Tips to help you protect and
capitalise on your ideas.
We are often amazed at how simple ideas can be turned into a
major business. How many times looking at new products on the market
we have said: ‘I could have come up with that idea!’
But coming up with a good idea is not enough. It is only
beginning of a rather lengthy process that can, sometimes, be very
rewarding. How the result of our creativity is protected, nurtured
and developed will make a crucial difference to the success of a
potential business.
If you have a good idea that you think might be worth exploring
further, you may wonder what steps you may take to protect it.
There are four main ways in which the law in the UK
provides protection for your intellectual property (IP).
Patents
Patents protect your inventions for a set period. Patents allow you
to stop people from making, using, importing or selling your
invention within a particular country or region without your
permission. A granted patent can remain in force for up to 20 years.
A patent also allows you to license others to use your inventions -
providing an
important source
of revenue
for your business. In order to obtain a patent, you must apply to
the Patent Office for a patent.
Trade marks
A trade mark is the distinctive way in which your
business' goods or services are represented - in the form of
slogans, symbols, words, logos, brand names or forms of packaging,
for example. A trade mark can be one of the most powerful marketing
tools you have, helping customers recognise your business for the
quality of its products or services. You can take legal action to
prevent someone else using your trade mark if you've built up
sufficient trading reputation and goodwill in it - but this can be
difficult to prove. For added protection it's a good idea to
register your mark. To register a trade mark in the UK you have to
apply to the Patent Office by completing form TM3 and sending it
with the appropriate fee and fee sheet to the Patent Office Trade
Marks Registry. A trade mark is registered for ten years and can be
renewed every ten years. Applying for a trade mark and carrying out
an in-depth trade mark search is a complicated process. Mistakes can
be expensive and time-consuming. You may want to take professional
advice from a trade mark attorney or a patent agent.
Design right and registered designs
Design right gives automatic but limited protection for the
appearance of three-dimensional objects. A registered design gives
added protection and applies to both two-dimensional and
three-dimensional objects. Design right - an automatic right like
copyright - and design registration allow you to protect your
designs, preventing others from copying or misusing them.
Registering a design gives you added protection and is easier to
defend against infringement. And you can also profit by licensing or
selling a registered design. If you want to register a design you
have to apply to the Patent Office. An application for design
registration requires just a few illustrations showing different
views of the design and some information about how the design might
be applied. The design's creation must involve freedom of design
- so if a jug has a distinctive shape it can be registered because
it could have a variety of shapes and still be a jug.
Copyright
This is the automatic protection the law affords original
literary (including software), artistic dramatic work and sound
recordings that is the result of intellectual effort or
creative skill. This could cover your website's content,
technical drawings or instruction manuals, for example. Copyright
allows you to control whether or not your original works are
exploited by others and to what extent they are copied, adapted,
published, performed or broadcast. It allows you to decide whether
or not you will let others make use of your work for a royalty or
licence fee. If the creation of such works is a central part of your
business, this control can be essential. But you must be careful if
you use contractors - perhaps to build your website, write your
marketing literature or take pictures of your product launch.
Unless you agree otherwise, the contractor holds the copyright.
Copyright is automatic in the UK. Unlike some other forms of
intellectual property, you don't have to apply for it and there's no
register of copyright holders.
In practice, however, it can be difficult to enforce legally.
It's a good idea to mark your work with the international
copyright symbol © followed by your name and the
year of creation. This can:
- have a deterrent effect on potential
infringers
- help your case in any future infringement
proceedings
Other ways in which you can help prove your authorship of an
original work, and so underpin your copyright, are:
- leaving a dated copy of your work with a
bank or solicitor
- posting a copy of your work to yourself by
special delivery and leaving the dated package unopened.
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