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Intellectual Property, Intellectual Property Rights, Copyrights, and Patents
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An idea can be a great asset. New ideas drive technology, and
through its economy, a nation. An idea can change the world. The ideas that
create technology are known collectively as Intellectual Property or IP. The
World Intellectual Property Organization (http://www.wipo.int)
defines IP as “creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works,
symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.” IP can include ideas,
formulae, inventions, products, industrial designs and processes, literary and
artistic works, architectural designs, web pages, and computer programs. |
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IP is classified into Industrial Property--which can include
inventions (and patents), trademarks, industrial processes and designs, and
Copyright--which can include literary and artistic works, music, theater, and
broadcast entertainment like radio and television programs. Traditionally,
computer software has been included in Copyright category; however, this
categorization is changing due to the fact that so many modern inventions
usually include computer software. Patents are often applied for and awarded to
software inventions as a result. |
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| Copyrights |
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Copyrights and Patents are two legal mechanisms that assign and protect
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). A Copyright is an unregistered right,
meaning unregistered with a government agency. Copyright comes into effect
immediately, as soon as something that can be protected is created and "fixed"
in some way, eg on paper, on film, via sound recording, as an electronic record
on the internet, etc. There are no forms to fill out, no fees to send in…a
creator of the IP simply marks the creation with the © symbol, as in:
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Copyright © 2004 by Kurt W.G. Matthies. All Rights Reserved.
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A rule of thumb in determining the difference between Copyrights and Patents is
that a Copyright does not protect ideas.
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Historically, the idea of a Copyright is as old as printing itself. Before the
invention of the printing press in the 15th century, books were rare, copied
one at a time by scribes. Copyright protection was unknown and unnecessary.
This changed when the printing press created the ability to print books
economically. As the number of printers increased in England, the monarchy
exercised its royal prerogative to regulate the book trade and protect printers
against piracy. The Licensing Act of 1662 established a register of licensed
books along with the requirement to deposit a copy of the book to be licensed.
This law also provided powers to seize books that were hostile to the
government and the church. In 1681 the Licensing Act was repealed and printers
in England became a self-regulating guild. Ownership rights were granted to the
printers of registered book. The 1710 Statute of Anne established the first
modern Copyright law by conferring a work’s rights of ownership to its author,
and establishing a limited time period for those rights. The International
Copyright Act 1886 and the Berne Convention established the first international
Copyright agreement between the United States and Great Britain.
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| Patents |
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A Patent is a registered right, which unlike a Copyright, confers a government
grant of ownership to an invention, and includes the rights to make, use, or
sell the invention, for a limited time period (14 years in the USA). An
inventor must apply for a patent from the appropriate governing body. Often
this is an expensive and time-consuming process, involving the services of a
patent attorney. When a patent is granted, the invention becomes the property
of the patent holder, and like any other property, it can be bought, rented, or
sold. Patents are territorial. Patents issued in the USA prohibit others within
the USA or its territories from making or selling an invention without the
express permission of the patent holder.
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Patents in the USA are investigated and granted by the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov)
while patents in Europe and other parts of the world are handled by either a
home country patent office, for example, the UK Patent Office (http://www.patent.gov.uk),
or by the European Patent Office (http://www.epo.org).
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Patents guarantee exclusivity of an invention and therefore provide a way for a
governing organization to encourage technical innovation and economic growth
through dissemination of the invention or technology within a society.
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Patents, in general, are granted only if they are a form of Industrial
Property, that is, you can only patent an invention or idea that is an
apparatus or a process used for an industrial, albeit, the term “industrial”
can have wide application and can, for example, include agriculture.
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A Patent must be a new idea that involves some form of an innovative idea.
Patent applications are examined for both technical and legal merit. During the
approval process, the Patent Office will perform a search of the technical
literature to determine what was known prior to the filing date of the patent,
and examines the request against these materials. It is prudent therefore, for
a prospective patent application to perform a thorough search of existing
patents in his/her field of interest. Patent searches can be done in the USPTO
Patent Search Room or at a Patent and Trademark Depository Library in your
area, or online at http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html.
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Patents are classified within a particular field of endeavor. Some 54 nations,
including the USA, European nations, and most other technologically advanced
nations (such as Japan, Korea, China, Israel, and the Russian Federation) have
agreed by international treaty (the 1971 Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the
International Patent Classification), to classify patents within the
International Patent Classifications or IPC system. The seventh version of the
IPC currently in effect until Dec. 31, 2005 contains the following eight main
IPO sections with links to their descriptions.
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Each of the eight main sections of the IPO are again divided into classes that
further describe and classify their function. For example, class H04 is defined
as Electronic Communication Techniques, and its subclass K deals with Secret
Communication; Jamming of Communication. This subsection fully defined as
follows:
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International Patent Classifications (IPC 7th version) - Section H - ELECTRICITY
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H04
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ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
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H04 K
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SECRET COMMUNICATION; JAMMING OF COMMUNICATION
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Note:
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In this subclass, the following expression is used with the meaning indicated:
"secret communication" includes secret line and radiation transmission systems,
i.e. those in which apparatus at the transmitting station modifies the signal
in such a way that the information cannot be intelligibly received without
corresponding modifying apparatus at the receiving station.
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1/00
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Secret communication (ciphering or deciphering apparatus per se G09C; systems
with reduced bandwidth or suppressed carrier H04B 1/66; spread spectrum
techniques in general H04B 1/69; by using a sub-carrier H04B 14/08; by
multiplexing H04J; transmission systems for secret digital information H04L
9/00; secret or subscription television systems H04N 7/16)
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1/02
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by adding a second signal to make the desired signal unintelligible
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1/04
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by frequency scrambling, i.e. by transposing or inverting parts of the
frequency band or by inverting the whole band
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1/06
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by transmitting the information or elements thereof at unnatural speeds or in
jumbled order or backwards
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1/08
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by varying the polarisation of transmitted waves
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1/10
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by using two signals transmitted simultaneously or successively
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3/00
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Jamming of communication; Counter-measures (counter-measures used in radar or
analogous systems G01S 7/00)
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So, if I were to invent a system that used frequency multiplexing to scramble a
communication signal, the patent classification of the application might be
either H04 K 1/02 or H04 K 1/04. (Further divisions of the IPC hierarchy are
called classes and subclasses. The categories 1/02 and 1/04 indicate subgroups
02 and 04 within the Group 1. Therefore, the IPC consists of Sections with
divided by Classes and Subclasses, which are further divided by Groups and
Subgroups).
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There are other patent classification systems in use today. For example, U.S.
design patents prepared for issue after June 30, 1996 include a Locarno
International Classification designation as part of the bibliographic data. The
purpose of the international design classification designation is to enhance
accessibility of design patents in foreign design search files as well as
commercial databases.
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Further information on Classification of Patents for US patents can be obtained
from the USPTO website at this link:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep.htm
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One field of endeavor that is missing from the IPC, and which causes a great
deal of confusion and controversy is computer software. In the USA, patents
have been issued for software for a number of years. In Europe and notably the
UK, software is still not eligible for Patent.
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If you require further information, please
contact us for a free telephone consultation.
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