Intellectual Property & Copyright Law of Fiji

Intellectual property laws of Fiji deals with the trademark, patents, design right as well as copyrights. The
registration process of the intellectual property rights differs, in some cases, formal process of registration
are followed by the owner to IP (Intellectual property) Office so that they could afford the protection and
monopoly rights to the owner. But other intellectual property rights such as copyright and design rights,
there is no need of formal registration process because it arise automatically upon creation but do not
protect from a third party independent creation.

Intellectual property law has been recently revised by the Fiji government and you should always aware of
the changes that have been done recently by the government. Fiji government clarifies all the issues
regarding intellectual property. The main thing is that intellectual property rights are unwritten and
informal that’s why outsiders don’t want to follow the rules. But indigenous intellectual property laws
introduced by the Fiji government ensure that all the laws should be followed by all the people, whether
they are citizens or outsiders. The duration and procedures of IP rights may be different but the effect is
to make sure that the owner has the exclusive right to use it. Moreover, they can decide how these rights
are used and violated and to protect any other party from using the same rights.

Copyright protects the original work that could be any literary works like instruction manuals, software
programs or any artistic or musical works like paintings, drawings, songs composition, photographs as
well as works of architectures. The owner of copyright is the first, foremost and genuine author of the
work that has been done by him firstly. However, copyright doesn’t protect ideas. Trademark is also an
important sign for a businessman which distinguishes the goods or services among other businessmen.
Trademark can be in the form of texts, logos, pictures or combination of all these. So, the trademark
should be registered by the owner distinctively & uniquely, it should not be deceptive. Any deceptive way
in making your trademark, will catch you as the infringement of trademark law and you may be penalized
by the court in Fiji.

Thus, a businessman must be always aware of the intellectual property rights law of the country where
they are doing business or they will have to start their business. They should know how intellectual
property is created legally and how could be followed all the essential steps to its protection and
exploitation.

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