INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

The intellectual property law is the area of law that concerns with the rules and provisions for securing the legal rights to inventions, designs and artistic works. Just as there are laws available for protecting our personal properties and real estate, the intellectual property law helps the individuals in controlling their intangible assets. Under these laws, the owners or creators of works are provided with certain rights. The most common intellectual property rights include copyrights, patents, industrial designs, trademarks so on and so forth.

Students can easily avail themselves of our taxation law essay help and resolve all their academic worries in writing. The experts of Allassignmenthelp.com are the best in providing evidence law assignment help and constitutional law assignment help. In all these years we have helped thousands of students in achieving A+ grades.

The UK Intellectual Property Rights Act

The UK Intellectual Property Act, 2014 defines intellectual property as something unique that any person physically creates. It includes anything from original plays, to inventions and company logos. The main purpose of intellectual property law is to safeguard peoples’ interests in creating new technologies, artistic expressions as well as promoting economic growth. Which is why, when individuals are ensured that their creative works are well protected, then they will be encouraged to continue creating things. So, it will help in creating jobs, developing new technology, making the society progressive and bringing about changes around us. IPR includes the following terms:
Names of products or brands
Inventions
Design and look of the products
Writings, music, films and other artistic works
The law further elaborates that an individual can own an intellectual property if:
He/she created it and fulfill the requirements of copyrights, patents, designs etc.
He/she has purchased the work from the original creator or a previous user.
He/she has also sought the permission to use it from its originator.
He/she possess a brand that could be a trademark such as a well-known product name.
The UK government in the past had drawn constitutional conventions from numerous sources and found the basis for protecting personal rights in general and intellectual property rights in particular. The intellectual property law came into existence even in the era of royal delinquencies. In those days the royal charters or stamps were used for granting the monopoly to produce goods. However, certain novelties misused those powers and the parliament viewed that such royal fervors would be detrimental for free trade. With this observation, the development of intellectual property law in practical terms took place with a purpose of protecting public welfare. Later the intellectual property was regulated under common law. In 1623, the Statute of Monopolies was enacted that termed all the monopolies illegal. The early copyright privileges, prior to the licensing regime, were granted as monopolies in the form of letters patent. So, we can say that the modern intellectual property law was based on the practices and ley events of the past era.

The UK patent Act 1977

It was an Act that aimed to establish a new law of patents applicable to future patents. It tried to amend the law of patents applicable to existing patents as well as giving effect to different international conventions on patents. The different sections and subsections of this Act are given as follows:
Patentable inventions
A patent can be granted on account of the following conditions:
If the invention is new
If a process involves an inventive step
If the invented product is capable of industrial purpose.
The following things shall be considered as inventions for the purposes of this act:
Discovery, scientific theory or mathematical method (equation)
A literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work.
A mechanism for performing mental work, a method for playing a sport or a procedure for doing a business or a computer program.
Presentations of information
A patent shall not be granted to any invention that constitutes commercial exploitation that has a contrary public policy or that could negatively affect the public interests.
Novelty
Any invention shall be considered as new if it not a part of the state of the art.
State of the art refers to all the matters that have been made available to the public even before the priority date of the invention.

The state of the art in the case of an invention, an application for another patent that was published on or after the priority date of that invention should satisfy the following conditions:

The matter was contained in the application regarding the other patent.
The priority date of that matter is earlier than the invention.
The European Patent Convention
The Article 52 of European Patent Convention provides guidelines for patentable inventions. It says:
The inventions in the field of innovation and technology shall be granted patents if they are new and involve an inventive step with industrial use.

The following elements shall be considered as inventions within the meaning of Sec (1):

Discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical models and methods
Aesthetic creations such as literature, drama or music
A mechanism for performing mental work, a method for playing a sport or a procedure for doing a business or a computer program.

Presentations of information.

