The IP Landscape
- Check assignment briefs for both assessments
- Module draws on legal aspects but also covers commercial application of:
o Patents
o Copyright
o Trademarks
o Design rights
Definitions:
- Property, an object of legal rights, which embraces possessions or wealth collectively,
frequently with strong connotations of individual ownership. In law the term refers to the
complex of jural relationships between and among persons with respect to things. The
things may be tangible, such as land or good or intangible, such as stocks and bonds, a
patent or a copyright (Britannica.com).
- ‘Intellectual’ is regarded as descriptive of the character of some of the material that this
area of law regulates – namely, the products of the human mind or ‘intellect’. The
designation ‘property’ is said to describe the form of regulation – that is, primarily the
grant of individual exclusive rights that operate in a manner similar to private property
rights over tangibles (Sherman et al., 2022).
- IP = creation of mind (intellect)
o E.g. inventions, literacy, artistic works, designs, symbols, names and images used in
commerce (World Intellectual Property Organisations)
- IP is protected in law by which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from
what they invent or create. By striking the right balance between the interest of innovators
and the wider public interests, the IP system aims to foster an environment in which
creativity and innovation can flourish.
- IP law covers:
o Patents
o Copyrights
o Trademarks
o Designs
o Geographical indications
o Trade secrets
- IP rights = rights given to persons over the creations of their minds.
o Usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a
certain period of time (World Trade Organisation)
- As rights over intangibles, intellectual property rights limit what the owners of personal
property are able to do with the things that they own
Brief history:
- While the law has long granted property rights in intangibles, the law did not accept
‘intellectual property’ as a distinct form of property until late in the 18th century
- The issue is how can you made a boundary over something that is intangible?
- As a result, each area of intellectual property law has developed its own techniques to
define the parameters of the intangible property. These include schemes of deposit and
registration, techniques of representation (such as the patent specification and claims),
, statutory rules and legal concepts such as the requirement of sufficiency of disclosure (in
patent law) and the originality requirement (in copyright law).
Patents:
- Patent was the first type of IP to be granted in England
o This was granted in the 15th century (1400s)
- The earliest English patent was for the invention of a stained-glass window in Eton college
in 1449 granted by Henry VI (1421 – 1471).
- The oldest patents are considered to be those granted to glass makers in Venice in 1420s.
- Patent = an inventory receives the reward of a time-limited monopoly of the industrial use
of its invention in return for disclosing the invention and dedicating it to the public for use
after the monopoly has expired.
- While the protection provided by a patent, which is limited to 20 years, is not as long as
the protection provided by copyright law or (possibly) trademark registration, the rights
granted are more extensive (Sherman et al., 2022)
Copyright:
- Copyright is automatically generated
- Regulates the creation and use made of a range of cultural goods such as books, songs,
films and computer programs.
- British law describes the various objects that are protected by copyright law as ‘works’.
- The intangible property protected by copyright law is distinctive in that it arises
automatically and usually for the benefit of the author. Various rights are conferred on the
owner of copyright, including the right to copy the work and the right to communicate the
work to the public.
- The rights vested in the owner are limited, notably in that they are not infringed when
another person copies or communicates to the public a work that they have created
themselves. The rights given to a copyright owner last for a considerable time: in many
cases, for 70 years after the death of the author of the work (Sherman et al., 2022).
- Hunger Games – Scholastic publishing has more control than Suzanne Collins (author) over
the Hunger games books as she has sold her rights to them
Authorship vs (First) Ownership:
- Author of work is defined in the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CPDA 1988) as
the person who creates the work. Special provisions deal with the situation in which more
than one person is involved in the creation of a work.
- Having identified who is the author of a work, it is necessary to keep separate the
authorship and ownership issues in copyright law.
- The author of a work may not be the owner of copyright in that work. This is critical,
because it is the owner who can sue for infringement of copyright and who has the ability
to assign or license the right, in whole or in part (Karapapa and McDonagh 2019).
