TPT1101

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Lecture 3
Intellectual Property I
Lecture Outline

• Intellectual Property
• Patents
• Copyrights
Intellectual Property

• What is Property?
– A thing that belongs to someone, or
– An item that is owned by someone (or some
organization).

• So, what is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual Property

• A term used to describe works of the mind

– Distinct or “owned” or created by a person or
group.
Intellectual Property

Copyrights Patents Trade Marks Industrial Geographical Layout

Design Indications Design

Forms of Intellectual Property

Images from http://graphicdesignermalaysia.com, http://www2.myipo.gov.my, http://www.youripinsider.eu.

Intellectual Property Protection

• What is the purpose of protecting IP?

1. To preserve the motivation needed for people to
undertake the development of new and useful
things that could benefit society.
2. To enforce the concepts of fairness in business
dealings.
3. To promote research, development and
dissemination of IP and technology information
through intellectual information network.
4. To encourage inventiveness, innovation and
creativity through appropriate legislations.
Intellectual Property Protection

• What are the benefit of protecting IP?

– Individual Benefits
• It protects the right of the creator of something of value
to be compensated for what he/she has created.
• Therefore, it encourages production of valuable,
intangible, creative work
– Social Benefits
• The notions of copyrights & patents are regarded as
preventing government granted monopolies & limitation
of productive efforts
Discussion

• How does this impact YOU? As a future IT

professional?
• Let’s have a quick browse:
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infring
ement
PATENTS
 Source:
http://www.myipo.gov.my/en/home/
Patents

• What is a Patent?
– A patent is an exclusive right granted for an
invention, which is a product or a process that
provides a new way of doing something, or
offers a new technical solution to a problem.

– Utility Innovation is a “minor” version of a

patent, which does not require to satisfy the
test of inventiveness as required of a patent.
Patents

• In Malaysia, it is issued by MyIPO

(Intellectual Property Corporation of
Malaysia)

• Protection under Patents Act 1983.

– Permits an owner to exclude the public from
making, using, or selling the protected invention.
– Allows legal action against violators.
– Prevents independent creation as well as copying.
 Source:
http://www.myipo.gov.my/en/home/
Patents

• Where to apply?

– Applicants must file a patent (or utility innovation)

application with MyIPO.

– Any Malaysian resident (this does not mean Malaysian

citizen) wishing to apply for a patent outside Malaysia
must first seek written authority from the Registrar.
• Section 62A : Contravention of Section 23A is an offence and
is punishable (upon conviction) by a fine not exceeding
MYR15,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two
years, or both.
Patents

• How long is it protected for?

– A patent is protected 20 years from the date of filing

(not from the date of approval) and a utility innovation
is protected 10 + 5 + 5 years from the date of filing
subject to use.

– It takes about 5 – 7 years for the approval process.

• Checks for prior art through existing body of knowledge, and
whether it is available to a person of ordinary skill in that art.
 Source:
http://www.myipo.gov.my/en/home/
Patentability Criteria

Novel Involve an Industrially

inventive step applicable

that is to say the invention

which means that the
must not be obvious to
invention has not been
someone with knowledge meaning it can be mass
publicly disclosed in any
and experience in the produced.
form, anywhere in the
technological field of the
world;
invention; and
Patents

• Novel (Has Not Been Publically Disclosed

Before) Anything disclosed
– Requires that the invention around the world
before the date of
be new relative to “prior art”. patent filing

• It means all the existing body of technology could

NOT reasonably be known to someone working in
the field.
– Cannot pass the novelty test if an invention is
essentially the same as some other previously
patented invention.
Patents

• Non-Obvious (Not Be Obvious)

– An invention is non-obvious if it would be
viewed as an unexpected or surprising
development by someone skilled in the
technology of the particular field (new
contribution to knowledge)
– Must be sufficiently different (with unexpected
result) from what has been used or described.
Patents

• Usefulness (Industrial Applicable)

– The invention is useful for something the
invention must be able to do what it is claimed
to do.
– What it does must serve some purpose or
need.
– The purpose or need must NOT be illegal or
immoral.
Patents

Processes

New uses in
any of the Machines
previous four
classes. What
can be
patented
?

Composition of Manufacturers
matters (such as (such as objects
chemicals made by
compounds) humans or
machines)
 Source:
http://www.myipo.gov.my/en/home/
Patents

Discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;

Non-
patentable
Plant or animal varieties or essentially biological processes for the production of plants
or animals, other than man-made living micro- organisms, micro-biological processes
and the products of such micro-organism processes;

Schemes, rules or methods for doing business, performing purely mental acts or
playing games;

Methods for the treatment of human or animal body by surgery or therapy, and
diagnostic methods practiced on the human or animal body.

Abstract ideas ,
Laws of nature,
Natural phenomena

Invention that may affect public order, good morals or public health
Patents

• Discussion
– Effort to Patent
– Length of time
– Cost of Patenting

• In what practical circumstances should you

apply for a patent?
MyIPO Statistics

Data from:
Patents

• Patent infringement
– Making unauthorized use of another’s patent
– No specified limit to the monetary penalty

• Software patent
– involves hardware and/or offer a solution to a
technical problem in a novel and non-obvious
manner (EU, UK, Australia and Japan)
– Protects feature, function, or process embodied in
instructions executed on a computer (US)
– 20,000 software-related patents per year have been
issued since the early 1980s
• Some experts think the number of software patents
being granted inhibits new software development
Patents

• Further information:
– Cross-licensing agreements
• Large software companies agree not to sue each
other over patent infringements.
• Small businesses have no choice but to license
patents if they use them.
– Average patent lawsuit costs $3 - $10 million
(in the US)
Patents

