What Intellectual Property should mean to your business? 14 March 2018 Research and Innovation Expo Alan Casey European Patent Attorney FRKelly
What is Intellectual Property? • Creations of the mind • An intangible asset consisting of human knowledge and ideas – Inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce
• Property right – Can be commercially exploited, sold, licensed or even mortgaged
• Can be used to prevent unauthorised use of the creation
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What is Intellectual Property? • Patents • Trade Secrets • Trademarks • Registered Designs • Copyright www.frkelly.com
Registered Rights
Patent Protects the technical & functional aspects of products & processes
Design Protects the outward appearance of your product
Trade Mark Protects signs/symbols that allows your customers to tell you apart from your competitors www.frkelly.com
Patents Patent - protects the innovative functionality – Explain how the invention works – State what the invention is
Prior Art
Invention
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Patents Vs Trade Secrets • Advantages of trade secrets include: – 1) Not time limited (patents last in general for up to 20 years) – 2)Trade secrets involve no registration costs
• Disadvantages of trade secrets include: – – – –
1) May be reversed engineered – no longer secret! 2) More difficult to enforce than a patent. 3) Protection considered weak compared to a patent 4) A trade secret may be patented by someone else. www.frkelly.com
Designs • Design-protects the aesthetic – Shape, configuration, pattern , ornament, digital icon, computer game characters
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Trade Marks • I know it when I see it…
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Trade Marks • A sign (name, word/words, tagline, symbol, image, logo…) • Used in the course of trade • Distinguishes your goods/services • Origin function • Quality function www.frkelly.com
Trade Marks
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The Importance of IP Rights • Registered ownership, legal property right • Business asset • Defined monopoly (renewable indefinitely for TMs) • Territorial exclusivity • Acts as a deterrent to others • Enforceable against infringers www.frkelly.com
Best Practice • Beware of third party rights • Disclose nothing before reviewing for patentability • If disclosing, do so under agreed NDA • Contact your Patent/Trademark attorney early! • Have ownership agreement in place. www.frkelly.com
IP Strategy • Where do you need the monopoly right? • A registered right does not give you the right to do anything, just the right to stop others doing something • Based on where you do business and/or where your competitors do business • One or more rights • One or more countries www.frkelly.com
Case Study Mobile Phone – A novel and inventive way of making the phone more effective than older model – patentable – Design of outward casing giving it a distinctive shape – registered design protection – A distinctive name for this product/catchy slogan used in advertising – trademark protection – Drawings used in the manufacturing process - copyright
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To Protect or Not to Protect • • • • • •
The opportunity to own a market Attracting Investors and Funding Prestige/Credibility The complexity of the system The Cost – prosecution and litigation The unending process of asserting your patent
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Conclusion • • • • • •
Identify the differentiators Distinguish your patents, trade marks and designs Treat them as valuable business assets Protect key rights by registration Use correct marking - ® or ™ Have a strategy…
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