INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP)
TRADEMARKS
Trademarks
A trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which distinguishes products or services of a particular trader from the similar products or services of other traders.
Trade dress
Trade dress is a legal term of art that generally refers to characteristics of the visual and aesthetic appearance of a product or its packaging (or even the design of a building) that signify the source of the product to consumers.
Trade secrets
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors and customers. There is no formal government protection granted; each business must take measures to guard its own trade secrets (e.g. Formula for coca-cola.)
PATENTS
A patent is a form of right granted by the government to an inventor, giving the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem, which may be a product or a process and generally has to fulfil three main requirements: it has to be new, not obvious and there needs to be an industrial applicability.
Patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention.
Under the World Trade Organizations (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, patents should be available in WTO member states for any inventions, in all fields of technology, and the term of protection available should be the minimum 20 years.
UAE is covered under the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
which also covers IPR Protection in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman, State of Qatar and State of Kuwait.
Patents are granted in UAE if the application meet the criteria of Novelty, Inventive Concept (also known as non obviousness) and Industrial Applicability. A Provisional Certificate of Protection can be issued for a maximum period of six (6) months prior to any exhibition organized in the UAE, for any interested party that may wish to apply for a provisional or temporary protection of any matter that under process to receive patent protection or certificate of benefit.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
An industrial design right (sometimes called "design right" or design patent) protects the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three-dimensional form containing aesthetic value. An industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft.
Plant varieties
Plant breeders' rights or plant variety rights are the rights to commercially use a new variety of a plant. The variety must amongst others be novel and distinct and for registration the evaluation of propagating material of the variety is examined.
The industrial drawing or design is an innovative or new drawing or design, that can be used as an industrial / handicraft product, and not violate the public order or the morals of the State.
The industrial design doesn’t have the benefit of the protection defined in the law, except if registered in the related register at the Administration and the registration application is submitted which is examined according to the procedures defined by the bylaws of the law.
The application for protection may include more than just one industrial drawing or design, provided that such drawings or designs are interrelated in terms of manufacture and uses, and that their total number does not exceed 20 drawings or designs.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. Copyright does not protect ideas, but only their expression or fixation.
Copyright in UAE is protected under the Copyright and Authorship Protection Law No.7 for the year 2002. Protection is granted to authors of literary, artistic and scientific works of whatever the value or kind or purpose or way of expression is. Protection is provided for works whose means of expression is writing, sound, drawing, image, motion pictures, creative titles or computer software translation of works is also protected.
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the intellect for which a monopoly is assigned to designated owners by law. Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are the protections granted to the creators of IP, and include trademarks, copyright, patents, industrial design rights, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. Artistic works including music and literature, as well as discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, and designs can all be protected as intellectual property.
While intellectual property law has evolved over centuries, it was not until the 19th century that the term intellectual property began to be used, and not until the late 20th century that it became commonplace in the majority of the world.
Intellectual property rights include patents, copyright, industrial design rights, trademarks, plant variety rights, trade dress, geographical indications,[15] and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. There are also more specialized or derived varieties of sui generis exclusive rights, such as circuit design rights (called mask work rights in the US) and supplementary protection certificates for pharmaceutical products (after expiry of a patent protecting them) and database rights (in European law).
Trademarks and service marks are words, names, symbols, ordevices used by manufacturers of goods and providers of services to identify their goods and services, and to distinguish their goods and services from goods manufactured and sold by others. A trade mark must be distinctive for the goods and services provided. In other words it can be recognized as a sign that differentiates your goods or service as different from someone else’s.
Most businesses are aware of their brand or branding and rightly see it as their corporate image and know it is of vital importance to their business, but often do not realize how vulnerable it is at the same time. In order to protect it properly, it should be registered as their trade mark.
Here are some of the many benefits that arise from trade
mark registration:
- It helps you to protect your business identity.
- It protects you against others using the same or similar trademarks.
- It provides “concrete proof” of your legally protected rights.
- It removes the need to rely on “common law” rights (passing off).
- Registration protects against others who trade in the same, but defective goods/services. This may lead to your reputation being ruined.
- It is an asset, it has value:
- It may be licensed
- It may be franchised
- It may be sold
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