This weeks lecture was all about intellectual property
Anything original that anyone creates is
their intellectual property if it is protected
by the law
This can be
- Drawing a picture,
- Naming a product,
- Designing a WordPress theme,
- Writing a song
- etc
Intellectual property belongs to the creator until they sell their ownership rights
Anything created belongs to the designer and can be used however they see fit….BUT….if the designer is a employee and working for a organisation then any designs created under the contract belongs to the employer – this is known as work for hire
There are different ways of marking a project, such as:
- Copyright © – Artistic and literary works (eg. Content)
- Patent – Patents are used to protect innovations, inventions
and new technical solutions to existing difficulties (eg. Products) - Trademark ™ – Distinguish an individual company’s goods and services from another (eg. Brand)
- Registered Trademark ® – A registered trademark provides additional legal benefits (eg. Brand)
These can all be applied to different things and different situations. They cover different elements
It can be smart to register work this can stop others from using it in a way that isn’t approved and gives legal protection.
When working for an organisation a Non Disclosure Agreement may need to be signed.
NDA is “is a contract through which various parties agree not to disclose information covered by the agreement.”
There are multiple types of NDA’s:
- Unilateral (one-way) – where the receiving party agrees to treat the
information provided by the disclosing party as confidential - Mutual (two-way) – used typically when the parties to the agreement are exploring a potential relationship, such as a partnership or collaboration and both sides need to share sensitive information with one another in order to make decisions about that relationship
- Multilateral – in multilateral NDAs, three or more parties are involved in the transfer of confidential information. One or more parties disclose business information, while all receiving parties are obliged to protect the information
Make sure to only sign an NDA if both parties are happy with the agreement and its fair
All in all there are a lot of elements that go into intellectual design, in order to be best informed its important to check the laws.