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IP Info: How To Protect Your Intellectual PropertyThese FAQs are for general guidance only. Specific legal advice should be taken depending on the precise facts in question.
General FAQs> What is a trade mark? A trade mark is a sign that you apply to your goods or services to distinguish them from those of your competitors. It is a ‘badge of origin'. For further information see our brand protection factsheet. (Coming soon.) Content provided by Briffa > What is a patent?
The government grants patents since there are clear benefits to society from doing so. The trade-off between a patent owner and the government is that the patent owner discloses knowledge, which is then publicly available. In the short term, the public gain knowledge of technological developments, and in the long term they will be able to freely use this information once the patent ceases. For more info see our factsheet on patents. Content provided by Briffa. > What can be patented?
For more info see our factsheet on patents. > Why should I register my trademark? A trademark should be registered since it will be easier and cheaper to protect than an unregistered mark, and can be dealt with as 'property'. If your mark is unregistered, you will only be able to enforce your rights in it if you have an established reputation in the mark and someone has misrepresented their goods as yours, causing you loss. If you have a registered mark, you can take action against them for trade mark infringement even before you have used the mark or established any reputation in it. Also, a registered mark can be dealt with as any other property and can be licensed, mortgaged, charged etc. This makes it easy to transfer it between businesses, and if you don't want to use it, you can charge someone else for using it by licensing it to them for royalties. A registered trade mark adds value to your business. Content provided by Briffa. > How do I get a registered trademark?
Content provided by Briffa. > What kind of sign can be a trademark?
Content supplied by Briffa. > What’s the difference between ™ and ®? These notations signify unregistered and registered marks, respectively. The ™ signifies an unregistered trade mark. It is notification to the public that you claim your mark as a mark of origin for your business. ® (said as 'R in a circle') is a notice that the mark is registered and benefits from the law relating to registered trade marks. Content provided by Briffa. > How can I protect my ideas / keep my work confidential? When you are approaching third parties to discuss a project you should ensure that it is clear that you are discussing matters with them in confidence. Two types of confidentiality exist. Firstly common law confidentiality exists when it is clear that the matters discussed should be confidential or, alternatively, that it has been stated to the person that the conversation is confidential. This can be hard to prove and hard to enforce. If a basic confidentiality agreement is used, this will form a contract in which case contractual confidentiality exists which is comparatively more easy to demonstrate and therefore more easily enforceable. The best way to protect information as confidential is to sign a confidentiality agreement with everyone with whom any confidential information is disclosed. For example, when discussing a project with prospective partners and other third parties such as manufacturers, commissioning editors or producers, etc. This will ensure that there is a contractual agreement between the parties, which can be more easily enforced than a verbal agreement. . A confidentiality agreement (or non-disclosure agreement) is a document that, when signed, will allow you to discuss confidential information with other interested parties. The agreement legally binds those parties to keep the information confidential and not to disclose it to third parties. Content supplied by Briffa. > What is confidential information?
(a) The information must have the necessary “quality of confidence”. It must not be information, which is in the public domain. With the exception of trivial, immoral and vague information, no restrictions are places on the subject matter that is protected by the law of confidence. (b) The information must have been imparted in circumstances importing an obligation of confidence, as for example, where you emphasise that the information is to be kept confidential. If the information does not fulfil the first requirement you cannot make it confidential merely by claiming that it is confidential. The law of confidence can be used to protect a variety of information. Confidential information can include techniques, experimental methods and protocols, technical information, processes, computer software, formulae, discoveries, prototypes, materials, results, drawings, models, data of all types and calculations. The sort of material protected may be of a technical, commercial or personal nature. The information does not have to be particularly special in any way and even a compilation of already known information such as a list of customers can, when taken as a whole, be regarded as confidential. What makes such information worth protecting is the fact that time and effort has been expended in gathering, selecting and arranging the information. The information is protected irrespective of the format in which it appears, thus the law of confidence applies equally to information when embodied in writing, drawings, photographs, goods and products or where it has been disclosed orally. The information need not be fixed or in a permanent form. An objective test should be applied to determine whether information is truly confidential. Simply marking a document with words “PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL” will not suffice if the contents are commonplace and already within the public domain. Content supplied by Briffa. > What is copyright?
