Intellectual property rights – basic concepts

Definition of IPRs

Intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds: inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce. They usually encourage and reward creative work, and give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.

Types of intellectual property rights

Intellectual property rights play an important role in an increasingly broad range of areas, ranging from the Internet to health care to nearly all aspects of science and technology and literature and the arts. They take a number of forms. For example books, paintings and films come under copyright; inventions can be patented; brand names and product logos can be registered as trademarks. These forms can be classified as follows:

1. Copyright and related rights

2. Trademarks, including service marks

3. Geographical indications, including appellations of origin

4. Industrial designs

5. Patents, including the protection of new varieties of plants

6. Layout-designs (topographies) of integrated circuits

7. Undisclosed information, including trade secrets and test data

Intellectual property rights listed above are customarily divided into two main areas: 1) copyrights and related rights, 2) industrial property rights.

Copyright and rights related to copyright.

The rights of authors of literary and artistic works (such as books and other writings, novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, musical compositions, computer programs and films, drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs) are protected by copyright, for a minimum period of 50 years after the death of the author.

Also protected through copyright and related (sometimes referred to as “neighbouring”) rights are the rights of performers (e.g. actors, singers and musicians), producers of phonograms (sound recordings) and broadcasting organizations.

Industrial property, inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source

Industrial property can usefully be divided into two main areas:

One area can be characterized as the protection of distinctive signs, in particular trademarks (which distinguish the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings) and geographical indications (which identify a good as originating in a place where a given characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin).

Other types of industrial property are protected primarily to stimulate innovation, design and the creation of technology. In this category fall inventions (protected by patents), industrial designs and trade secrets.

Objectives of IPRs

IPRs are intended to give the creators adequate returns so that there are enough incentives for creativity. For example, the social purpose of industrial property rights of the second area is to provide protection for the results of investment in the development of new technology, thus giving the incentive and means to finance research and development (R&D) activities.

IPRs can further ensure fair competition and protect consumers, by enabling them to make informed choices between various goods and services and to differentiate counterfeit commodities. This objective is particularly attributable to the protection of industrial property rights of the first area (distinctive signs). The protection may last indefinitely, provided the sign in question continues to be distinctive.

A functioning intellectual property regime should also facilitate the transfer of technology in the form of foreign direct investment, joint ventures and licensing.

To sum up, the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights should contribute

- to the promotion of technological innovation,

- to the transfer and dissemination of technology,

- to the mutual advantage of producers and users of technological knowledge in a manner conducive to social and economic welfare, and

- to a balance of rights and obligations.

 

Trade related aspects of IPRs