The Application of Property Law - Essay Example

? Property Law Introduction A property is defined, as anything owned by an individual or an entity. There are two types ofproperty: personal property and the real property. A license is an authorized permission granted by one party to another. The license gives permission to the licensee as an element of mutual agreement between the two parties. It includes the permission and the record or document showing the permit. The licensor authorizes the licensee to use the licensed material. Some authorities may issue out license to allow an activity that would otherwise not be allowed. This may require a fee payment to prove the ability. The requirements inform the authority on the types of activities they should do and give them an opportunity to come up with conditions and the limitations. The licensing process is one of the richest retail markets in the world ( Lewicki, Saunders, Minton , & Barry, 2003). However, having a license is not an instant success. It will need good marketing and selling to succeed. It is a cost effective tool for marketing when it is well used. Licensing has three main advantages. First, it means that you have a unique thing, which your competitors do not have. Secondly, it means that you are getting a little better advantage because it is different from the rest. Thirdly, it means that you have something different that you can easily sell to the retailers. Licensing is important to both the licensor and the licensee, to the licensor for example a company that does not want to be involved in the manufacture of some products it can license out to any of its partners but retaining its ownership but only get some economic benefit from the royalty income. Licensing out can also help a company expand its operation to other new markets and commercialize its business. It may also be used to get an access to new markets that are not accessible. The licensee may make translation of instruction and labels required to enter a foreign market and to modify the goods to conform to local regulations and rules and the expansion of marketing. To the licensee it makes one reach the market faster, and supply new products with then access of the license and improve its services and marketing after getting a marketing opportunity. Licensing of properties is categorized into; technology licenses, trademark and merchandise licenses and publish and entertainment licenses. Licensing mainly involves trade secrets and patents. The sharia or Islamic law has several sources like the Quran, the Sunna and others. The aspect of property licensing and protection of property is considered on three aspects: property, contract, and public interest. To establish a law one should be able to point at a verse in the Quran, a tradition or Hadith of the prophet Muhammad. The license under property law Property rights are intangible; they cannot be seen or touched. Due diligence is required before starting on any kind of licensing transaction or agreement. One has to gather enough information on the licensor, the market the market being developed and the legal business environment. Property licensing is therefore the permission given to the licensee by the licensor. It is mainly categorized to patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Property licensing is created by statute; they are created by legislation, which gives the limits and scope of protection of the property. They may vary according to territory for example a patent in U.S.A is enforceable and valid only in the U.S. or it can also be international for example a copyright in a book which is authored in a particular country say England is valid in all Common Wealth countries. The main two categories of property license are hard property rights, which include patents, trademarks and copyrights while the soft property rights include trade secrets, confidential information and know how. A patent is an agreement to license or give a right to a licensee like a manufacturer to sell and use the invention that he has claimed in that patent, and to prevent others from doing the same thing. Patents give a great amount of protection to inventions; it protects the ideas, and all that has been expressed in it. If one on his or her own independently develops the same invention without the knowledge of the patent, he is still barred from using; selling or making the licensee is patent until it expires. One should meet the following requirement in order to be issued with a patent: Novelty, the invention should have never been disclosed to any party before the date of application or prior to the year of application. The invention should not be obvious to any person skilled in the art or profession. It should be hidden. Patentable Subject Matter- new machines, compositions, arts or any improvement to the invention is subject to that patent. However, mathematical equations and programs may not be. Utility- the purpose of the patent must be served by the invention and expected results given. The duration of the patent is twenty years in Canada therefore it varies on different courtiers. To acquire a patent, one should fill an application form that provides the details of what to be protected and the invention. This document may be kept a trade secret or it may become public depending on the licensee. When a trademark is registered, the licensee has a right to use exclusively the trademark with respect to services associated with it and be able to prevent others from using it (Gabrielides & Squyres, 2001). Trademark may include designing, colours, symbols, combined words, and others. The rights of a trademark do not need to be registered to use of it shows registration to the assigned services or goods. The registration of a trademark can be renewed and used again but failure to use may result in removal from the registry. On the issue of copyright, the license that exists in art, music, dramatic work, and original literacy gives the owner a right to produce repeating the protected work. Copyrights offer a limited protection though compared to patent because it only protects original work and not ideas therefore someone else can produce similar work using the same ideas. The law of copyrights recognizes moral rights to original authors and work License under English Law Property licensing under the English law protects the legal rights of the owners and creators in reference to intellectual creativity. Intellectual property rights (IPR) include protection of several works of the owners including scientific, industrial, artistic, or literary. This can be in the form of software, inventions, or even manuscripts. Common Issues Related To License The most common issues in licensing are identifying the Parties, license grant, compensation, definitions, and conflict resolution. The license is between two parties with the rights to grant the license. Details like address, date of agreement and others should be included. Grant license is an important element of an agreement it shows the extent of granting out the license and any other thing that may limit these rights. Compensation involves the amount the licensee is to pay the licensor in exchange for the rights that has been granted. It may also include liability for tax payment. Definitions include precise explanations of various terms used for example royalty, licensed patents, Field, revenue, net revenue and others. Conflict Resolution arises in terms of context arrangement in an attempt to regulate the way in which disputes may be solved to ensure the cost is contained. Property Licenses under Islamic Sharia Property license is not regulated by Islamic law therefore the main issue is to whether the Islamic principles in their law can be made to support the protection of intellectual property. Protection of authors originally in pre-Islamic period, they were compensated by helping them to publish and distribute their work. Nowadays many Muslim countries apply secular laws to protect intellectual property some holding sharia as the main source. Sharia is not the legal Islamic rules but an association with a concept of fairness and justice as understood in the rule of law. There are several sources though of this property laws this is; the Quran which is the main source of sharia, the Sunna which gives reference to Prophet Mohammed’s life, the Ijma and the Qiyas (Lewicki et al, 2003). Application of license in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia use the Islamic law and has ratified the Berne convention for the protection of Literary and artistic works of 1886, revised in Paris on 24 July 1971 and the Paris convention that looked at protection of industrial property of 1883, both were affected in 2004. Three government authorities were appointed in Saudi Arabia to enforce intellectual rights on property. This are: the ministry of Culture and Information for copyrights, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for trademarks, King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology for patents. In case of application to trademark, copyrights or patent one gets to the Ministry involved. Islamic Rules to License Property Rights This involves the deep Quran belief that intellectual property, as a form of intangible property concept applying to real property and ownership of such, refers to Prophet’s farewell sermon states that one’s property is sacred and it should not be used in a wrong way. If someone finds a lost property or stolen he cannot acquire the title but holds it as a trustee. Moral Rights The Shari states that the ideas licensed must be properly attributed to the correct source. It emphasizes on being truthful that it leads one to paradise but lays lead to obscenity and obscenity leads to hell. Copying, Counterfeiting, and Theft The Quran does not allow copying and counterfeit, it condemns those whose give themselves more and give less to others when told to measure. It encourages Muslims to dwell where traders are fair in measuring. Unjust acts are greatly condemned and so is theft. Personal Rights Gained Through Effort Hadith emphasize on Muslims living out of their own effort. A prophet in his book says that a good meal is the one earned by a person using his or her own hands. References Gabrielides, J. & Squyres, M. (2001). Licensing Law Handbook .Chicago: West Group, Lewicki, R. J., Saunders, D. M., Minton. J. W, & Barry, B. (2003), Negotiation: Readings, Exercises and Cases. New York, McGraw-Hill Irwin. . . Read More