Intellectual Property (or IP) has become important more recently due to increased public accessibility to products, services and knowledge. Whatever size of business you run you will own some form of Intellectual Property, which you may or may not be aware of until your ownership of it may be under threat.
Intellectual property may exist in many parts of your business and at JMS Solicitors we are able to help and advise in the following areas:
Whatever size of business you operate you will have some form of confidential information which is vital to the success of your business. Protecting your confidential information has become more important with the increasing public accessibility to information in the public domain and a breach could have damaging and longlasting consequences for your business.
What constitues as confidential information is vast but more obvious examples would be a secret recipe for a particular food or beverage or a secret manufacturing process. Less obvious might be a specific contract with a supplier or client. This information in unauthorised hands could be highly detrimental to your business.
Whether you are looking to protect this information through contractual agreements with employees, agents or third parties, JMS Solicitors can advise and assist with this process.
Copyright Law protects the author or creator of a work from having their work copied and it is immediately implied without a need to register the work.
What constitutes as work may be writing a book, article or essay or artistic creation of music, painting, sculpture but less obviously it could be a website, company logo, photograph, design drawings or a database. Protection can last anywhere from 15 years to 70 years dependent on the type of work.
If you would like advice and assistance in protecting your work against copyright infringement then contact JMS Solicitors to discuss your situation.
Database rights protect resource and capital invested by businesses in setting up and maintaining databases. Databases can be a Content Management System (CMS), Intranet, Inventory Systems, Purchase Order Systems and Websites and many more.
Database rights last for 15 years but if Copyright is more applicable then protection could be 70 years.
If you would like to discuss the protection of your database, please call JMS Solicitors for advice and assistance.
Design rights encompass four separate rights:
Design rights protect a 2 or 3 dimensional shape from being copied. A registrable design right allows the holder exclusive rights to stop the use of the design on any products for a period of 25 years subject to renewal fees being maintained every 5 years.
Unregistered design is similar to copyright law in that the creator has to prove that their design has been copied. This can be direct copying or inferred copying where the similarities are such that the products are indistinguishable. Unregistered design rights can subsist for 10 years or 15 years.
For advice and assistance on Design Rights please contact JMS Solicitors to discuss your situation.
A Trademark is a name, logo or drawing which is used to represent a connection during trading between a business and its product. Many well know brands have their names and logos trademark protected such as Coca-Cola® and Nike®.
There are 42 different classes in which trade marks can be applied and to secure the best protection you may need apply in more than one class.
Trademarks do not have a fixed lifespan and can be every 7 years as long as renewal fees are paid.
For further information and assistance with registering your Trademark please contact JMS Solicitors.