Concept of intellectual property (IPR)

Tech Installer

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
RIGHTS AND COMPUTER
TECHNOLOGY

Monday, December 16, 2013

Ray Mkindo

1

COMPUTER PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES
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Computer products consist of those parts of the
computer you can see and touch (e.g., the keyboard,
CPU, printer, and monitor);
Computer products also consist of Computer
software which is a set of logical instructions to
perform a desired task;
A service is an act carried out on behalf of someone,
usually a customer. If the service is going to be paid
for, the provider must strive to please the customer; it
is crucial.


Ray Mkindo

2

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
RIGHTS
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Intellectual property rights refers to a specific set of
rights aimed to protect creativity of individual
innovators
Gaining the skills to provide computer technology
products, services, and software requires a
considerable investment both in time and money. So
the individuals who do this work should reap
financial rewards for their efforts
Such rewards create an atmosphere of creativity and
competitiveness


Ray Mkindo

3

Cont ...




In order to encourage innovators, society must
protect their efforts and resources. To do this, a
specific set of rights, collectively known as
intellectual property rights, has been recognized, and
laws have been enacted by different countries and
groups of countries to protect those rights
Intellectual property rights form a wide scope of
mechanisms that include copyrights, patents,
trademarks, protection of trade secrets, and,
increasingly, personal identity rights


Ray Mkindo

4

Copy rights
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Internationally, copyright is a right, enforceable by
law, accorded to an inventor or creator of an
expression.
Such expressions may include creative works
(literary, dramatic, musical, pictorial, graphic, and
artistic) together with audiovisual and architectural
works and sound recordings.
In general, every original work that has a tangible
form and is fixed in a medium is protectable under
the copyright law


Ray Mkindo

5

Application for a Copyright
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For authors and/or creators of works who need this
kind of protection, the process begins with an
application to the copyright office
Copyright Office requires an applicant to include
with the application a copy of the work for which a
copyright is sought and to file for copyright within
three months of the first distribution of the work
Upon receipt of the application by the Copyright
Office, it is reviewed to make sure it meets the three
criteria for the issuing of a copyright


Ray Mkindo

6

Duration of a Copyright
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

In the United States the duration of copyright
protection falls into two periods: those copyrights
granted before the 1978 Copyright Act and those
granted after that date;
If a copyright was received for a published work
before 1978, that copyright lasts for 75 years after
the date of issuance. For unpublished works the
copyrights will expire on December 31, 2002
regardless of when they were issued;


Ray Mkindo

7

Cont ...
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

If the copyright was received after 1978, the work
remains protected by copyright laws for the lifetime
of the author plus 50 years.
In the case of more than one author of the works, the
protection lasts for the lifetime of the longest living
author plus 50 years. For all works made for hire,
that is, works made as part of contracted
employment, the coverage lasts 75 years from the
date of the first publication or 100 years from the
date of creation


Ray Mkindo

8

Pa t e n t s
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A patent: is an exclusive right granted for an invention,
which is a product or a process that provides a new way of
doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a
problem;
An invention or discovery is patentable if it meets two basic
requirements;
The first requirement is that the invention or discovery for
which the patent is sought is new and useful, or is a new
and useful improvement of any of the following: process,
manufacture (covering all products that are not machines),
and machine (covering all mechanisms and mechanical
products and composition of matter, which includes all
factory-manufactured life-forms)


Ray Mkindo

9

Cont ...


