Intellectual Property Rights that Would Best Protect the New Idea - Coursework Example

Advise Akil on which intellectual property rights would best protect his innovative watch, the formalities required to achieve that protection and any issues of ownership which you think are relevant. The term Intellectual property is a legal concept that provides exclusive rights to the owners of the property to insure some ‘intangible ‘ objects that are often over looked or taken for granted. Some of them are works of artistic importance, important scientific discoveries, musical and literary assets and so on. Trade secrets, patent, copyrights, trademarks are such examples. If one has to reason the need for these particular rights one can decipher that the intellectual property rights showers some ‘financial incentives’ to the owners of these exclusive property to create something that could be treasured for years to come. In this regard one could cite reference to the Interflora, Inc. & Anr v Marks & Spencer Plc & Anr1 for using advertising marks patented without approval as well as the case of Dame Vivienne Westwood O.B.E. v Anthony Edward Knight2 wherein the claimant Dame V Westwood succeeded to claim compensation for violation trademarks and copyright illegally. Some of the key advantages for the Innovation that Akil have made and then we would analyze it special significance and importance in the light of contributing to Intellectual Property rights. First, Akil has good domain knowledge since he has been working in a watch company for quite some time. This mean that he has a thorough understanding of the mechanics of a watch, how it is manufactured, what are the key components, how are the parts intricate together to make the finished products etc. The second key advantage that Akil has is his passion for a particular sport, running. As an enthusiast in sports himself he could readily understand the needs and requirements of a sportsman and how a new innovative gadget can become a ‘must-have’ accessory that could make his life more enjoyable and simple. Every sportsman especially a runner is time-bound and in order to capture the number of leaps and the time taken, a stop watch is an absolute must. The new scientific innovation that Akil proposes to make would be a watch which would accommodate all the functions of a stopwatch in sports. Not only this, the new watch, iRunner would be equipped with a MP3 player too. This would indeed unburden the runner to carry a separate MP3 player while engaged in the sport activity. So over all Akil’s innovative watch; iRunner has a good advantage and appeal in the sports market. In order to understand the relevance and significance of Intellectual property rights protection, one need to know the particular subjects that could be termed as intellectual property. The term usually refers to a subject which is the creation of ‘mind or intellect.’ To understand how and in what ways Akil’s new innovative ‘iRunner’ could possibly find ways to be listed amongst the Intellectual Property one needs to understand the basic concept of Intellectual property protection rights i.e. Patent right. The word patent primarily means some privileged rights that are granted for an innovative scientific innovation that successfully caters to render possibly solutions to some needs by providing some ‘technical solution ‘to a concern. This also means that in order to seek for protection for an innovation under patent rights certain obligations has to be fulfilled as legal requirements. The main protection that IP patent rights provide is to protection the owners of the innovation over a limited period of time which is commonly for a period of 20 years. Thus within that time frame the owners of the Intellectual Property is granted protection which is legally sanctioned. To be protected under patent laws attests that the particular innovation could not be made commercially available that means to be sold or distributed elsewhere without any formal consent of the owners of the Intellectual Property. These rights are, primarily protected and enforced by the court of one’s country. For example in the in the recent times Cephalon Inc & Ors v Orchid Europe Ltd & Ors [2011] 3 clearly shows that infringement of patent right is serious offence and legal measure could be taken to seek justice. Further in Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc (“EPE”) v Agostino Carollo (t/a Everness) as well as Westwood v Knight4 Case we find that the judgment was granted in favor of the claimant despite the defendant disputing the jurisdiction which yet again shows the IP protection rights. Further, the court may also declare that a patent is invalid if it could be challenged by another third party and confirmed. An example of such case can be cited with reference to Football Data co Ltd & Ots (“FDC”) v Sport radar GmbH & Anr (together “Sport radar”) 5Some of the rights that a patent owner has is to make a decision to whom the patented innovation could be used under the limited period until when the property is protected, The owner of the patented` intellectual property owner also has the right to give license to an individual or an organization to use it under some mutually agreed terms and conditions. Further the owner of the IP also has the right to sell off the patented right to someone else who would then be the owner of that property. However, once the limited period of patented rights expired the Intellectual Property would then enter the domain of the public property which could be also used for public use then. 2. Explain how the name ‘iRunner’ could be protected and advice on the likelihood of being able to protect and use that name successfully. Today patented innovations play a very positive role in