The Section (2) shall exclude patentability for the activities that are referred only to the extent to which the European patent application relates.
So, the patent laws of both United Kingdom and European Union largely conform to each other. However, any granted UK patent can provide protection in the territory of UK, but doesn’t have influence elsewhere. If an individual plane to sell his patent abroad, he requires to avail a protection as well. So, in order to protect his patent in more than 30 countries in Europe, he needed to notify and send application to European Patent Office. When the application is granted it becomes a separate patents in the countries that he designates.
If someone wants to avail protection in individual countries in Europe, he can achieve it by applying to the national offices of that particular country. The European Patent Office provides a facility with which an individual can claim priority from an existing patent application if he applies abroad within 12 months of initial application. There are other bodies in Europe that provide protection such as Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
In case of international patent protection, the PCT can greatly help a person. The PCT application is being processed as a single application. After that an international search report and written option is given and finally the application is published around 18 months from the priority date. Subsequently, the application is processed separately in each country.

Using the option of PCT has the following advantages:

The international search report reduces the administrative and bureaucratic hurdles in the initial stages.
PCT allows to process a single international application rather than multiple applications in multiple patent offices.
There is no need to provide names of countries in which protection is required until about 30 months from the date of application.

Patent Protection in European Union

The provision of patents is a crucial element in encouraging investment in the field of innovation and technology. The European Commission also continuously feels the need for and effects regarding patent laws across the whole European Union. It has been constantly working to enforce efficient and uniform patent protection laws across Europe and is attempting to introduce the measures that would enhance patent exploitation. Patents encourage the organizations to make investments in the field of innovation and give incentives to individuals and companies for their efforts towards research and development. Presently, in Europe, inventions are protected either by using national patents being granted by competent national IP authorities in EU countries or by European Patent Office.

European Commission Actions

The Commission has been active towards implementing a patent package, which is a profound attempt towards establishing a European Patent with unitary effect along with a Patent Court. The unitary patent is being developed to provide a uniform protection across 25 EU countries with a single step. It will help in providing a high cost advantage and reduce administrative and bureaucratic hurdles. The Unified Patent Court will try to provide a unilateral specialized patent jurisdiction covering all European patents litigation.
Apart from that, a utility model will provide a patent holder exclusive right to use a patent invention. It is also referred to as petty patents or innovative patents in certain countries. However, there is no European utility model protection yet. The Commission is responsible for monitoring the economic impact of utility model legislation.
Furthermore, the Supplementary protection Certificates (SPC) are a form of intellectual property right that can be considered as an extension of patent. The purpose of creation of SPCs by EU is to recover the loss of patent protection for the products regarding pharmaceutical and plant protection. This situation arises because of lengthy testing and clinical trials that are strictly needed before obtaining regulatory marketing approval.
An important body of Commission known as Innovation Union Commission (IUC) has laid down a medium-term strategy for innovation in the EU. This statutory body works with a commitment to improve the economic exploitation of the intellectual property rights. IUC conducted a recent study that presents an analysis regarding significant obstacles European companies, particularly the small and medium-sized enterprises, face in the process of exploitation the existing patents. Such patents are called as dormant patents. The study also provides measures for medium and long term options in making better use of these dormant patents.
The policy guidelines for the exploitation of intellectual property for industrial innovation by SMEs are as follows:
Providing support to SMEs in their external IP acquisition.
Increasing the awareness along with providing effective tools to SME advisory and support organizations.
Increasing awareness among SMEs.

