Introducing Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)
Protecting you intellectual property

If you know something that others don’t you effectively own knowledge that others do not have.

Ownership equates to property but this is not tangible property; it is purely intellectual, hence the term "Intellectual Property".

You may have spent a great deal of time, money and effort to create your intellectual property, which leads to a problem when you attempt to capitalise on your idea. Once your idea is on the market it becomes common knowledge and is open to exploitation by competitors. Without intellectual property protection there would be little incentive to develop innovations - copying the work of others would minimise development costs and be the best business strategy.

In order to encourage innovation, the Government will grant the legal right to stop various copying activities taking place. The legal rights used to stop others from copying your intellectual property are referred to as Intellectual Property Rights.

Intellectual Property Rights come in two distinct flavours - those which are created automatically and those which require a registration process. Patent and Trademark attorneys are primarily concerned with those that require a registration process. Our expertise is in representing you before various Governmental bodies in order to obtain registration of Rights for Trademarks, Designs and Patents.


Types of Intellectual Property Right (IPR)

Are you new to intellectual property rights? Read on to find out about the three main categories of IPR requiring protection - trademarks, designs and patents.

Registered Trademarks
All businesses have a name, so all businesses use a trademark. It is the representation that provides a link between an organisation and the goods and/or services that it provides. Your first encounter with intellectual property is therefore likely to be in the form of a trademark. Generally trademarks take the form of words, devices (logos) or a combination of the two. The registration must also specify the goods or services for which the mark is used and this in turn will determine the appropriate class or classes for the registration. More...

Registered Designs
A design may be considered as the artistic component of an item of manufacture: it does not protect technical functionality. A design registration protects only the appearance of a product or part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or material of the product and/or its ornamentation. It is the design that is protected and not the product bearing or incorporating the design. There is a degree of overlap with copyright and trademark protection and these rights are often considered together, especially in the branding arena.

Patents
Technical innovation is the stuff of patents. An invention may be made as the result of a flash of inspiration or methodical investigation. An inventor may be a highly skilled design engineer or someone who has a great idea while in the bath! The technical contribution is defined in a written claim and this is supported by a description of an enabling embodiment, which usually includes drawings. The embodiment may take many forms, such as a machine, a production process, a chemical, an electronic circuit, a DNA sequence or a computer program. More...