The document provides an overview of intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other forms. It discusses what types of creations each protects, how long protections last, and laws governing them. The overall purpose of intellectual property law is to promote progress by providing limited exclusive rights to inventors and creators in exchange for disclosure of their works.

1. Overview of Intellectual
Property Rights

2. Introduction
• Intellectual property is the name given to legal rights which protect
creative works, inventions and commercial goodwill.
• Basically intellectual property rights are designed to provide remedies
against those who steal the fruits of another person’s ideas or work.
• For example if a person writes a computer program, he will be able to
take legal actions to obtain an injunction against anyone who copies
the program without his permission.

3. • Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are the rights granted to the
creators of IP, and include trademarks, copyright, patents, industrial
design rights, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. Artistic works
including music and literature, as well as discoveries, inventions,
words, phrases, symbols, and designs can all be protected as
intellectual property.

4. • Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of
phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs.
1. The term Intellectual Property (IP) reflects the idea that its subject matter is the product of the
mind or the intellect. These could be in the form of Patents; Trademarks; Geographical Indications;
Industrial Designs; Layout-Designs (Topographies) of Integrated Circuits; Plant Variety Protection
and Copyright.
2. IP, protected through law, like any other form of property can be a matter of trade, that is, it can
be owned, bequeathed, sold or bought. The major features that distinguish it from other forms are
their intangibility and non-exhaustion by consumption.
3. IP is the foundation of knowledge-based economy. It pervades all sectors of economy and is
increasingly becoming important for ensuring competitiveness of the enterprises.

5. • Intellectual property is divided into two categories:
• Industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks,
industrial designs, and geographic indications of source; and
• Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels,
poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as
drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural
designs.

6. • Intellectual Property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions,
literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs
used in commerce.
• IP is the foundation of knowledge-based economy. It pervades all
sectors of economy and is increasingly becoming important for
ensuring competitiveness of the enterprises.

7. The Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property
Organization (1967) gives the following list of the subject matter
protected by intellectual property rights:
• literary, artistic and scientific works;
• performances of performing artists, phonograms, and broadcasts;
• inventions in all fields of human endeavor;
• scientific discoveries;
• industrial designs;
• trademarks, service marks, and commercial names and designations;
• protection against unfair competition; and
• “all other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial,
scientific, literary or artistic fields.”

8. • In case of the large investment required to finance research, design
and development in respect of computer hardware and software, the
intellectual property rights are of crucial important as without such
protection there would be little incentive to invest in the
development of new products.

9. Intellectual property rights include:
• Copyright
• Patents
• Trade marks
• Law of confidence
• Design rights
• Passing off

10. • The scope of these rights differs but sometimes overlaps and the
infringement of the intellectual property rights gives rise to the
criminal penalties.

11. Copyright Law
• Copyright protects works from being copied without permission.
Copyright goes beyond mere copying, however, and extends to other
activities such as making an adaptation of the work in question,
performing or showing the work in public, broadcasting the work and
dealing with infringing copies of the work.
• The types of works protected by copyright are literary works which
includes (computer programs, preparatory design material for
computer programs and databases, dramatic, musical and artistic
works, sound recordings, films, broadcasts, cable programmes and
typographical arrangements of published editions.
• Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the
form or manner in which they are expressed.

12. • The major attractions of copyright as a form of protection are that it is
free and that no formalities are required, it is automatic upon the
creation of the work in question.
• Copyright law is of vital importance to the Computer software
industry and to people who prepare, record or transmit all sorts of
works (for example, literary works such as books, reports, letters or
musical works) using computer technology.
• Copyright law is governed by the Copyright, Designs and Patterns Act
1988, the main provisions of which came into force on 1st August
1989, and subsequent amendments, together with a wealth of case
law.

13. • Patent Law
Patent Law is mainly concerned with new inventions such as a new
type of computer hardware, or a new process for use in manufacture of
Integrated circuits (ICs).
For an invention to be protected by a patent, an application must be
made to the Patent Office which is an expensive and lengthy process
but if granted, the patent can be renewed for a total period of up to 20
years.
The relevant statute dealing with the patent law is the Patent Act 1977.
To be patentable, an invention must be novel (new), involve an
inventive step, be capable of industrial application and not be
excluded.

14. • A patent is a form of right granted by the government to an inventor,
giving the owner the right to exclude others from making, using,
selling, offering to sell, and importing an invention for a limited period
of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention

15. The law of Confidence
• The law of confidence protects information. The difference with
Copyright and patent law, is that the law of confidence is not defined
by statute and derives almost entirely from case law.
• The scope of this branch of intellectual property is considerable and
protects trade secrets, business know how, and information such as
list of clients and contracts, information of a personal nature and
even ideas which have not been yet been expressed in a tangible
form (e.g., an idea for a new computer program).