Ownership:
- You own IP if you:
o Created it (and it meets the correct requirements)
o Bought IP rights from the creator or a previous owner
o Have a brand that could be a trademark e.g. well-known product name
- IP can:
o Have 1+ owner
- Check assignment briefs for both assessments
- Module draws on legal aspects but also covers commercial application of:
o Patents
o Copyright
o Trademarks
o Design rights
Definitions:
- Property, an object of legal rights, which embraces possessions or wealth collectively,
frequently with strong connotations of individual ownership. In law the term refers to the
complex of jural relationships between and among persons with respect to things. The
things may be tangible, such as land or good or intangible, such as stocks and bonds, a
patent or a copyright (Britannica.com).
- ‘Intellectual’ is regarded as descriptive of the character of some of the material that this
area of law regulates – namely, the products of the human mind or ‘intellect’. The
designation ‘property’ is said to describe the form of regulation – that is, primarily the
grant of individual exclusive rights that operate in a manner similar to private property
rights over tangibles (Sherman et al., 2022).
- IP = creation of mind (intellect)
o E.g. inventions, literacy, artistic works, designs, symbols, names and images used in
commerce (World Intellectual Property Organisations)
- IP is protected in law by which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from
what they invent or create. By striking the right balance between the interest of innovators
and the wider public interests, the IP system aims to foster an environment in which
creativity and innovation can flourish.
- IP law covers:
o Patents
o Copyrights
o Trademarks
o Designs
o Geographical indications
o Trade secrets
- IP rights = rights given to persons over the creations of their minds.
o Usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a
certain period of time (World Trade Organisation)
- As rights over intangibles, intellectual property rights limit what the owners of personal
property are able to do with the things that they own
Brief history:
- While the law has long granted property rights in intangibles, the law did not accept
‘intellectual property’ as a distinct form of property until late in the 18th century
- The issue is how can you made a boundary over something that is intangible?
- As a result, each area of intellectual property law has developed its own techniques to
define the parameters of the intangible property. These include schemes of deposit and
registration, techniques of representation (such as the patent specification and claims),
, statutory rules and legal concepts such as the requirement of sufficiency of disclosure (in
patent law) and the originality requirement (in copyright law).
Patents:
- Patent was the first type of IP to be granted in England
o This was granted in the 15th century (1400s)
- The earliest English patent was for the invention of a stained-glass window in Eton college
in 1449 granted by Henry VI (1421 – 1471).
- The oldest patents are considered to be those granted to glass makers in Venice in 1420s.
- Patent = an inventory receives the reward of a time-limited monopoly of the industrial use
of its invention in return for disclosing the invention and dedicating it to the public for use
after the monopoly has expired.
- While the protection provided by a patent, which is limited to 20 years, is not as long as
the protection provided by copyright law or (possibly) trademark registration, the rights
granted are more extensive (Sherman et al., 2022)
Copyright:
- Copyright is automatically generated
- Regulates the creation and use made of a range of cultural goods such as books, songs,
films and computer programs.
- British law describes the various objects that are protected by copyright law as ‘works’.
- The intangible property protected by copyright law is distinctive in that it arises
automatically and usually for the benefit of the author. Various rights are conferred on the
owner of copyright, including the right to copy the work and the right to communicate the
work to the public.
- The rights vested in the owner are limited, notably in that they are not infringed when
another person copies or communicates to the public a work that they have created
themselves. The rights given to a copyright owner last for a considerable time: in many
cases, for 70 years after the death of the author of the work (Sherman et al., 2022).
- Hunger Games – Scholastic publishing has more control than Suzanne Collins (author) over
the Hunger games books as she has sold her rights to them
Authorship vs (First) Ownership:
- Author of work is defined in the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CPDA 1988) as
the person who creates the work. Special provisions deal with the situation in which more
than one person is involved in the creation of a work.
- Having identified who is the author of a work, it is necessary to keep separate the
authorship and ownership issues in copyright law.
- The author of a work may not be the owner of copyright in that work. This is critical,
because it is the owner who can sue for infringement of copyright and who has the ability
to assign or license the right, in whole or in part (Karapapa and McDonagh 2019).
Ownership:
- You own IP if you:
o Created it (and it meets the correct requirements)
o Bought IP rights from the creator or a previous owner
o Have a brand that could be a trademark e.g. well-known product name
- IP can:
o Have 1+ owner