The second requirement is that the invention or discovery must satisfy
the following four conditions and all must apply:

1.Utility: An invention or discovery serves a basic and minimum useful purpose
to the general public or to a large percentage of the public without being a
danger to the public, illegal or immoral.
2.Novelty: The invention or discovery for which a patent is sought must be new,
not used, known or published somewhere before.
3.No obviousness: The invention or discovery for which patent protection is
sought must not have been obvious to anyone with ordinary skills to produce
or invent in its disclosed form.
4.Disclosure: There must be adequate disclosure of the product for which a
patent is sought. Such a disclosure is often used by the Patent Office in its
review to seek and prove or disprove the claims on the application form and
also to enable the public under the contract with the government to use the
invention or discovery safely and gainfully

Ray Mkindo

10

Application for a Patent
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The process of obtaining a patent begins with the
filing of an application with the patent office.
The application must give a clear and detailed
disclosure of the invention or discovery including its
workings, experiments made, data used, results
obtained, safety record, and effectiveness if used
properly.
Its weaknesses, if observed, and all pertinent
information that may be required if the Patent Office
is to carry out a similar experiment must also be
submitted


Ray Mkindo

11

Duration of a Patent
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

After the review process is completed and this may
take some time depending on the disclosure provided
and the type of invention or discovery, the patent is
then issued to the applicant for the invention, and
only for that invention, not including its variations
and derivatives;
The protection must last for a number of years,
seventeen years in the United States (20 years in
Tanzania). During this time period, the patent law
protects the inventor or discoverer from competition
from others in the manufacture, use, and sale of the
invention or discovery.


Ray Mkindo

12

What kind of protection does a patent
offer?
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Patent protection means that the invention cannot be
commercially made,used distributed or sold without the
patent owner’s consent;
These patent rights are usually enforced in a court,
which, in most systems, holds the authority to stop
patent infringement;
Conversely, a court can also declare a patent invalid
upon a successful challenge by a third party.


Ray Mkindo

13

What rights does a patent owner
have?
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A patent owner has the right to decide who may or may not use
the patented invention for the period in which the invention is
protected;
The patent owner may give permission to, or license, other
parties to use the invention on mutually agreed terms;
The owner may also sell the right to the invention to someone
else, who will then become the new owner of the patent;
Once a patent expires, the protection ends, and an invention
enters the public domain, that is, the owner no longer holds
exclusive right to the invention, which becomes available to
commercial exploitation by others.


Ray Mkindo

14

Public Domain
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

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A patent provides protection for the invention to the owner
of the patent. The protection is granted for a limited period,
generally 20 years;
When the patent protection expires, the patent together
with all disclosures go into the public domain for anyone
to use;
Once a patent expires, the protection ends, and an invention
enters the public domain, that is, the owner no longer holds
exclusive right to the invention, which becomes available to
commercial exploitation by others.


Ray Mkindo

15

Trade Secrets
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A trade secret is information that gives a company or business a
competitive advantage over others in the field. It may be a
formula, a design process, a device, or trade figures;
The generic definition is that it is a collection of information in a
given static format with strategic importance. The format may be
a design expressing the information, a formula representing the
collection of information, a pattern, a symbol, or an insignia
representing the information;
Whatever the format the collected information takes, it must
have given or offered an advantage to the owner which places
that owner a degree above the competition.


Ray Mkindo

16

Characteristics of Trade Secrets
A trade secret is characterized by the following:
1.The extent to which the information is known outside
the business. If a lot of people outside the company
or business know or have access to the collection of
information that constitutes the trade secret, then it is
no longer a trade secret
2.The extent of measures taken by individuals
possessing the trade secret to guard the secrecy of
the information. If the information is to remain
known by as few people as possible, there must be a
detailed plan to safeguard that information and
Ray
17
prevent it from leaking; Mkindo

Cont ...
3. The value of the information to the owner and to the
competitor.
If the collection of information forming the trade
secret has little or no value to the competitor, then it
can no longer be a trade secret because it offers no
definite advantage to the owner over the competitor.


Ray Mkindo

18

Cont ...
4. The amount of effort or money spent by the owner
to develop or gather the information. The logic here
is usually the more money the developer puts in a
project, the more value is placed on the outcome.
Because there are some information or project
outcomes that do not require substantial initial
investments, the effort here is what counts.


