Consulting with an Intellectual Property Lawyer
Useful Tips to check your IP is protected when Consulting an Intellectual Property Lawyer in Sydney
A business should consult with an intellectual property lawyer or patent and trade mark attorney when seeking to protect their intellectual property. It is best to consult with an expert on the most appropriate form of protection. Experts can help clients deal with the challenges of filing for a patent or trademark, how to protect their intellectual property from copyright infringement, or for negotiations relating to intellectual property commercialisation, for example, royalties for a licensing agreement. When selecting an IP lawyer for your business in Sydney, here are some helpful tips to check your IP is protected.
- Identify your IP
- Understand your options and the different types of IP
- Protect your idea or brand by registering a trade mark or patent
- Ensure that IP ownership is clearly established for works created by your employees and contractors
- Be watchful for anyone else who infringes your IP as they can erode your market share or “ride off” your reputation
- Make sure there is a level of IP awareness within your business so that you can commercialise your IP strategy
- Ensure your business does not infringe on the IP rights of others
- Keep it confidential through a Non-Disclosure Agreement
- Seek professional advice before entering into contracts with others
Your intellectual property can be in the form of trade marks, copyright works, designs or patents.
Trade Marks
Trade marks are used to protect business and product names that are used to identify a business and the products and services that it supplies. If a name represents your business and differentiates you, it’s a trade mark worth registering because it proves you own the trade mark and you can legally stop others from using it.
Patents
Patent law confers exclusive rights on a patentee to exploit an invention and authorise others to exploit it. Monopoly rights are given to inventors of improved products or devices and methods or industrial processes. The exercise of these rights without the consent of the patentee constitutes patent infringement. A patent infringement action broadly involves two steps: (1) construing the patent claims; and (2) comparing the allegedly infringing product with the patent claims. Authorise typically means to grant authority or control to another to exploit the patent through an assignment or licence.
Copyrights
Copyright is a type of intellectual property right that is based on a person’s creative skill and labour. Copyright protects the form or way an idea or information is expressed rather than the idea or information itself. It is made up of a bundle of exclusive economic rights which include the right to reproduce the work, publish the work, communicate the work to the public, and make an adaption of the work.
Designs
Designs law protects the visual appearance or designs of manufactured articles if it is new and original. It protects the features of shape, pattern or ornamentation applied to an article, not its function. In order to be a registrable design, the design must consist of new and distinctive visual features.
Trade secrets
Other categories of intellectual property rights which do not have specific statutory protection include confidential information and trade secrets. A trade secret is proprietary knowledge that can be protected using confidentiality agreements. These are protected by an action for breach of confidence.
Disclaimer. The material in this post represents general information only and should not be taken to be legal advice.