16. • The contents of many databases are protected by the law of
confidence.
• However the major limitation is that the information concerned must
be of a confidential nature and the effective nature of the law of
confidence is largely or completely destroyed if the information
concerned fall into the public.
• The law of confidence can be a useful supplement to copyright and
patent law as it can protect ideas before they are sufficiently
developed to attract copyright protection or to enable an application
for a patent to be made.
• Law of confidence is very flexible and has proved capable of taking
new technological development in its stride.

17. The Law Relating to Designs
• In this case there are two types of right: registered design and design
right which is not registrable.
• Registered is available for features of articles which appeal to the eye
while design right is intended to protect any aspect of the shape or
configuration of articles without any requirement for visual
attractiveness.

18. • The durations of the rights are different, being 25 years for registered
designs and a maximum of 15 years for design right (but limited to 10
years of commercial exploitation).
• The appropriate statutes are the Registered Design Act 1949 (as
amended ) and Part III of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

19. Trade mark Law
• Trade marks are often in the form of a name or a symbol and
registration is provided for by the trade Marks Act 1994. Marks may
be registered in respect of goods or services.
• To be registrable, the mark must be distinctive and capable of being
represented graphically.
• Trade marks are very important as they become associated with
successful products and purchasers normally buy or order goods or
services by reference to the mark.
• A trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which
distinguishes products or services of a particular trader from the
similar products or services of other traders.

20. • The main purpose of trade mark law is to serve as an indicator of
trade origin. Thus business goodwill and reputation is protected but
this has a secondary effect of also protecting the buying public from
deceptive practices.
• In computer technology the trade mark law also deals with domain
name disputes, and infringement or dilution of trademarks on
Internet.
• A trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which
distinguishes products or services of a particular trader from the
similar products or services of other traders.

21. The Law of Passing off
• A related area of law to trade mark is passing off. This derives from
the common law and gives a right of action against anyone who
passes off his goods or services as being those of someone else.
• If a trader uses a particular name or mark or has particularly unusual
method of doing business, he can obtain legal redress against others
who use similar names or marks or business methods, especially if
there is a serious possibility that the buying public will be deceived
and the trader's business goodwill damaged as a result.

22. • The law of passing off is independent of trade mark law and will often
be useful where a mark has not been registered as a trade mark.
• For the law of passing off to be effective, the trader concerned must
have established a goodwill associated with the name or mark or
business method.

23. • A trade Secret is any formula, pattern, physical device, idea, process, compilation
of information or other information that: provides the owner of the information
with a competitive advantage in the market place. is treated in a way that can
reasonably be expected to prevent the public or competitors from learning about
it, except through improper acquisition or theft. Unlike other forms of intellectual
property, trade secrets are essentially internal instruments. The responsibility for
their protection is in the hands of the owner of the trade secret. They are kept
confidential.
• Trade Secrets, relate to different types of information
• Technical and Scientific information
• Commercial information
• Financial information
• Negative information

24. Objectives of intellectual property law
• The stated objective of most intellectual property law (with the
exception of trademarks) is to "Promote progress.
• By exchanging limited exclusive rights for disclosure of inventions and
creative works, society and the patentee/copyright owner mutually
benefit, and an incentive is created for inventors and authors to create
and disclose their work.

25. Legal Issues to Consider when Starting Your Business
• There are a multitude of legal issues to think about when it comes to
starting your business. Everything from your business name to its
structure to its operation has legal implications. What follows is a
sampling of some of the legal concerns you may want to address with
your attorney before you start your business.

26. • Business Name
• You will need to make sure that the business name you plan to use is
not already being used by another business. You can do this by doing
a name search with the appropriate state agency, which is usually the
office of the Secretary of State. If your chosen name is not already in
use, you can reserve it with the Secretary of State’s office for a period
of time, about 120 days, while you prepare your articles of
incorporation, articles of organization, or a partnership agreement.

27. • Business Structure
You will need to decide which business structure best suits your
business. Your business could be structured as a sole-proprietorship,
partnership, limited partnership, corporation, S-corporation, or limited
liability company. To decide what form is best, you will need to consider
liability issues associated with your business and which form will
provide the best tax structure for your business.
• Business Licenses
Depending on what type of business you plan to engage in, you may
need a variety of licenses or permits.