Note that new integration of laws in the EU, also Internationally, has been underway since the mid-90s and will increasingly modify this short account. You will need to check current legislation at the relevant time.

1. It is confidential (secret) information.
2. The person receiving the information is made aware that it is confidential.
3. The person disclosing it makes clear the intended purpose of its’disclosure

Being able to impart confidential information during the development stages of an invention without fear of disclosure can be of crucial importance. For example, the inventor may have to call upon someone to make a prototype; can he be certain that they (and perhaps they have assistants too), can be relied upon?

See Confidentiality agreement

Know–How, historically, was the predecessor of the formal rights of invention. It is still, for example, of importance in the food and drinks industries. Pimms no.1 for instance. Know-how relies upon strict secrecy rather than any specific intellectual property right. (ask your solicitor about Licences, rights and ownership if you intend to offer know-how).

s soon as the patent is applied for, it is granted its ‘priority date’. This gives the inventor priority over someone coming the next day with the same idea. It also enables a limited disclosure to an interested investor in safety. In the second stage, once the description and details are published, it is in the public domain and the patentee is fully protected. However, whenever sending details to anyone who may be interested in financing or exploiting his invention, the author should tell them clearly that if they use it in any way without his permission they are guilty of infringement.

An invention can be a product or a process. In the UK the 1977 Act specifies that certain things are not patentable. Some because they are not considered useful in a practical sense, others because they could or should be protected by copyright.

Essentials for a patent. Firstly, it has to be original; not described or made ever before. Secondly, it must embody an ‘inventive step’. For example an idea that someone skilled in that field would not regard as ‘obvious’? Thirdly, the invention should be industrially exploitable.

A patent in one country only protects in that one country where registered. At the time of applying it must be decided in which countries protection is most necessary. There are only 12 months thereafter to decide where else in the world to apply. When is the inventor enabled to disclose his invention? After publication the invention is in the public domain and the inventor can safely disclose, to an interested party, details such as those in the Enabling Disclosure.

The Enabling Disclosure In essence the application must contain a sufficient description of the process or product to enable a person skilled in the field to reproduce it. And sufficient as a basis for the inventor’s later claims. Nonetheless, the inventor need not yet complete in full the statutory requirements (such as the claims), but it cannot merely be regarded as an outline. It is a foolish inventor who drafts their own patent application. Always pay a qualified patent agent to do so.

Briefly, skilful functional design and/or eye-appeal could transform a product which otherwise attracts little interest. Again some products are not patentable (or the original patent has expired), but can be protected, to a degree, by other means: Design Right, Copyright, and / or Design Registration. You are referred to the new Registered Designs Regulations in force from 9th of December 2001 and the new Community Designs Regulation in force March 2002

Design Right; protecting shape and configuration, which exists automatically from the moment the article is made or clearly recorded. The design must be original. The right is infringed by copies made by another for commercial gain. The right extends for a maximum of 15 years.

Copyright; to protect the design of a surface decoration. This right extends for 25 years. It also applies to materials such as textiles.

Registered Design; differs mainly because a process of registration is entailed. There is an option to renew at 5yr. Intervals, so extending protection to a maximum of 25 yrs. Essentially, the design must be novel, it must appeal to the eye and it must have a functional purpose. Once registered, protection is more easily enforced. Registration is also obtainable for surface decoration; it is not intended for one-off works of art, including architecture, which must be covered by copyright.

Note that the conditions for designs made before 18^th of August 1989 are different.

In all the foregoing there are criteria that the designer may need to inquire into in more detail i.e. Monopoly right, ownership: author, employees, works made under commission.

However, copyright protects the superficial form or expression of any work rather than any novel idea behind it. Drawing this dividing line is difficult in practice; an infringing copy must have adopted the exact expression of the original work. Breach of Copyright will occur where a substantial part is copied. The test is based on importance not quantity so a small part copied may still be a breach.

Copyright, with certain exceptions (such as surface decoration), gives protection from its creation to 70 years after the author’s death. In the EU a separate right like copyright called “database right” protects databases. Some databases also have copyright protection.

Ownership is the author’s, unless the rights have been assigned, or the author produced it as an employee. On the other hand if a person is commissioned to make a copyright work it remains his copyright unless agreed otherwise. At present, no notification of copyright is required of the author. Copyright exists automatically, (though it is advisable to use the symbol ©, date and name). Copyright criteria, scope and qualification (which includes country of domicile) together with EU and International aspects, are also important details which cannot be included here.

Registration by the original user will establish their right to it and restrict imitators.

Registration is not expensive, but needs annual renewal. Application can be made either for services or goods. Upon application for registration, the applicant must indicate which of the Registry’s extensive classes it belongs to, e.g. clothing, garden furniture or software etc. This limits protection to the chosen class or classes.

Certain chosen marks may not be registrable:
1. If already in use.
2. If not distinctive enough, i.e. a geographical name.
3. If too descriptive of the goods or services, i.e. ‘prestik’ for adhesive paper.

As the new EU system is fully in force people can instead register a Community Trade Mark if they wish.

Intellectual property rights are valuable to the innovator or creator to protect him against those who might take unfair advantage of his expenditure of effort. They afford him economic benefits and enable him to charge others for a share in those benefits.

Intellectual property rights: patents, know-how, copyright, design right, registered designs, trademarks and signs are the personal property of their owner. In the hands of a business they are valuable assets to which a value should be attributed.

See Confidentiality agreement

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