Importance of Patent as an Intellectual Property Right in Competitive Business Environment - Assignment Example

Importance of patent as an intellectual property right in present competitive business environment Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction Intellectual property (IP) is a concept that can be used legally for the recognition of exclusive right to the creative minds including individuals or organizations. The intellectual property laws can be applied to gain exclusive rights for different intangible assets like artistic works, inventions, designs, musical works, literary works and discoveries. The major types of intellectual property rights are patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, industrial design etc. Intellectual properties are mediums of ensuring that the valuable knowledge and inventions of an individual or an organization can be protected from being copied or infringed by others. The maintenance of ownership of the intangible assets is critical in today’s world where a rapid pace of innovation is followed. The value of the largest organizations in the globe are much dependent on the knowledge based innovations and designs within the organization. Therefore, it is critical to manage the intellectual properties efficiently so as to maintain the intangible assets and the value of any organization. Invention plays a critical role in adding value to the business by contributing to different processes with an objective of capturing and generating knowledge within the organization. Therefore, it is imperative to stress on the proper management of the intellectual properties like patents, trademarks and copyrights within an organization. The management of intellectual property encompasses a wide range of activities including the understanding of the intellectual property, the inherent value of the intellectual property and how the intellectual property should be protected from infringements. Discussion Intellectual properties are valuable financial and strategic resources of an organization. Therefore like any other asset, the intellectual properties should also be managed continuously. The proper management of the IP would ensure that the organization attains an in-depth understanding of the IP and thus can assess its values and benefits better. The effective intellectual property management would also ensure that the properties are protected from outside risks like infringement, usage and copy by third parties. The management of intellectual property is not a one-time event but a continuous process that is to be continued till the expiry of the intellectual property. The different decisions points to be identified within the life cycle of an intellectual property for the intellectual property management process are given below. Intellectual property management aims at ultimately increasing the profitability of a business. For the effective management of intellectual properties like patents, an effective corporate culture should be developed which would facilitate the management process (Richard and George, 2011, p.441). The intellectual property management process needs the establishment of a robust framework. For establishing a proper intellectual property management framework, it is important to have detailed knowledge about the objectives, goals and practices followed in an organization and a complete identification and understanding of the part of the organization in which the need of intellectual property management is to be addressed. These factors may shift over time and the intellectual property management process should be flexible enough to review and adapt it to the changing factors. The main factors to be addressed for the design and implementation of an intellectual management framework are the availability of resources to support the protection of the intellectual properties, the required authorization for the implementation of intellectual property protection and the intellectual property policies that are required to protect the intellectual properties against infringements. The intellectual property management framework should be designed by integrating the intellectual property policies within the organization (Fischer and Oberholzer-Gee, 2013, p.112). The intellectual property management framework consists of two major components which are the intellectual property policies and the intellectual property implementation plan. A patent is a common type of intellectual property. It is the right acquired by the owner of the invention from the government of the country in which he resides in order to protect his invention and prevent the exploitation or infringement of the invention by a third party within the specific country. A patent is generally acquired for inventions which may be methods, processes, designs, substances or devices. The inventions which cannot be patented include those which have used subject matters like biological processes and human beings, inventions that may cause inconvenience to the general public and the inventions that are against the legal regulations in the country of invention (Spooner and Lysander, 1999, pp.141-144). The nature of the invention is significant in deciding whether the invention can be granted patent or not. The invention must meet a number of pre-determined criteria to be granted patent by the government of the country. The inventions which do not meet the prerequisites for acquiring patent are kept as confidential inventions within the organization. Patent is acquired for inventions which are of high importance for the organization to strictly prevent the exploitation of those inventions by others. Patents are acquired for critical and path breaking innovations to keep them as intellectual properties or intangible assets. The management of the patents start from the search and identification of the suitability of the invention for patent granting followed by application for the patent, re-examination of the patent, maintaining the rights of the patent and publishing the patent. The patent management process also includes periodical review of the patent to ensure the values and benefits provided by the patent as measured against the changing needs of the organization (Brenkert and Beauchamp, 2001, pp.118-120). The patents and confidential, information differ in a number of features. The scope of patents consists of exclusive rights with an objective to prevent the exploitation of innovation by others. The patents rights are different for different countries and have country specific differences. The patents are renewed from time to time through then payment of renewal fees for specific terms. Normally, the period of protection for standard patents is twenty years from the date of application and for innovation patents; the term is eight years from the date of filing of the application for patent. The patent application may not always be successful especially when an opposition is considered proper in legal terms. The cost of registering for a patent is high, especially when foreign protection for the patents is opted for. The patents management team can take legal actions in case of infringement of the patent rights and can call for a number of remedies including accounts of damages and injunctions. It is important to identify whether an invention causes infringement of any existing patent right. The patent searches should be effectively conducted before filing for the