Intellectual Property

Rights
Fall 2021
By
Hadiqua Fazal
Intellectual Property

• Introduction
• Confidential Information
• Patents
• Copyright
• Acts permitted in relation to copyright
• Remedies for breach of Copyright
• Plagiarism
• Trade Secrets
• Open Source Software
• Shareware VS Freeware
What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind such as:

• inventions;
• literary and artistic works;
• designs; and
• symbols, names and images used in commerce

• IP is protected in law by, for example, patents, copyright and trademarks.

• It enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or
create
• IP system aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish
What are intellectual property rights?
• Rights which allow creators, or owners, of patents, trademarks or copyrighted
works to benefit from their own work or investment in a creation.

• These rights are outlined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights.

• Provides for the right to benefit from the protection of moral and material interests
resulting from authorship of scientific, literary or artistic productions.
• IP was first recognized in the Paris Convention for the Protection of
Industrial Property (1883) and the Berne Convention for the
Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886)
• Both agreements are administered by the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Types of Intellectual Property
Industrial designs
Patents

Copyright

Trademarks

Geographical indications
• Intellectual property rights are often the most valuable assets owned,
used and developed by a software house.
• Intellectual property rights include:
• Confidential information
• Patents
• trade marks
• Designs
• Copyrights protecting computer programs
 Confidential Information
• Information “which is not public property and public knowledge”
• Any category of information, from personal confidences, to trade
secrets and sensitive government information, any or all of which a
computer scientist might handle in the course of his or her work, or all
or any of which a firm may want to protect against unauthorized use or
disclosure by others
• Information will be protected only if it is confidential. Non-
confidential information, unless protected, e.g. by copyright or a
patent is deemed to be in the public domain and can be used by
anyone.
Confidential Information
Three conditions must be satisfied before an action for breach of
confidence can succeed:

1. The information must be confidential

2. The information must have been disclosed in circumstances
which give rise to an obligation of confidence
3. There must be an actual or anticipated unauthorized use or
disclosure of the information
 Patents
• A government authority conferring a right or title for a set
period, especially the sole right to exclude others from
making, using, or selling an invention

• A patent gives to an inventor a monopoly in an invention.

This means that the inventor is given the exclusive right to
use or exploit the invention for a defined period
Patents
• Patent Act merely sets out a number of criteria which must be
satisfied before an invention can be patented
• A patent may only be granted if:

1. The invention is new

2. It involves an inventive step
3. It is capable of industrial application
4. The subject matter of the invention does not fall within
an excluded class
 Patents
• It is possible to patent something which is more than just a program—something
which can be called, for simplicity, a “program plus”

• A computer program is not excluded from patentability if it produced, or is capable of

producing, a further technical effect beyond the normal physical interaction between
software and hardware, i.e. it is potentially patentable if it makes something else do
something.
Copyright

• The exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to

print, publish, perform material, and to authorize others to do the
same
• Copyright protects more items generated by businesses or by
individuals than any other aspect of intellectual property law
• It can protect business letters, manuals, diagrams, computer
programs
• Copyright owners face the specter of unlimited piracy through
uncontrolled copying with the advent of internet
Copyright
• What we will probably see over the next few years are stronger laws, more
rights for copyright owners, widespread licensing schemes and greater use of
technical anti-piracy or copy-monitoring devices and electronic rights
management systems
• Copyright law gives six exclusive rights to the owner of copyright:
1. Copy the work
2. Issue copies to the public
3. Rent or lend the work to the public
4. Perform, play or show the work in public
5. Broadcast the work or include it in a cable programmed service
6. Make an adaptation of the work or to do any of the above with an adaptation
•The rights apply equally to published and to unpublished works
Acts permitted in relation to copyright
Some acts are permitted under the 1988 Act, even
though they would otherwise amount to breach of
copyright.

• Fair dealing
• Making back-up copies of computer programs
• Transfers of works in electronic form
• De-compilation for the purpose of interoperability
• Error correction
• Databases
Remedies for breach of copyright

• A copyright owner has all the usual civil remedies of

search, injunction, damages and an action for an account
of profits made in breach of copyright
• If it is shown that at the time of the infringement of
copyright the defendant did not know and had no reason
to believe that copyright subsisted in the work, then the
plaintiff is not entitled to damages against the defendant
Remedies for breach of copyright

A copyright owner is also given an

important power to enter premises without
using force in order to seize infringing
copies, or articles specifically designed or
adapted for making copies
Plagiarism
• the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and
passing them off as one's own.
• All of the following are considered plagiarism:
• Turning in someone else's work as your own
• Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving
credit
• Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
• Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
• Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a
source without giving credit
• For a computer program changing variable names only, or
not changing the structure or flow of a program
Trade Secret
What is a Trade Secret?
A trade secret is a formula, pattern, physical device,
idea, process, or compilation of information which is
not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by
which a business can obtain an economic advantage
over competitors or customers.
Trade Secrets
Example of Potential Trade Secrets
• A formula for a sports drink
• Survey methods used by professional pollsters, and
Recipes (food)
• A new invention for which a patent application has not
yet been filed
• Marketing strategies
• Manufacturing techniques
• Computer algorithms
What is required to maintain the Trade Secret

Secrecy
Ways to Protect the Trade Secrets
• Restrict access to the information (lock it away in a secure place, such as a bank
vault)
• Limit the number of people who know the information
• Have the people who know the trade secret agree in writing not to disclose the
information (sign non-disclosure agreements)
• Have anyone that comes in contact with the trade secret, directly or indirectly,
sign non-disclosure agreements
• Mark any written material pertaining to the trade secret as proprietary
Advantage of Trade Secret Protection
• Unlimited duration -trade secrets could potentially last longer than
patents (20 years) and copyrights
• Your protection is theoretically worldwide.
• No application required
• No registration costs
• No public disclosure or registration with government agency
• Effective immediately
 Open Source Software

• Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is

available in source code form: the source code and certain

other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are

provided under a software license that permits users to study,

change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.

Open Source Software
Open Source Software
Benefits of Open Source Software
• Security
• Quality
• Customizability
• Freedom
• Flexibility
• Interoperability
• Audit ability
• Support Options
• Cost
• Try Before You Buy
Freeware vs. Shareware
Freeware software is a software that is available free of cost. An user can download freeware
from internet and uses it. These softwares do not provide any freedom of modifying, sharing
and studying the program as in open source software. Freeware is closed source.

Users prefer freeware because of following reasons –

• Available free of cost

• Can be distributed free of cost
Some examples of freeware software are –
• Adobe PDF
• yahoo messenger
• Google Talk
• MSN messenger
Freeware vs. Shareware
Shareware software is a software that are freely distributed to users on trial basis.
There is a time limit inbuilt in the software( for example- free for 30 days or 2
months). As the time limit gets over, it will be deactivated. To use it after time limit,
you have to pay for the software.

Users prefer shareware because of following reasons –

• Available free of cost
• helps to know about the product before buying it
Some examples of freeware software are –
• Adobe acrobat 8 professional
• PHP Debugger 2.1.3.3
• Winzip
Reading Material
• https://www.nap.edu/read/5758/chapter/6#46
• https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/125
93/Yahong.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
• https://www.lgmadvisors.com.au/intellectual-property-case-studies/

Thank you!