Getting copyright protection is easy. All original works of an author, set down in material form, have immediate copyright protection. ‘Original' doesn't mean that the work is new, fresh and innovative, but simply that it originated from the author: that is, it is not copied from somebody else. There is no copyright in ideas or concepts, but rather in the expression of these ideas. For example, a general theme for a TV programme has no copyright, but once it is made or written down, the recording of the TV show itself, the images of fictional characters, the script and the music will all benefit from protection by copyright. It is important that what is created is put into material form. For example, if someone creates a new song but doesn't write it down or record a performance of it, they have no copyright protection. 'Material form' does not have to be writing on paper, but can include saving it onto a disk or hard drive and recording it on a tape or CD. See the 'intellectual property info' section within the directory on this website for numerous links to relevant copyright info on the web. Content provided by Briffa. > What does © mean? If you can obtain copyright protection just by writing something on paper why does the following, for example © Jo Smyth 1970, appear on books, drawings etc? The use of the copyright symbol does not create copyright protection but it is important to put it on creative works, for three reasons: • It shows who the author is, when the work was created and that the author is asserting their copyright; • It puts others on notice that they are not entitled to copy the work without the author's permission; • It is a statement that all legal formalities have been complied with to allow copyright to exist in the work. Remember, copyright protection not only exists in drawings and music, but also sculpture, fashion garments, three dimensional work and works generated by computer programs. A building and a model of a building can also be the subject of copyright. It is often said that to get copyright protection you should post a copy of your work to yourself in a sealed envelope. This does not give you copyright protection, but rather it helps in proving the date the work was created. There is no system for creative works to be registered in a central database. If you can show that your work was created before someone else's, this can obviously be highly significant when you are trying to show that they could have copied you. The best advice, is simply to always keep your rough drafts, sketches, scribbles and notes which lead to the final work that you completed, as all of these will be subject of copyright. Put the copyright symbol on these, as they have their own copyright and they help to show the date of creation of the final work. Content supplied by Briffa. > What sort of things can I claim copyright in? What works will qualify for copyright? The following are the main areas: • Literary works, such as books and poems. This also includes computer programmes or anything expressed in writing; • Dramatic works, the most typical of these being plays, but it can include dance and mime choreography and scripts for films; • Musical works, this applies to any musical composition, excluding any words or actions that may accompany it; • Artistic works, original works of art with aesthetic elements will gain protection; • Broadcasts, sound recordings (that is the actual CDs, LPs, minidisks, tapes) films, cable programmes, typographical arrangements (that is the type setting on a book, the way it looks on the page); • Photographs; • Sculptures, collages, architectural works; and • Databases and computer generated works.
Content supplied by Briffa.
> How long does copyright protection last? Copyright protection lasts for up to 70 years from the date of the death of the author, or in the case of sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable programmes, for 50 years running from the end of the year in which the work was created. > What are moral rights? Moral rights are a special set of rights which belong exclusively to authors of literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works and to the directors of a film. They are designed to protect the artistic sensibilities of such authors. They do not apply to works created during the course of employment. Moral rights cannot be transferred but they can be waived and authors are usually requested to do so. Moral rights give the author and director:- · The right to be identified as the author (as long as the author or director asserts their rights); · The right to prevent or object to the derogatory treatment of their work. There are also moral rights for all individuals, not just authors or directors, which are:- · The right not to have literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works falsely attributed to them; or · The right of privacy in photographs which they commission for private or domestic purposes e.g. wedding photographs. Content supplied by Briffa > What happens to copyright if I put my work on the internet? The laws of copyright apply equally to works on the internet as they do in the off-line environment. As a result, it is an infringement of copyright to place a book, graphics or song on the internet without the owner's consent. There is always a certain amount of risk involved in placing your work in an environment that facilitates copying. However, by marking your work with proper notices and by regular surveillance of your competitors, the risk of loss due to infringement should be minimal. Various aspects of a website will be protected by copyright. Firstly, there is copyright in the 'look and feel' of the website -that is, the artistic aspects of the website, or otherwise known as the 'front end'. The copyright in the front end is an amalgam of the various copyrights in the text, drawings, video clips and music which makes up the whole website. There will also be copyright in the software which powers and operates the website, known as the 'back end'. It is normally the case, in website commission agreements, that the commissioner will own the front end, however the software which operates the back aspect of it will belong to the software developer, who will license it out to the commissioner. Content provided by Briffa.
