The term intellectual property means special, specific rights of an intangible nature that belong to inventors, authors and other holders of intellectual property rights. Intellectual property law includes a system of legal instruments that regulate the manner of acquisition of intellectual property and the manner of protection against its unauthorized use. In the business world, intellectual property is an intangible asset whose successful exploitation can be a valuable foundation or contribution to business. In this short article we will try to explain to you the meaning of intellectual property, what are the forms of intellectual property and how the protection of intellectual property is implemented.
Forms of intellectual property
Intellectual property includes two subgroups of rights, copyright and related rights, and industrial property rights. In the continuation of this article we will present in more detail all types of intellectual property rights, as that said the following institutes can be included in intellectual law today. Copyright as a right of literary, scientific and artistic works, i.e. copyright works. Copyright-related rights, such as the rights of performers. Patents as the most widespread form of protection of the invention. Trademarks such as trademarks that enable the identification of goods on the market. Then, protection of industrial design, protection of topography of semiconductor assemblies, designations of origin and designations of geographical origin. Also, intellectual property rights include business secrets, i.e. know-how such as technical knowledge, procedures and other business rules.
Also, rules on the prevention of unfair competition could be viewed in the sense of intellectual property protection, and also the use of new information technologies and the organization of the Internet, have resulted in some situations that could be regulated by the use of intellectual property protection rules.
Copyright
Copyright is the right of an author that he has in relation to his own work. Authors of works in the field of literature, science and art have the exclusive right to use their work, and this right allows them to authorize or prohibit the use of their work to others. However, the moral rights of the author are related to the person of the author, so they cannot be transferred to other person. The moral rights of the author are only partially transferable if case of authors death.
Copyright does not protect an idea, but it protects the work of art that expresses ideas, regardless of the type or quality of expression.
Copyright arises from the actual creation of a work and, unlike most other forms of intellectual property, is not subject to administrative or registration procedures. According to the Law on Copyright and Related Rights (OG 167/03), copyright gives the author property and moral authority within the framework of copyright. Copyright is just one form of intellectual property. It is not the same as a trademark, which protects the name, motto, logo and other original identifiers of a trademark so that others cannot use them for certain purposes. It also differs from the patent law which protects inventions.
Rights related to copyright
Related rights to copyright are those rights that are in their nature close to copyright, they presuppose the existence of a copyright work and have their own special subject of protection, and in Croatia they are regulated according to the Law on Copyright and Related Rights. They provide protection for performers on their performances, phonogram producers on their phonograms, film producers on their videograms, broadcasting organizations on their broadcasts, publishers on their publications, database manufacturers on their databases.
Realization of copyright and related rights
The realization of copyright and related rights may be the individual realization of rights relating to the individual use of a copyright work or subject matter of protection of related rights, according to the appropriate agreement between the right holder and the user of the subject matter, and performed by the right holder personally or through a representative.
Also, realization of copyright and related rights can be collective realization of rights that is performed by an organization of right holders that has the approval of the State Intellectual Property Office for the performance of such activities. The Office may issue an authorization to perform the activities in question only to one organization for a particular type of right and a particular category of right holders, taking into account the number of members on the basis of powers of attorney, the number of mutual access agreements with foreign associations and other relevant circumstances.
Patent
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention that offers a new solution to a technical problem. The patent is granted for inventions relating to a product, process or application. The patent provides the owner with the exclusive right to make, use, place on the market or sell the invention protected by the patent, for a limited period of time which, as a rule, may not exceed 20 years from the date of filing the patent application. Over time, the patented invention became a public good, available to everyone for use. The patent is a property of the inventor whose use during the term of patent protection the inventor may allow to other persons by granting a license, or may transfer it entirely to other persons.
The patent is acquired by recognition by an authorized body, as a rule, on the basis of an examination of a patent application describing the invention in the manner prescribed by law. The authorized body can be a national patent office, and in the Republic of Croatia that is the State Intellectual Property Office, but also a regional patent office that examines patent applications for several countries in a region. For example in the Republic of Croatia as a member of the European Patent Organization it is the European Patent Office who grants patent you might validate in Croatia. Patent protection is exercised according to the territorial principle, i.e. it is valid only in the territory of the state or region in which it is granted.
Trademark protection
A trademark is an exclusive right recognized as a sign used to distinguish the products and services of one economic entity from others in commercial transactions. This means that the name, logo, emblem, label or other distinctive features of a product may be protected by a trademark provided that they are different from existing and similar products and services on the market. Under this condition, characters consisting of words and pictures can be protected as trademarks. According to the Trademark Act, each mark that you want to protected by a trademark is applied to the State Intellectual Property Office by a separate application, of which the list of products and services to which the mark refers is an integral part, and which must be compiled in accordance with the International Product Classification services for the purposes of trademark registration, the so-called Nice Classification.
By examining the application, if the formal preconditions are met, The Office will publish the trademark application in the Official Gazette. From the moment of publication, there is a period of three months during which interested parties can file an objection against the registration of the trademark. After the deadline, if there are no objections, the Office will issue a decision on the trademark.
Industrial design as intellectual property
Design is the external appearance of a product or object. Design is what makes a product attractive, appealing or desirable, and thus significantly contributes to the sale of the product and increase its commercial value. Industrial design as an industrial property right in most countries is acquired by registration based on the results of the examination of the application for protection of design performed by this authorized body, and in the Republic of Croatia it is the State Intellectual Property Office. The rights arising from an unregistered design relate to the prohibition of abuse through the reproduction of a protected design. The basic conditions that a design must meet for the recognition of protection as intellectual property are the novelty and individual character of the design, and that its features are not exclusively conditioned by the technical function.
Geographical indication and integrated circuit topography
A geographical indication is any indication by which a country or place situated therein, directly or indirectly, is designated as the country or place of geographical origin of a product. The geographical indication is used to mark natural, agricultural, industrial, handicraft and home-made products.
An integrated circuit topography is a set of connected images, recorded or encoded in any way, representing a three-dimensional matrix of layers of which the integrated circuit is composed, each image containing all or part of the semiconductor product matrix at each stage of its production.
Intellectual property protection
Intellectual property protection is one of the most harmonized legal areas that exists. Intellectual property protection laws in most countries of the world follow the same principles. Several international treaties regulate interstate aspects in the protection of intellectual property. The importance of intellectual property in modern society is confirmed by the existence of the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which acts as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
If you need to protect your intellectual property in European Union or in Croatia, do not hesitate to contact us.