• Microsoft Is Making An Astonishing $2 Billion Per

Year From Android Patent Royalties
– https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-earns-2-bi
llion-per-year-from-android-patent-royalties-2013-11

• Apple, Google settle smartphone patent litigation

– https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-google-settle
ment-idUSBREA4F0S020140517
Patents

https://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?articleId=1342051
Image from: https://642902examquestions.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/samsung-and-cisco-enter-ip-cross-licensing-agreement/
Defensive Publishing

• Defensive publishing
– Alternative to filing for patents
– Company publishes a description of the
innovation
– Establishes the idea’s legal existence as prior
art
– Costs mere hundreds of dollars
– No lawyers
– Fast
Patent Trolling

• Patent troll firm

– Acquires patents with no intention of
manufacturing anything; instead, licensing the
patents to others

https://9to5mac.com/2017/05/27/patent-troll-lawsuits-airplay-autodial-battery
/
Submarine Patent

• Standards
– Approved by recognized standards organization or
accepted as a de facto standard by the industry.

• Submarine patent
– Patented process/invention hidden within a standard
– Does not surface until standard is broadly adopted.

• Patent farming involves:

– Influencing a standards organization to make use of a
patented item without revealing the existence of the patent.
– Demanding royalties from all parties that use the standard.
Patent Wars

Motorola vs Microsoft Apple vs Samsung

• Android phones
(Microsoft)
• X-Box (Motorola)
Patent Ownership:
Employee or Employer
• Any person may make an application for a patent
or for a utility innovation either alone or jointly
with another person.
• The word "person" is not limited to natural
persons and thus also includes, for example, a
company.
Patent Ownership
• Employees create some form of intellectual property
which may benefit their employers.
• Inventor’s rights to a patent
– The law provides that the rights to a patent shall belong to the
inventor(s), who have the right to apply for a patent for the
invention.
• Employee inventors
– There is a presumption in law that the rights to inventions that
were created by employees, in the course of performing their
duties under their contact of employment, vests in the employer.
– Even if your contract of employment does not require you to
engage in inventive activities, your employer would be deemed to
have the rights to the patent for your invention if you had used
data or means placed at your disposal by your employer.
COPYRIGHTS
Copyrights

• What is a Copyright?
– Exclusive right given to the owner of a
copyright for a specific period to control:
• the reproduction of the works in any form (including
photocopying, recording etc);
• the performing, showing or playing to the public;
• the communication to the public;
• the distribution of copies to the public by sale or
other transfer of ownership; and
• the commercial rental to the public.
Copyrights

• Key Concept: An idea cannot be copyrighted,

but the expression of an idea can be.

• There is no system of registration for

copyright in Malaysia.

• Copyright protection in Malaysia is

governed by the Copyright Act 1987.
Copyrights

• How long is the protection for?

– Dependent on the “work” being copyrighted.
• literary works
• musical works
• artistic works
• films
• sound recordings
• broadcasts
• derivative works
Copyrights (Lifetime)

• Literary, Musical or Artistic Works

– Generally, subsist (remain in force according to law) during the
life of the author plus 50 years after his death.
– However, if a work has not been published during the lifetime of
the author, copyright in the work continues to subsist until the
expiration of 50 years.
– In the case of a work with joint authorship, the life of the author
who dies last is used for the purpose of calculating the copyright
duration of the work.

• Sound Recordings
– Subsist until the expiry of a period of 50 years computed from the
beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which
the recording was first published
Copyrights

• Discussion: Literary Works as e-Books

– Download thousands of FREE e-books.
• An example of a site: https://www.free-ebooks.net/
Copyrights

• Broadcasts
– The duration shall continue to subsist until the
expiry of a period of 50 years.

• Films
– Subsist for a period of 50 years from when the
film was first published or first made available
to the public or made, whichever is the last.
 Source:
http://www.myipo.gov.my/en/home/
Copyrights Infringement

• Copyright Infringements occurs when a person who, not being

owner of the copyright, and without license from the owner,
does or authorizes any of the following acts:-

– reproduces in any material form, performs, shows or plays

or distributes to the public,
– communicates by cable or broadcast of the whole work or a
substantial part thereof either in its original or derivative form;

• Note on fair use doctrine, which

– Allows portions of copyrighted materials to be used without permission
under certain circumstances
 Source:
http://www.myipo.gov.my/en/home/
Copyrights Infringement

– imports any article into Malaysia for the

purpose of trade or financial gains;
– makes for sale or hire any infringing copy;
– sells, lets for hire or by way of trade, exposes
or offers for sale or hire any infringing copy;
– distributes infringing copies;
 Source:
http://www.myipo.gov.my/en/home/
Copyrights Infringement

– possesses, otherwise than for his private and

domestic use, any infringing copy;
– by way of trade, exhibits in public any infringing
copy;
– imports into Malaysia, otherwise than for his
private and domestic use, an infringing copy;
– makes or has in his possession any contrivance
used or intended to be used for the purpose of
making infringing copies; or
– causes the work to be performed in public
Copyright Infringement

• Discussion Topic:
– If you make a copy of a book and bring it back
into Malaysia for your own use, is it infringing?
Copyright Infringement

• Infringement of copyright occurs if the

person claiming can show that the
defendant has done such an act.
– In other words, the burden of proof lies on the
person claiming that his/her work has been
infringed.
Further reading

• Visit http://www.myipo.gov.my/en/home/
• There are no system of registration of copyrights
in Malaysia.
– However, there is a method to do Copyright
Voluntary Notification.
• Understand what is this and figure out how it works.
– Read up on TradeMarks in MyIPO as well.