Ray Mkindo

19

Cont ...
5. The ease or difficulty with which the information
could be properly acquired or duplicated by others. If
it will take a lot of effort and money to duplicate the
product or the information, then its value and
therefore advantage to the competitor diminishes;


Ray Mkindo

20

Duration of Trade Secrets


Trade secrets have an indefinite life of protection as
long as the secrets are not revealed;


Ray Mkindo

21

Trademarks
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A trademark is a product or service-identifying label.
It is a mark that attempts to distinguish a service or a
product in the minds of the consumers;
A trade mark is a distinctive sign, which identifies
certain goods or services as those produced or
provided by a specific person or enterprise.


Ray Mkindo

22

The importance of a trademark
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A trade mark provides protection to the owner of the
mark of the mark by ensuring the exclusive right to use
it to identify goods or services, or to authorize another
to use it in return for payment;
The period of protection varies, but a trademark can
be renewed indefinitely on payment of corresponding
fees. Trademark protection is enforced by the courts
which in most systems have the authority to block
trademark infringement.


Ray Mkindo

23

Procedures for registering a trade
mark or a service mark
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The application for registration of a trade mark/or
service mark is made by filling a Form known as TM/S
2, which is obtained from the office of registrar of
trade/Service mark or from trade and service mark
agents;
The application must contain a clear reproduction of
the sign filed for registration, including any colours,
forms, or three dimensional features;
The application must also contain a list of goods or
service to which the sign would apply. The sign must
fulfil certain conditions in order to be protected as a
trademark or other type of mark;


Ray Mkindo

24

Cont ...
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The trademark must be distinctive, so that consumers
can distinguish it from other products, as well as
identify a particular product with it;
It must neither mislead nor deceive customers or
violate public order or morality;
The applicant is also required to fill in another form
TM/S 3 and submit to the Registrar.


Ray Mkindo

25

Cont ...
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The applicant should submit application and pay
application fees;
Examination of the application is then conducted,
whereby if the Registrar accepts the mark, it then
proceeds to advertise it for six days;
If the Registrar receives no objection within the six
days of advertisement, then he/she issues the
Certificate if Registration.


Ray Mkindo

26

Cont ...


Finally, the rights applied for cannot be the same as,
or similar to, rights already granted to another
trademark owner. This may be determined through
search and examination by the national office, or by
the opposition of third parties who claim similar or
identical rights


Ray Mkindo

27

Categories of Trademarks
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

Trademark is a general term that includes a service mark, a
certification mark, and a collective mark;
A service mark is usually used in the sale or advertising of a
service. It is supposed to uniquely identify that service;
A certification mark is used as a verifier or to authenticate
the characteristics of a product, a service, or group of people
who offer a certain service;
example is the CE mark that indicates that a product
complies with safety, health or environmental requirements
set by the European Commission


Ray Mkindo

28

Cont ...
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



A collective mark is mainly used by a group of people to
indicate membership in an organization or association.
A collective trade mark or collective mark is a trademark
owned by an organization (such as an association), whose
members use them to identify themselves with a level of
quality or accuracy, geographical origin, or other
characteristics set by the organization;
Collective trade marks differ from certification marks.
The main difference is that collective trade marks may be
used by particular members of the organization which owns
them, while certification marks may be used by anybody
who complies with the standards defined by the owner of the
particular certification mark.


Ray Mkindo

29

Registration of a Trademark
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An application for a trademark must contain and
present all relevant information. It must also describe
the product or service for which the trademark is
being sought, the class of goods and services, and the
date of first issue of the mark.
Marks are registered only if they meet certain
criteria. The core requirement is that the mark must
not cause confusion with similar marks used by
others


Ray Mkindo

30

Duration of a Trademark
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Generally a valid trademark is protected for 10 years.
If an extension is needed it can be granted for
another 10 years;
In Tanzania: Registration of Trade and Service
Marks has to be renewed after seven years. The
renewal runs for ten years and should be renewed
again.


Ray Mkindo

31

- End -

Think like a Hacker and Defend like a Ninja...


Ray Mkindo

32

Concept of intellectual property (IPR)

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