2. What is Intellectual Property
• Legal rights that result from intellectual
activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and
artistic fields.
• Whether you're an inventor, an artist, or an
entrepreneur, you have the right for
protection of your intellectual property.
3. Common Types of Intellectual
Property
• Patents protect the processes that make things
work
• Trade-marks protect logos that distinguish goods
and services
• Industrial Designs protect the look of three-
dimensional shapes
• Copyright protects material only when it is
written down or recorded
• Integrated Circuit Topographies (ICT) protect
your innovative three dimensional circuit designs.
4. Patents
• Patents protect the features and processes
that make things work. This lets inventors
profit from their inventions.
• It protects new inventions and covers how
things work, what they do, how they do it,
what they are made of and how they are
made. It gives the owner the right to prevent
others from making, using, importing or
selling the invention without permission.
5. What can you Patent?
• Suppose you are the proud inventor of an electric
door lock. How do you know if you can get a
patent for it? There are three basic criteria for
patentability:
• The invention must show novelty (be the first in
the world).
• It must show utility (be functional and
operative).
• It must show inventive ingenuity and not be
obvious to someone skilled in that area.
6. Patentable?
• In order to be patentable, your invention must show
novelty, utility, and ingenuity.
• Novelty: To be granted a patent, you must be the original
inventor of your door lock (or the assignee of the inventor),
and the door lock must be the first of its kind in the world.
• Utility: A valid patent cannot be obtained for something
that does not work, or that has no useful function. If your
door lock doesn't work, it will fail the utility test.
• Ingenuity: To be patentable, your invention must be a
development or an improvement that would not have been
obvious beforehand to workers of average skill in the
technology involved. Your door lock must make other
designers in the field say, "Why didn't I think of that"?
7. What can you Patent?
• Yes
– new kind of door lock
– apparatus for building door locks
– process for lubricating door locks
– method of making door locks
– improvements on any of these
• No
– E = MC2
;
– Romeo and Juliet
8. Trade-mark
• What is a Trade-mark?
• Trade-marks are symbols (like logos and brand
names) that distinguish goods and services in
the marketplace.
• Original, distinct, unique. It's all about
standing out.
• Your trade-mark helps your customers
distinguish your products and services from
others in the marketplace.
9. There are 3 Types of Trade-marks
• An ordinary mark consists in a word (or words), a
design, or a combination of these, used to
identify the goods or services of one person or
organization and to distinguish these goods or
services from those of others in the marketplace.
• For example, suppose that you started a courier
business, which you chose to call “Giddy-up.” You
could register these words as a trade-mark
(assuming all legal requirements were met) in
regard to the service that you offer.
10. Trade-mark Type 2
• A certification mark is used by an individual or
organization and licensed to others for the
purpose of identifying goods or services that
meet a defined standard.
• for example, the XBOX design, owned by
Microsoft, for use on video game packaging
and other goods.
11. Trade-mark Type 3
• A distinguishing guise consists in the shaping
of goods or their containers, or a mode of
wrapping or packaging goods, which
distinguishes them as being produced by a
specific individual or firm.
• For example, if you manufactured butterfly-
shaped candy, you could register the butterfly
shape as a distinguishing guise.
12. Trade-mark
• A trade-mark registration provides evidence
of ownership.
• In a dispute, the registered owner does not
have to prove ownership; the onus is on the
challenger.
• Your trade-mark registration also gives you
the exclusive right to use the mark across
Canada for 15 years. Your registration is
renewable every 15 years after that.
13. What is Industrial Design
• An industrial design is the visual features of
shape, configuration, pattern or ornament—
or any combination of these features—
applied to a finished article made by hand,
tool or machine.
• The design must have features that appeal to
the eye. To be eligible for registration, your
design must be original.
14. Why Register?
• There is no protection without registration.
• Once registered, industrial designs are available
for public inspection.
• Keep in mind that it is best to apply for
registration before marketing your product.
• You invest a lot into your industrial designs.
• Registration can prevent your design from being
copied and imitated by competitors.
• It pays to protect your hard work.
15. Who can apply for registration?
• Only the proprietor (owner) of a design may
apply for and receive registration for an
industrial design.
• Usually you are considered the proprietor if
you have created the design; however, if you
have been hired under contract to develop a
design for someone else, then that someone
else is considered the proprietor, and only
that person may apply.
16. Who can apply for registration?
• If you are an employee of a company and
develop a design as part of your employment,
then your employer is considered to be the
proprietor, and is the only one who may
apply.