day to day’s life. For example we have electric lightening which is patented by Edison and Swan and also the common ball point pen which is patented by Biro or even micro processors patented by Intel. By proving such priceless innovative ideas or scientific knowledge the owner has encouraged the research and development field to come up with fresh discoveries and innovations which could possibly find its way to be amongst the Intellectual Property of one’s country and for the international community as well. In order to avail the benefits to be protected under the IP patented law certain criterions need to be obligated. The first requirement is that the innovation has to be practical in the sense it should provide some practical solution to a problem or need. In this case, the innovative watch of Akil would cater to provide practical solution of a dynamic watch that would have the benefit of accommodating a stop watch as well as MP3 player –all in one compact watch. This would provide practical solution to a sportsman as it would free the sportsman from carrying extra accessories. The second criteria is that it must have some aspect of ‘novelty’ having some contemporary and fresh characteristic that was not present in the existing system or model. Finally the subject matter should be acceptable to be patented under the existing legal system of one’s country. In this regard also we find that the new innovation would be strongly supported by the government of the country under which Akil’s new innovation would find its solid place. For example the Beachwood House Publishing (t/a Binleys) v Guardian Products Ltd & Anor case 6 that was supported by the Patent County Court in June 2011 against the defendant for the infringement of data base right. The first step to seek patented right is to fill up a patent rights application. The applications contain certain key elements like the title of the Innovation. In our case the tile of the innovation would be ‘iRunner’ of Akil. It would be an all in one sports watch with stop watch as well as MP3 player for music loving sport enthusiasts. The patent law protection can be obtained on a national as well as international level. International applications are also accepted under those states governed by Patient Cooperation Treaty. The Patent is grated to an individual applicant from different states in which the claim is made. Thus the method of application may be different but the formalities remain the same. Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) provides detailed information to seek protection of Intellectual Property across borders. Also there are many national and regional offices located all over that provides free of charge information via electronic means i.e. internet. Therefore it is best advised for Akil to go through such formal procedural means in order to seek the best protection of his innovative watch to get protected legally. 3. Discuss the intellectual property rights which will protect the website and the issues which Akil will have to consider in the course of its design. Interestingly, Akil has a further plan that goes beyond the innovative must-have watch ‘iRunner’ which is named as ‘iRun2’ which is a running club membership that would be a knowledge bank for runners providing all aids and advises that every runner could treasure. There would be a website for providing this facility to sport enthusiasts that would have detailed features like customized fitness advise for health freaks, recipes, maps of suggestive running routes, music tracks and so on. Such an all in one comprehensive knowledge bank would indeed be an asset to every sprinter that could be treasured for years to come. Hence seeking protection like copyrights on the website is absolutely essential which would stop the site being misused by hackers to use it commercially elsewhere without the owner’s consent. A copy right is yet another form of Intellectual Property right that secures an original work of original composition be it works of art, literary connotation or music as well as valuable works of significance. Although the copy rights do not cover facts and ideas it protects the method in which they are expressed. It means that one cannot copy works of another individual that is already been protected under copy rights without seeking prior approval or consent. It may be a small piece of writing on a web page or a picture published in one of the web sites. The recent case in June this year which is marked as a trial case on copy right violation, the case-The Motion Picture Association (MPA) vs. website Newzbin7 wherein the U.K. government for the first time would use section 97 A of the copyright, Design and Patent Act. Some of the copyright work includes musical works, literary works, and dramatic works, works related to audio visual effects, pictorial graphic and sculptural works and architectural mechanism. These are but broad terms and headings and certain fields like photography comes under pictorial graphic and sculptural works. Also most computers programmed compilations and web page listings may be included within works of literary importance. Example the multiparty claims of Sayers v SmithKline Beecham Plc8 wherein there was multi party proceedings concerned with MMR vaccines. This situation might occur when there is more than one owner of an Intellectual Property. Hence, in case of the new website that Akil and his friend Irfan intends to design the ‘original authorship’ may be sheltered by copy right reserved which may include the various writings on the web page with innovative and valuable information or relevant photographs, recopies that could all be covered under the protection for Intellectual Property rights under copy rights. In order to register