All you ever wanted to know about Intellectual Property Rights

By: Legal Virtue

Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property Rights are the rights given to an individual and the company over their creativity. IPR is related to art, articles, ideas or other intangible assets. These rights give the creator who could be an individual or a company an exclusive right over the use of their creation for a certain period-of-time (except for trademarks). The reason this right came into existence is to encourage creativity and protect it from imitating or taken advantage or credit by the non-deserving.

Following are the Intellectual Property Rights.

Copyright:

Copyright is the right creators have over their creations. It legally protects the creators for their work of art, which could be content, a story, a piece of software, a picture you have taken or a piece of music. It provides a legal protection over that creation. Since you become the copyright owner, you have the right to sell copies of your work, perform the work in public, display the work in public, and reproduce the work.

There are a few things, which copyright do not cover such as systems, method of operation, facts and ideas.

Trademark:

A trademark may seem intricate, once you get to know the basics of it; the process of getting one becomes less intimidating. A trademark could be a phrase, design, symbol, or it could also a combination of all of these. It helps companies to stand out of competition by distinguishing the source of product or service. A registered trademark is not restrained to a logo, name or tagline; it can also protect jingles, symbols, patterns, expressions and catchphrases.

Patents:

A patent is an Intellectual Property Right, which is been granted to an inventor, so that it promotes innovation. Once you get a patent, the inventor can publicly disclose the invention, without the fear of getting copied or made use of, or sell it. This means for the initial few years of the inventions life only the inventor can profit from it however, public can benefit from it. Others can sell or use the invention once they have the consent from the inventor or if they have paid for it. There are varieties of patents such as plant patents, software patents, design patents, composition of matter, utility patent, and articles of manufacture.

Design Protection:

Design protection safeguards the shape and the appearance of the product, which naked eyes can see. A design means the features of configuration, shape, ornament, pattern or composition of lines or colors applied to any article. They could be two-dimensional, three-dimensional or both forms.  In order obtain protection for designs there are some requirements. These requirements are

> It should be non-obvious
> It should be visible on a finished article
> It should be original
> It should be applicable to a functional article
> There should not be any prior publication or disclosure of the design.

Trade secrets:

Trade secret protects any confidential information, which results in providing the competition a competitive edge. Use without the consent of the holder is considered as unfair practice and a violation of the trade secret. Trade secret is protected without any procedural formalities and is covered without any time limit. The protection of the same may appear to be attractive for SMEs.

Do you still have doubts about IPR? Are you looking into filing one?

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Source >> https://legalvirtue.com/all-about-intellectual-property-rights/