• If you work together with other people to
create a design, you should file as joint
proprietors (unless you are all working under
contract or commission).
17. Before filing for Registration..
• You must make sure that:
– the design is applied to a fully assembled finished
article or set;
– the design features are not ruled only by the
article's function;
– the description portion of the application
describes visual features, not functional or
manufacturing aspects.
18. Conflicts
• Should another person apply to register
essentially the same design as yours, the
application with the earlier filing date will be
registered.
19. The Search
• A good first step is to undertake a search of
existing industrial designs.
• This will help you to determine whether your
design is original, and it will also let you see
other registered designs.
• The Industrial Design Division maintains
records of all industrial designs filed and
registered in Canada dating back to 1861.
20. What can you register?
• Yes
– a repeat pattern applied to wallpaper
– the shape of a perfume bottle
– the ornamentation applied to a t-shirt
– the visual features of a running shoe
• No
– the way an MP3 player functions
– the material of which a protective mask is made
– the idea of putting advertising on bus shelters
21. What is Copyright
• In the simplest terms, "copyright" means "the
right to copy.”
• In general, only the copyright owner, often
the creator of the work, is allowed to produce
or reproduce the work or to permit anyone
else to do so.
22. What is covered by copyright?
• Copyright applies to all original literary, dramatic,
musical and artistic works. These include books,
other writings, music, sculptures, paintings,
photographs, films, plays, television and radio
programs, and computer programs.
• Copyright also applies to other subject matter,
which includes sound recordings (such as
records, cassettes or compact discs), performer's
performances and communication signals.
23. What can you copyright?
• Yes
– a song
– a novel
– a play
– a magazine article
– a computer program
24. What can you not copyright?
• No
– a title for a song
– the idea for a plot
– a method of staging a play
– Hamlet (a work in the public domain)
– the facts in an article
– the name of a computer program
25. Who owns the copyright?
• Generally, the owner of the copyright is:
• the creator of the work;
• the employer, if the work was created in the
course of employment unless there is an
agreement to the contrary;
• the person who commissions a photograph,
portrait, engraving or print (which has been paid)
unless there is an agreement to the contrary;
• some other party, if the original owner has
transferred the rights.
26. Copyright protection
• Copyright exists automatically when an
original work is created; however, registration
gives you a certificate that states that you are
the owner, which can be used in court as
evidence of ownership
• You file an application with the Copyright
Office along with a prescribed fee. An
application form and instructions for filling it
out are available from the Copyright Office.
27. Why Register?
• A poem, painting, musical score, performer's
performance and a computer program are all
valuable creations worth protecting.
• Although copyright in a work exists automatically
when an original work is created, a certificate of
registration is evidence that your creation is
protected by copyright and that you, the person
registered, are the owner. It can be used in court
as evidence of ownership.
29. How long to copyrights last?
• The general rule is that copyright lasts for the
life of the author, the remainder of the
calendar year in which the author dies, and
for 50 years following the end of the calendar
year.
30. Integrated Circuit Topographies
• ICTs (integrated circuit topographies) refer to the
three-dimensional configurations of electronic
integrated circuit products or layout designs
• ICTs are all around us: in modern technology,
communications, entertainment, manufacturing,
medical and space technologies, and even
ordinary household appliances.
• The Integrated Circuit Topography Act, which
came into force on May 1, 1993, is one of
Canada's newest pieces of legislation that
protects intellectual property rights
31. What is an ICT?
• An ICT refers to the three-dimensional
configuration of the electronic circuits used in
microchips and semiconductor chips.
• Registration grants you exclusive rights for
10 years on your original circuit design.
• Protection can extend to the layout design as
well as to the finished product.
• To register, you must apply within two years of
the first commercial use of the design. Your
application must include a copy of the circuit
layout and design
32. Why obtain ICT Protection?
• If you are a manufacturer or creator of integrated
circuits, ICT protection will give you exclusive rights
over the copying of the topography and the
commercialization of circuits that contain the
topography.
• This form of protection complements any patent
protection you may obtain for the circuit itself.
• ICT protection lasts to the end of the tenth year
(December 31):
– from the date of filing of the application; or
– from the date of first commercial exploitation of the
topography, whichever is earlier.
33. Requirements to apply for ICT
Protection.
• To get an ICT registration, you must submit an
application form with copies of the overlay
sheets and a description of the function or
nature of the circuit.
• You must also submit the filing fee.
• Approved applications are then registered,
and a registration certificate is sent to the
applicant.