for copy rights an applicant needs to send two copies of the copy right work along with the registration fees and the duly filled in application form. The process to register may sound very simple; however if all the information have not been filled up with details chances to get the form returned is frequent. Further registration forms would only be accepted if it is filled up in black ink. In case of photography certain form standard need to be maintained. Therefore since Akil and his friend Irfan has this plan to introduce a runners club and have a formal website dedicated to support and aid the runners with full guidelines, there is an utmost need to make sure that the website is protected under Intellectual Protection rights. The two main essential measures of website protection is technical and legal .The technical helps the owner to be easily be informed for potential hacking of one’s web page .Some of such measures includes digital watermarking and spiders. However these measures may also become quite cumbersome and not much user friendly to easily track as well as curtails such illegal activities. Not only this often these technical measures are expensive and users may not be able to reap its benefit completely. Hence the best ways to seek website protection is through legal means, i.e. Copyrights reserved IP protection. This is the safest as well as easiest t way to enable web site protection. The case ITV Broadcasting Ltd & Ors v TV Catch-up Ltd [2011] 9 as well as Wadsworth & Anor v Granada International Media Ltd & Anor10 is the clear proof for that wherein the claimants which are mainly television channels has filed a case against TV catch-up Ltd which is an internet based service provider charged for infringement of copyright of the claimant. There are some vital points that one needs to keep in mind before availing the benefit of copyrights reserved protection. It is generally recommended that one should use both the term copyright notice as well as the symbol copyright on the web page. It does make a difference between registered and un-registered copyrights violation since in case of registered copyrights protection one gets compensated in case of infringement. However, it should always be kept in mind that one should not violate the very essence of Intellectual property rights protection by invading someone else’s work in order to get prominence or acceptance as a premiere IP owner. Thus we can conclude that Akil could get good IP protection for two of this phenomenon innovations –one is the ‘iRunner’ that could be protected under patent right and the other is ‘iRun2’ which could get copyrights protected. Works Cited 1) E. Anthony Wayne-”Why protecting Intellectual Property Matters” America. Gov Archive (April 2008). U.S. Department of State publication, 2) Brad, Sherman; Lionel Bentley (1999). The making of modern intellectual property law: the British experience, 1760-1911. Cambridge University Press. pp. 207. ISBN 9780521563635. http://www.google.com/books?id=u2aMRAeF1gC&dq=statute+of+anne+copyright&lr=&as_brr=3&source=gbs_navlinks_s.  3) Robert Shapiro and Nam Pham, “Economic Effects of Intellectual Property-Intensive Manufacturing in the United States”, July 2007 (archived on archive.org). 4) N. Stephan Kinchella, “Against Intellectual property” n.p, (2008), p. 44. 5) “The U.S. Copyright Term Extension Act”, web, pg. 105-298 6) CIPIH-Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health, http://www.who.int/intellectualproperty/report/en/, 2011. 7) WIPO-World intellectual Property Organization, web, 2011 “National IP Strategies”, http://www.wipo.int/ip-development/en/strategies/national_ip_strategies.html 8.) Learn to copyright your work! “Research Copy Rights”, web, 2011, http://www.researchcopyright.com/copyright-basics-what-works-are- protected.php 9) Avoid Copyright Infringement on Your Website by Legal Match on 03/07/2011 http://www.techlineinfo.com/avoid-copyright-infringement-on-your-website/ 10) Protecting your website, Website Copyright, Benedict, web, 1995-2011 Copyright Website LLC U.S. (1988 ed. and Supp. 1993). 11) “What Does Copyright Protect?”Copyright Gov, Office U.S .Official site. http://www.copyright.gov/pubs.html, Reports and studies issued by the U.S. Copyright 12) Richard Rays man, Edward A. Pisacreta and Kenneth A. Adler. “Intellectual Property, web, Licensing: Forms and Analysis”, by Law Journal Press, 1998-2008. ISBN 973-58852- 086-9 13)” IPR Enforcement, A Priority for All Countries”, U.S. government experts discuss IPR Enforcement- U.S. Department of State publication, Focus on Intellectual Property Rights. (1998-2011) 14) “Focus on Intellectual Property”, Jan 2006, America.Gov. Archive, web http://www.america.gov/publications/books/ipr.html 15) “Copyrights Basics, What Rights are Protected,” web, 2011, n.p. Circular 66 www.copyright.gov/circs/circ66.pdf. 16) “Copyright registration for online works,” Library of Congress € Copyright Office € 101 by Elizabeth Shieldkret, Independence Avenue, S.E. € Washington, D.C. 20559-6000 http://www.loc.gov/copyright REV: June 1999. 17) Patent Rights Explained, “The Bar Stool” by Hannah IP, copyright 2007-2010. http://www.hannaip.com/patentrights.html. 18) Intellectual Property Office, Oct 2010, web, n.p. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/home.html Official Site, UK 19) Mary Bellis-“Understand and use Copyright Protection,” web, n.p, 2010. http://inventors.about.com/cs/copyrights/ht/Use_Copyrights.html. 20) Copy Right & Fair use, Standard Universities Libraries, http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter0/0-a.html 21) Ben Hardwidge, “The Case against Newzbin”, web (August, 2011) http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2011/08/15/changing-face-usenet/2 Read More