Question

Weight: 5% Marks: 30

Discussion #3: Basic Concepts of Intellectual Property

Instructions

Think of two potential intellectual property situations that you may come across in your work and/or daily life. For each example, identify the kind of intellectual property that is in question and explain the implications.

If you cannot think of examples, you can use some of the following ideas (filling in the details as needed):

1. You think your secret recipe is the reason for the wild success of your restaurant.

2. You have written a popular series of books under a pseudonym.

3. You work as an inventor for a company, but after hours you have created a widget that you think might change the world.

4. You try to trademark the name of your small restaurant chain. It is called “Marvel’s”.

You must use a different resolution mechanism for each example, and you must back up your analysis with reference to your materials.

Answer 1

Let us take the example of a Pharmaceutical firm. The firm has created a drug formulation for which the firm wants to file the patent and the drug will be sold in the brand name of the firm for which the firm has got the trademark registration.

Here the two items the patent and the trademark comes under the purview of the IPR (Intellectual property right).

The patent if filed for the invention, idea, or the process to make the drug, The patent must be filed with the IPR registration authority and should get the valid certificate for the specified tenure. Once the patent right is granted to the company it can not be used by any other firm and if any other firm uses the same idea, process or invention then it would be treated under the violation of IPR and would be a cognizable offense as well as subject to legal action.

The second one is a TRADEMARK which is used to protect the brand name, logo, design of the logo, words, phrases, etc. Under the trademark registration any other firm in a similar industry can not even use the lookalike brand name or phrases or word of the registered brand. Even the firm operating in other industries and serving a completely different set of customer may be restricted to use the same trademark or similar brand identity which has been registered under the brand's registered Trade Mark.

The Trade Mark, Patent, Copyright, Trade secret are the different forms of IPR and a firm must register the same with the competent authority in order to protect their business.