> How do I copyright my work? Your work will be protected by copyright automatically once you've created it. Unlike in the USA, there is no formal copyright registration scheme in the UK. It is desirable to use a copyright notice along the lines of "Copyright © [name of artist] [date] All rights reserved" whenver your work is reproduced and/or displayed (where this is practical on aesthetic grounds). You should also try to keep records showing when you created the work. If you are creating an electronic work (eg Internet art) and/or your work consists of a collection of 'found' or other images your work may also benefit from copyright as a compilation or benefit from database right protection. Content provided by Tarlo Lyons > How can I protect my designs? (A) Creating a paper trail is essential to design protection. Keep all of your sketches, research material and documentation to show that your creation is the source of that design. Sign and date all your designs and keep them safe. However, there are also services that will officially log your designs. These are provided by Designprotect.com and/or ACID.org.uk (Anti Copying In Design) and/or GA CopyWatch which each provide invaluable independent evidential proof regarding the creation date of a design. So what are the differences between designprotect, The ACID Design Register, and GA Copywatch? designprotect DesignProtect is an innovative service set up by Briffa, uniquely offering cost effective legal insurance for all your designs. The insurance principally covers the legal costs of:
How does it work? You simply send Briffa (who runs the service) the designs you want to insure which they then log with their designprotect log. They will accept designs made to date as well as all your new designs as and when you create them. DesignProtect can insure you against copying in respect of all material you lodge with them. If you have insurance you can send us your work by email or post a hard copy or on disc. Please call 0207 288 6003 or email designprotect@briffa.com with your details and interest in joining and they will get back to you. Cost? The annual membership fee for the designprotect service depends on your annual turnover. If your turnover is less than £50,000, the fee is £150 + VAT. In return and subject to the terms and conditions of the policy, the insurers would make available to you a potential fighting fund dependent on your annual turnover (so if your turnover is less than £50,000 you’d have a fighting fund of £25,000 made available to you). Are there any other costs?As long as there is no claim under the policy there are no other costs. If there is a claim, in common with many insurance products, the insurers expect some sort of ongoing contribution from the insured to ensure that they act reasonably. Briffa have negotiated a co-insurance of 10% which means that: the insurers would cover 90% of legal bills up to the limit of the fighting fund; and the insured would cover the remainder. Is anything excluded?The policy will only cover good copying claims that an insured member of DesignProtect finds out about after the insurance is in place and within the insured year. ---------------------------------------------- The ACID Design Register The ACID design register provides members with independent evidence of the date of their design's creation. This evidence begins from the date the design is received by ACID's associate lawyers, Berwin Leighton Paisner. Evidence of this kind may become important when attempting to establish the date that a design was created, for example, if it is challenged in court. Members are encouraged to send in copies of all their design drawings to ACID, as early in the design process as possible. ACID recommend that all new designs are logged here in order to establish a date of origination. Each ACID member has their own dedicated file. Once designs are received onto the ACID Design Register you will have third party evidence to support unregistered Community and UK unregistered design rights. This does not give any additional legal rights but, by submitting designs, you are effectively creating independent third party evidence in support of the date on which the design was created. This information is of particular importance when relying on unregistered intellectual property (IP) rights such as copyright and unregistered Community design right. Cost? The ACID design register is a FREE and unlimited service available to every ACID member. (Membership fees operate on a sliding scale. For students/recent graduates the membership fee is £95 plus VAT, while the fee for small businesses with turnover less than £100k to join is £175 plus VAT). *** Registered members of Own-It can claim a 10% discount on ACID membership by mentioning Own-It on joining.*** Find out how to join here. Benefits of membership include:
View full benefits of membership here. If you are already a member of ACID, download a copy of the Design Registration form here. Or you can contact the ACID membership office on 0845 644 3617 or by emailing help@acid.uk.com and a member of the team will be happy to send these to you. For more information about The ACID Design Register - click here. ---------------------------------------------- To find out about the third option - GA Copywatch, click on How can I protect my designs? (B) > How can I protect my designs? (B) GA Copywatch As well as the services provided by ACID and designprotect, the GA (the national trade body for the UK gift and home industry) provide a service for registering and protecting your designs. GA Copywatch is provided through intellectual property lawyers Eversheds / Halliwell Landau and by chartered patent attorneys, Barker Brettell and is supported by leading UK trade fair organisers Trade Promotion Services and Clarion Events. GA Design Deposit Scheme To help companies establish their claims to Design Right and Copyright, The GA offers its members a special Design Deposit Scheme: The scheme provides GA members with:
Deposit more than 25 designs within the year, applied rates are listed below. Design Registration For full design protection, members are offered concessionary rates for the additional protection of their designs with the Patent Office. The GA's Chartered Patent Attorneys Barker Brettell provide this and other services, which include:
Cost? The Design Deposit scheme - 25 designs per annum can be desposited with the GA for free (if you are a member of the GA) giving peace of mind and potential savings in disputes. Deposit more than 25 designs within the year, applied rates are: 1-5 Designs - £10.00 each Solicitors and Patent Agents offer 30 minutes free advice on IP issues (worth £100) Contracts for licensing and confidentiality agreements, saves members a minimum of £50 each contract. GA membership fees operate on a sliding scale. For new companies trading for less than a year, companies supported by the Princes Trust, freelance designers, craftsmen and retailers with a turnover less than £300k, the annual membership fee is £100 in the first year. For design-houses and retailers with turnover more than £300k, the annual membership fee is £150, and for full membership – applicable to companies trading over a year with a turnover up to £250k - the cost for joining is £208. Each member is also charged a one-off registration fee of £11.75. GA Copywatch also offers a wide range of intellectual property services:
For more information on registering your designs, click here. ---------------------------------------------- |
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