The UK Trademark Act 1994

A trade mark refers to a word, phrase, symbol or design that provides an identification and distinction of the source of the products of one party from the other. It can last forever, so long as its owner continues to use it in trade and commerce for indicating his/her source of products and services.
The UK Trademark Act 1994 lays down the definition and guidelines of the trademark as follows:
For the purpose of this act, a trademark means any sign that can be represented graphically, and whose purpose is to distinguish goods or services of one party from the other party. It may consist of words, designs, letters, numerals or shape of the products.
Registered trademarks
A trademark that is registered is a property right being obtained by its registration and the owner of the registered trademark is provided with the rights and remedies on account of this Act.
The Act prescribes no proceedings for preventing or recovering the damages in the event of infringement of an unregistered trademark.
Grounds for refusal of registration
The following shall not be registered:
The signs that fail to satisfy the requirements of Section (1)
The trademarks that do not have any distinguishable character
The trademarks with signs that are customary in current language or fall under the established practices of trade.
A sign shall not be considered as trademark if it consists of:
A shape resulting from the nature of goods themselves
The shape of goods that is important to achieve a technical result
A shape that provides a substantial value to the goods.
A trademark shall not be considered for registration if its use is prohibited in UK under any rule or enactment of law.
A trademark shall not be considered for registration if the application for the same is not made in good faith.
European Union Trademark Law (New Legislation)
The European Parliament recently has officially adopted the EU trademark reform legislation. Its purpose is to make trademark registration systems in EU cheaper, quicker, reliable and predictable. The system of trademark registration was incorporated in EU member countries more than 20 years ago. The national and Community Trademark (CTM) have been harmoniously co-existing since 1996. It was in 2008 when European Commission conducted a study on the part of Max Plank Institute with a purpose of evaluating the overall functioning of CTM as well as national trademark systems. This step of the Commission resulted into various draft amendments to the Trademarks Directive (2008/95/EC) and the CTM Regulation (207/2009/EC).
The new European Union Trade Mark (EUTM) Regulation came into existence in March 2016 along with that a new trade Mark Directive was established in January 2016. The member countries were required to implement the directive into their national laws. The exceptions were being made with regards to administrative invalidation and revocation procedures.
The proposed changes in the existing Trademark Laws of European Union are as follows:
The CTM will be turned into EUTM and the Office for Harmonization in Internal Market (OHIM) will be turned into European Union Property Office (EUIPO).
From 1st October 2017, it will not be necessary for the trademarks to be represented graphically if they are clear and precise. It essentially establishes the fact that marks can also be represented in different manner.
The products or goods that are being transferred through EU could be seized if they appear to be infringing the EU trademark rights. Even in the situation when these products are not meant for the consumers for EU.
There will be a provision for protecting intervening rights because it will ensure to prevent the use of later trademark, if at the timing of filing date, the previous mark could have been revoked for no use.
The “own name” protection shall be restricted to natural persons and using company name will be identified as an infringing act.
Use of trademark in competitive advertising shall be considered as an infringing act unless it fulfills the criteria of Competitive Advertising Directive (2006/114/EC).
Distribution and sales of labels and packaging could subsequently be incorporated with infringing products.
Administrative proceedings in intellectual property offices will be deemed mandatory.
The class heading terms will only cover the literal meaning of the words regardless of the filling date of the application.
Provision of new fee structure for EUTM applications.

International Trademark Law Treaty (TLT)

The Trademark Law Treaty came into existence on October 27, 1994 in a Diplomatic Conference in Geneva. It was aimed to simplify and harmonize the administrative procedures in relation to national applications and to protecting marks. The individual countries around the world can become party to the treaty. The provisions of this treaty are provided by the Regulation and Model International Forums. The substantive parts of the trademark law that cover the registration of marks are not dealt by this treaty.
As per the Article 2 of TLT, the treaty is applicable to the marks for goods and services. Not all countries currently register service marks. As per the Article, a registrable mark should be consisting of visible signs if those marks are three-dimensional.

Place Order For A Top Grade Assignment Now

We have some amazing discount offers running for the students

Place Your Order

References

Bizley R, 'European Patent Convention Defended' (1986) 4 Bio/Technology
Borr?as S, The Innovation Policy Of The European Union (Edward Elgar Pub 2003)
Horton A, 'EU Trade Mark Law: New Legislation Published' (Bird & Bird, 2016) accessed 18 October 2016
'Intellectual Property Act 2014' (Legislation.gov.uk) accessed 17 October 2016.
Patel N, 'A-Z Of The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)' SSRN Electronic Journal
Schovsbo J and Petersen C, 'On Law And Policy In A European And European Union Patent Court (EEUPC) - What Will It Do To Patent Law And What Will Patent Law Do To It?' SSRN Electronic Journal
'The Patents Act 1977 (As Amended)' (www.gov.uk) accessed 18 October 2016
'The Trademark Law Treaty (TLT)' (www.wipo.int, 2016) accessed 18 October 2016
'Unofficial Consolidated Version Trade Mark Act 1994 As Amended' (www.gov.uk) accessed 18 October 2016
'What Are Intellectual Property Rights?' (The British Library) accessed 18 October 2016

Give your grades a boost

Just share your requirements and get customized solutions on time.

1,168,768 Orders
4.9/5 Overall Rating
5,052 Experts

Get Quality Assignment Without Paying Upfront

Hire World's #1 Assignment Help Company

Place Your Order

Offers

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

About Expert

Dany Scott

Completed Orders: 1

Requirement

Solution