Frequently Asked Questions
Everything that takes a distinctive form, such as names, signatures, words, symbols, letters, addresses, numbers, pictures, inscriptions, drawings, seals, colours, packaging, graphic elements, shapes, combinations of colours, any sign or a combination thereof.
An exclusive right granted by the Authority to the plant variety, and its term of protection is 20 years since the application is filed and 25 years for trees and vines. The plant variety must be new, stable, distinctive, uniform, and named.
It is the 3D arrangement of integrated circuit elements, where at least one of these is active for some or all of the connections. The integrated circuit might also be, the 3D order of dimension for an integrated circuit that have a manufacturing purpose.
Any combination of 2D lines or colours or a 3D shape that gives a special look to any industrial product or traditional craft could be an industrial design.
Innovators always tend to share their successes and inventions, and intellectual property rights provide them with the needed protection to prevent anyone from infringing their creations, that’s how intellectual property promotes technological advancement which benefits society as it allows more innovation and hence, more progress.
While patents and copyrights can expire, trademarks and trade secret protections remain in effect the longest.
Generally, intellectual property is capitalised as an asset on the balance sheet, like copyrights, trademarks and patents have associated costs; this brings us to the definition of intellectual property which is the collection of the information that an individual or entity owns and can make a profit from it, whether a new customer, product or even improving a business as a whole.
All forms of intellectual property can be transferred in two ways, whether directly from one owner to the other or shared among two entities the property can be temporarily transferred under a license, or permanently transferred through an assignment.
IP technology transfer is a well-known practice among certain entities and even countries, through which an entity transfers a piece of technology or technological process to another entity
Intellectual property is one of the most intangible and valuable assets for any business as it protects its critical aspects, which help it grows and stay ahead of the competition. Therefore you need to protect these invisible assets. Here are a few important aspects that lend importance to intellectual property rights:
- Distinguishes your business from that of competitors.
- Gives the exclusive right to utilize, make, import or even sell your artwork.
- warranty against infringement
- Enhance capabilities to produce new products.
- A solid base for marketing and branding.
- Can be sold or licensed thereby adding to your revenue.
- Can be used as a grantee for loans.
- Trade Marks
- Obtaining patent protection
- Getting copyrights in place
- Safeguarding and also handling design
Information, ideas, products, devices, formulas, or a combination of these, that gives its owner an advantage over the competition is considered a trade secret. Generally, anything that is not publicly known because it has some business value is a trade secret.
Trade secret remains protected as long as the owner preserves protection and maintains secrecy.
This depends on the degree of overlap between products and services. As the main purpose of trademark law is to protect consumers from confusion.
Even if you hold a trademark this doesn’t give you the right to sue for infringement unless you have proven the confusion that the other business had done
Yes. if you are aware of the infringement and agree to sell the items, you may be liable as a secondary infringer. and the copyright owner could sue you for damages.
Yes. you will need a permit for sure from the copyright owner of the song and recording copyright owner. This might not be a feasible step, as the owners may refuse or ask for huge fees. You also, need to put in consideration checking if the copyright still applied to this work or not, where many songs recorded in the 1960s or earlier have been considered a public domain, and anyone can use them.
In case you are unable to get permission for the song, or it is not in the public domain, you can use it under the right of fair use as long as you are using a short part of the song and don’t make a profit from it or harming the value of the song.
Probably your employer has patent rights in your invention during your employment course under the employed-to-invent doctrine that you were hired for this mission, also, your contract might include bonuses for your invention if it proves its value.
In case there is no employment agreement or employed-to-invent doctrine applies, the employer might still have shop rights in your invention, which means that he owns patent rights without paying you an additional fee, and this right arises when you use the employers’ resources during your invention.
Usually, utility patent protection lasts for 20 years after the filing date of the application, while a design patent lasts for 14 years after the patent is issued. However, a plant patent lasts for 17 years after the patent is issued.
If you put your idea in some protectable form, you have a full right to sue them for a patent or a copyright infringement. And this protectable form doesn’t necessarily mean copyright or patent registration but at least write them down and file a provisional application. In case your idea was a trade secret, you still able to sue them based on a breach of an implied agreement
You cannot get a patent for:
- Mathematical formula
- Law of nature
- The scientific principle has no functional application.
- Naturally occurring substance
- Inventions with only illegal usage
- Unsafe pharmaceuticals
- Ways of conducting surgery on people
- Printed materials without distinctive shapes or structure
For Creative work, such as a song, a movie, or a novel, the appropriate form of protection would be a copyright, rather than a patent.
For an invention to be novel, one of its composing elements must be different from an already-existing invention that serves the same purpose in the field, which require reviewing all the invention already existing in addition to reviewing all the patent application as well.
If your invention was described before in a publication it can’t meet this requirement, unless you describe it in a publication at least one year before filing the patent application.
If your invention produces a useful and measurable result you can obtain a patent protection right for it. Note, you can get patent protection for an application that is operating using a mathematical formula, but you can’t get protection for the formula itself.
Generally, If the work was published in 1978 or later, protection rights will last for the lifetime of the author and 70 years after he passes away. In case the work was created 1977 or earlier, protection will last for 95 years after the publishing date.
If the work was published under a pseudonym, copyright protection lasts for 95 or 120 years after it was created, whichever is less. However, if the name of this anonymous author was revealed to the copyright office protection will last for 70 years after his death.
In KSA, the copyrights last for the lifetime of the author, plus 50 years after he passed away.