Today, techunzipped news has gone an extra mile in researching about Intellectual Property so as to help those in the I.T sector to secure their innovations. Intellectual Property (IP) includes industrial property such as patents, industrial designs, utility models, trademarks and copyright which covers films, music and artistic works. The IP are going to be explained in more details below:
PATENTS
A patent is a sole right given to an inventor to make, use or sell his or her invention for a limited period in exclusion of unauthorized competitors meaning that the invention cannot be commercially made, used or sold without the patent owner’s consent. However a patent owner may decide who may use his or her invention and may also sell the right to the invention to someone else who may then become the owner. A patent is granted by a national patent office or by a regional office that does the work for a number of countries.
UTILITY MODELS
This is more like a patent but differs only in that the requirements for acquiring a utility model are less stringent than for patents. Utility Models are considered particularly suited for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are minor to other products. Utility models are mainly used for mechanical innovations. The Utility Models are much cheaper to obtain and to maintain than patents.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
Industrial Designs are what makes an article attractive and appealing thus adding to the commercial value of a product and increase its marketability. When an industrial design is protected, the owner is assured an exclusive right against unauthorized copying or imitation by others. An industrial design must be registered in order to be protected under industrial design law.
TRADEMARKS
A Trademark is a distinctive word or sign or a combination of both which identifies certain goods and services of one producer as being different from those of another. A trademark provides protection to the owner of the mark by ensuring the exclusive right to use it to identify goods and services, or to authorize another to use it in return of payment of a royalty. Examples of trademarks in Zimbabwe are Eversharp 15M for pens, Cremora for powdered milk, Econet etc.
COPYRIGHTS
A Copyright is a form of intellectual property that protects literary and artistic works such as films, musical works, books, sculptures, etc from exploitation without authorization from the owner. Copyrights protects expressions of ideas that have been created, that is for a work to be protected by copyright it should be an original creation of either artistic or literary nature.
We hope that you have learnt something from this presentation and wish you all the best in your future IT Business endeavors.
