or delivery of the service, since there is generally no "package" to place the mark on, which is the practice for trademarks.

Commercial Name
A commercial name identifies and distinguishes a determined company or commercial establishment.

Registration of Trade Marks

Trademarks can be registered for a term of 5 or 10 years, which will be counted from the registration date. Renewal applications can be filed within one year prior to the expiration date of the trademark. Government law grants a three to six month grace period (from the expiration date) to file the renewal application.