patent of an invention. The management of the patents should encompass the early identification of the invention being anticipatory of any other invention done before by another party (Ronald, 2001, p.91-98). The patent management process should start by searching patent databases of the particular country to identify whether the invention is completely new and does not bear resemblance to any existing patent right gained by another party. The patent management process should actively involve a patent attorney before filing the application for the patent right. The patent management process should encompass the conduct of different search processes for assessing the suitability of the invention for acquiring a patent right. The searches may include infringement search to ensure that the invention is not similar to any other existing patent any applied patent. The patentability search ideally includes the location of the work which the invention may be claimed to be based upon. These works may include published patents, publications or any other type of documented information. The bibliographic search is done to identify the different granted and applied patents of a particular inventor. The state of the art search is done to get a general overview of the related field of study or the market. The patent application process A patent application should be done after the proper evaluation of the features of the invention and the existence of similar patents are completed. The filing of application for a patent requires an application fee and a declaration by the inventor about the specifications and originality of the invention (Maskus, 2002, pp.471-480). The correct time for filing the application for a patent is when the inventors can suitable assesses the scope of their invention. The time of patent application is important since it should be filed as soon as it can be specified as a patent specification. It will also enable the investors to forecast the scope of invention. It should be noted that a patent application must be filed before the invention publication since disclosure of invention may disregard the possibility of a patent being granted (Greenhalgh and Rogers, 2010, p.51-56). A patent specification may be described as a complex legal document under the scrutiny of experienced patent attorney. After the application is lodged it is the duty of the patent office to assess the specification. Generally a specification cannot be amended at a later stage. The invention a claimed needs to fall in line with the requirements of patentability and there are several criteria and requirements which must be submitted along with the patent application. The patent office assesses these documents before granting the patent to the applicant. Dissatisfaction proposed by the office on these documents will lead to patent being disregarded. These requirements can be diagrammatically represented as follows. There may be oppositions to the standard patent applications as well as the applications for innovation patents on any of the grounds as set in the Patents Act formulated in 1990. These grounds of opposition may include the following: The specification of the invention are not complete, the applicant of the patent is not entitled to acquire the patent for the invention, the invention that has been proposed to acquire patent had been secretly used beforehand, the applicant is entitled to get the patent along with another inventor, the lack of novelty in the patent, the actual invention does not match with the claims made in the application for patents, the claims of the invention are harmful for the biological processes and the human beings or the inventions are directed to biological processes of creating new animals or plants. A standard application of patent can be opposed on the basis of any of these grounds within three months from the date when the notice of acceptance is published on the Official Journal of the patents (Lindberg, 2008, p.174). The management of the patents rights can be effectively done through proper processes of re-examining the patents, maintaining the patent rights properly, renewing the patent rights by paying the renewal fees and periodically reviewing the patent rights. The re-examination processes of the patents should ideally be done between the date of acceptance of the application and the granting of the patent right. The re-examination of both the innovation patents and the standard patents include assessing and monitoring the innovative steps and the novelties of the invention. The process of re-examination can lead to amendments in the claims for the patent grant to ensure validity of the patent application (Connell, 2007, p.161). The negative effect of the re-examination may be the refusal of the patent right or revocation of the granted patent. Another major way of managing the patent rights is through obtaining foreign protection for the inventions. Foreign protection can be acquired through the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT). This treaty allows for the filing of application of a patent in a particular country to be internationalized with respect to other countries that are included in the Patent Co-operation Treaty. The patent holder might apply for international patent grant through the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The particular international application would be required to be nationalized in countries where the patent rights are to be acquired. Conclusion The intellectual property management processes use systematic activities to maintain the intellectual property rights and protect the intellectual properties. The maintenance of the patents within an organization is critical in increasing the core competencies of an organization. For an effective intellectual property management, the organization should be aware of the intellectual property landscape and the intellectual property rights maintained by other organizations. The future of the global intellectual property management is likely to be characterized by patent trolling, open standards and global management in intellectual properties. References Brenkert, G. G. & Beauchamp, T. L. 2001. The Economics of Intellectual Property Protection in the Global Economy. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Connell, S. 2007. Intellectual Ownership. London: Routledge. Fischer, W. W. & Oberholzer-Gee, F. 2013. Strategic Management of Intellectual Property – An Integrated Approach. [Pdf]. Available at http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/faculty-workshops/fisher.faculty.workshop.summer-2013.pdf. [Accessed on 30 January 2014]. Greenhalgh, C. & Rogers, M. 2010. Innovation, Intellectual Property, and Economic Growth. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Lindberg, V. 2008. Intellectual Property and Open Source: A Practical Guide to Protecting Code. California: OReilly Books. Maskus, K. E. 2002. Intellectual Property Rights and Economic Development. Journal of International Law, Vol. 32 (1), pp. 471-480. Richard, T. & George, D. 2011. Intellectual Property Rights. London: Oxford University Press. Ronald, V. B. 2001. Critical Perspectives in Patent Culture: The Political Economy of Intellectual Property. New Jersey: Cengage. Spooner, B. & Lysander, K. 1999. The Law of Intellectual Property: An Essay on the Right of Authors and Inventors to a Perpetual Property in their Ideas. New Jersey: McGraw Hill. Read More