Names of products/brands, inventions, design/appearance of products or artistic works can be all protected by various types of intellectual property, namely: registration of trademarks, patents, copyrights and industrial designs. Using different IPRs (intellectual property rights), one can avoid the unauthorised use or copying of certain data, as well as the possible confusion or suspicion among consumers regarding the relation between the owners of the products concerned or the quality of a trademark.
Trademarks
Any person, business or legal entity can own a trademark. Trademarks can take several forms, usually words, but letters and numbers as well, designs, various forms or colors, including sounds and packaging, allowing the identification of products and their differentiation among others. The symbol concerned is used by their owners for positioning themselves among competitors, facilitating the growth of the brand.
Copyrights
Expressed ideas can be protected by IPRs, which offer their owners exclusivity when exploiting their creative and artistic works, exactly how they wish. This work can vary from fields such as literature, music, film, painting, to softwares, databases, technical drawings and maps. In order to apply the IP protection, the work has to be original, having in mind that other parties could use that idea and express it differently.
In most countries, protection of copyrights becomes automatically applicable, without needing to register them. However, in most cases, there are certain systems which allow the registration of works, facilitating transactions of copyrights or legal work in litigations.
Copyrights can be:
- Economical rights, which allow the owners to be financially rewarded when their work is being used by other persons;
- Moral rights, which protect the owners’ noneconomic interests.
Patents
Patents are exclusive rights granted for inventions. In other words, patents are granted for products or processes which usually reveal new methods of doing something or come up with new technical solutions for specific problems. With the help of patents, the innovators are stimulated and protected, while simultaneously being recognized for their creativity and originality, as well as being financially motivated.
What rights does a patent grant?
When owning a patent, the owner can decide who has the right (or does not) to use his invention. More exactly, patent rights prohibit the commercialization, use, distribution, importation or transfer of invention without the owner’s approval.
What kind of inventions does a patent protect?
Patents are granted for inventions in any technological field, from everyday kitchen utensils to nanotechnology chips. The invention can be a product, as well as a specific process.
Differences between patents and other IPRs:
- Utility models, available in some countries, are more adequate for protecting technical innovations which may not qualify for a patent
- Copyrights protect creative and artistic work (music, films etc.) against unauthorised copying and other
- Trademarks are distinctive symbols which identify brands and can vary from letters, words, forms to sounds
- Designs protect solely the visual appearance of products
Industrial designs
Protection of industrial designs is truly an mportant commercial advantage for entreprises, consisting in the external appearance of a product or part thereof, which gives it, in particular, the characteristics of the lines, contours, colors, shape, texture and / or materials and / or ornamentation of the product itself.
Except computer programs, almost any industrial or artisanal article qualifies for protection of industrial designs, as long as it meets the condition of distinctiveness and novelty.
Intellectual property rewards its innovators and allows them to benefit from their inventions. Through IP protection, humanity is then able to progress, given the fact that it depends on its creativity and originality in technological and cultural fields. Next, investments are also encouraged, leading to further innovations and last, but not lastly, economical growth, as well as the improvement of quality of life are therefore stimulated.
