Intellectual Property Right (IPR)

Owning a house or a motorcycle makes it your property. In exactly the same way, when a person comes up with a new and original idea, that idea is the person's intellectual property — and the law protects it just as it protects physical property.

What intellectual property covers

Intellectual Property refers to:

• inventions,
• literary and artistic expressions,
• designs and symbols, and
• names and logos.

Ownership of these lies with the creator (or the holder of the intellectual property). This ownership is what enables the creator or copyright owner to earn recognition or financial benefit from their creation or invention. Legally, intellectual property is protected through three main instruments: copyrights, patents and trademarks.

(A) Copyright

Copyright grants legal rights to creators for their original works — writing, photographs, audio recordings, video, sculptures, architectural works, computer software, and other creative literary and artistic work.

Key characteristics:

• Copyright is granted automatically to creators and authors — no application is required.
• Copyright law gives the holder a set of rights that only they may legally exercise:
  • the right to copy (reproduce) the work,
  • the right to create derivative works based on it,
  • the right to distribute copies of the work to the public, and
  • the right to publicly display or perform the work.
• It prevents everyone else from copying, using or selling the work.

Example from the book: the writer Rudyard Kipling holds the copyright to his novel The Jungle Book (the story of Mowgli, the jungle boy). Using parts of the novel without permission would infringe the writer's copyright. To use someone else's copyrighted material, one must obtain a licence from them.

(B) Patent

A patent is usually granted for inventions, and it differs from copyright in an important way:

• Unlike copyright, a patent is not automatic — the inventor must apply (file) to patent the invention.
• Once granted, the owner gets an exclusive right to prevent others from using, selling or distributing the protected invention.
• The patentee has full control over whether — and how — others may use the invention.
• A patent protects an invention for 20 years, after which it can be freely used by anyone.

The purpose of this bargain is to encourage inventors to share their scientific or technological findings with the world instead of keeping them secret: recognition and/or financial benefit create the right environment and motivation for more creativity and innovation.

(C) Trademark

A trademark is any visual symbol, word, name, design, slogan or label that distinguishes a brand or commercial enterprise from other brands or enterprises.

• Example: no company other than Nike may use the Nike brand to sell shoes or clothes.
• A trademark also blocks confusingly similar marks, including similar words or phrases — a confusing brand such as "Nikke" cannot be used.
• However, it may be possible to apply for the same mark for unrelated goods — e.g. the Nike name on notebooks, a product category unrelated to the original.

The three protections applied to one product …