Today’s class is all about the awareness and protection of our work/products as well as others.
What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property refers to the inventions such as literary and artistic works, etc. that is original to the author. This is protected by law to avoid theft or other such plagiarisms. However, until the author of this material is legally sold to a buyer, this remains as the author’s work.
Some examples that Daniel has provided on what Intelectual properties can constitute as:
- Drawing a picture
- Naming a product
- Designing a WordPress theme
- writing a song, etc.
However, depending on the situation you may not be entitled to the ownership of your work. E.g. a work for hire arrangement which involves working in a company – the company automatically claims ownership.
Copyright, Patent, Trademarks… What’s the difference?
Copyright
This refers to the legal constitutional right of an owner’s property. This can be applied to literacy, drama, musical, art, sound, film, software, etc.
However, depending on what material each one uses depends on the length of the copyright. For example, copyright to a typographical element has a maximum length of 25 years of the author whereas a film would be 70 years.
In certain situations, this can be bypassed such as the fair use act. This means that copyrighted material can be used for studies, news reporting, criticism, teaching and satirical sketches.
Proving copyrighting means that the owner has to present reasonable evidence that they have a substantial presence in the product’s creation, simple things such as photo/file date stamps can prove this.
Patent
This refers to a lengthy and extensive process that grants the holder the right to material/invention. This excludes others from using it or copying similar work. This means the material/invention cannot be commercially made, used, distributed, imported or sold by others without the consent of the owner.
This allows inventors to capture exclusive rights to their creations and acts as a ticket to use the invention.
Trademark
With similarities to copyright, many people get the two of these confused. A person does not need to register or trademark to receive protection rights. It usually stands for ™ or ® to provide a notice that the goods contain a trademark.
Applying for a trademark can be done via Government official websites and can usually take around 3 – 4 months to be granted. However, this depends on whether any obstacles are presented which then can take significantly longer.
Trademarks are listed by classes, each class contains a list of pre-approved terms that cover all goods/services that are included in that class.
Goods are listed in classes 1 – 34
Services are listed in class 35 – 45
NDA
An NDA is a contract in which multiple exterior or interior parties agree not to disclose information that is included in the agreement. An example of this is usually two parties retaining confidential material.
Unilateral NDA is where the receiving party agrees to treat information provided by the disclosing party as confidential.
Mutual NDA is typically used when parties are exploring potential relationships, such as a partnership or collaboration and in the process discuss sensitive information in order to make decisions about that relationship.
Multilateral NDAs contain multiple parties that transfer confidential information. A select few parties disclose business information and the remaining parties are obliged to protect the information.
Important Notice
Ensure, no tacky business tricks are being played. This includes masking important information in the small print. Read everything carefully as signing an NDA is legally binding.
What have I learned?
No matter who you are it is extremely important people understand each legality in itself. It is also especially important if I am doing freelancing and helps me understand the copyright section more on the basis of my proposal. I feel like this class has allowed me understand many terms and practices as well as provide me tips to avoid being legally confined.