intellectual property rights
DESCRIPTION
Intellectual property rights - an introduction to computer law.TRANSCRIPT
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 1
Overview of Intellectual Property Rights
Presenter: Mbise, Kaanael S.Reg#: 2010-06-01046
Chapter 2
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 2
Introduction Intellectual property is the name given to
legal rights which protect creative works, inventions and commercial goodwill.
Basically intellectual property rights are designed to provide remedies against those who steal the fruits of another person’s ideas or work. For example if a person writes a computer program, he will be able to take legal actions to obtain an injunction against anyone who copies the program without his permission.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 3
In case of the large investment required to finance research, design and development in respect of computer hardware and software, the intellectual property rights are of crucial important as without such protection there would be little incentive to invest in the development of new products.
Introduction cont...
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 4
Introduction cont... Intellectual property rights include:
Copyright Patents Trade marks Law of confidence Design rights Passing off
The scope of these rights differs but sometimes overlaps and the infringement of the intellectual property rights gives rise to the criminal penalties.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 5
Copyright Law
Copyright protects works from being copied without permission. Copyright goes beyond mere copying, however, and extends to other activities such as making an adaptation of the work in question, performing or showing the work in public, broadcasting the work and dealing with infringing copies of the work.
The types of works protected by copyright are literary works which includes (computer programs, preparatory design material for computer programs and databases,
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 6
Copyright Law cont... dramatic, musical and artistic works, sound
recordings, films, broadcasts, cable programmes and typographical arrangements of published editions.
Copyright protection has a long duration and general yardstick being the life of the author (creator) plus 70 years or depending on the type of work, 50 or 70 years from the end of the year during which the work was created or published.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 7
The major attractions of copyright as a form of protection are that it is free and that no formalities are required, it is automatic upon the creation of the work in question.
Copyright law is of vital importance to the Computer software industry and to people who prepare, record or transmit all sorts of works (for example, literary works such as books, reports, letters or musical works) using computer technology.
Copyright Law cont...
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 8
Copyright Law cont... Copyright law is governed by the
Copyright, Designs and Patterns Act 1988, the main provisions of which came into force on 1st August 1989, and subsequent amendments, together with a wealth of case law.
Databases were protected as compilations (being a form of literary work) until the Copyright and Rights in database Regulations 1997 which came into force on 1st January 1998
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 9
Copyright Law cont...
Copyright in Tanzania Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act No.
7 of December 1999. Copyright and Neighbouring Rights
Regulations G.N. No. 214 A, June 2000. The Copyright Society of Tanzania
(COSOTA), under Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing, is vested with power to administer the Copyright Act.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 10
Patent Law Patent Law is mainly concerned with new
inventions such as a new type of computer hardware, or a new process for use in manufacture of Integrated circuits (ICs).
For an invention to be protected by a patent, an application must be made to the Patent Office which is an expensive and lengthy process but if granted, the patent can be renewed for a total period of up to 20 years.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 11
Patent Law cont... The relevant statute dealing with
the patent law is the Patent Act 1977.
To be patentable, an invention must be novel (new), involve an inventive step, be capable of industrial application and not be excluded.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 12
Patent Law cont...
Patents in Tanzania The Patents Act No. 1 of 1987 as amended
by Acts Nos. 13 and 18 of 1991. The Patents Regulations G.N. 190 of 1994. Business Registrations and Licensing
Agency (BRELA), under the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing, is vested with power to administer the patents Act.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 13
The law of Confidence The law of confidence protects information. The
difference with Copyright and patent law, is that the law of confidence is not defined by statute and derives almost entirely from case law.
The scope of this branch of intellectual property is considerable and protects trade secrets, business know how, and information such as list of clients and contracts, information of a personal nature and even ideas which have not been yet been expressed in a tangible form (e.g., an idea for a new computer program).
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 14
The law of Confidence cont...
The contents of many databases are protected by the law of confidence.
However the major limitation is that the information concerned must be of a confidential nature and the effective nature of the law of confidence is largely or completely destroyed if the information concerned fall into the public.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 15
The law of Confidence cont... The law of confidence can be a useful
supplement to copyright and patent law as it can protect ideas before they are sufficiently developed to attract copyright protection or to enable an application for a patent to be made.
Law of confidence is very flexible and has proved capable of taking new technological development in its stride.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 16
The Law Relating to Designs In this case there are two types of
right: registered design and design right which is not registrable.
Registered is available for features of articles which appeal to the eye while design right is intended to protect any aspect of the shape or configuration of articles without any requirement for visual attractiveness.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 17
The Law Relating to Designs cont...
The durations of the rights are different, being 25 years for registered designs and a maximum of 15 years for design right (but limited to 10 years of commercial exploitation).
The appropriate statutes are the Registered Design Act 1949 (as amended ) and Part III of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 18
The Law Relating to Designs cont...
Industrial Designs in Tanzania (Protection) Ordinance of 1936, cap.
219, Ord. 1936 No. 2 (F) PI 1938, 46. In the process of drafting new
Industrial Designs Legislation for 2002.
Also administered by BRELA
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 19
Trade mark Law Trade marks are often in the form of a name
or a symbol and registration is provided for by the trade Marks Act 1994. Marks may be registered in respect of goods or services.
To be registrable, the mark must be distinctive and capable of being represented graphically.
Trade marks are very important as they become associated with successful products and purchasers normally buy or order goods or services by reference to the mark.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 20
Trade mark Law cont...
The main purpose of trade mark law is to serve as an indicator of trade origin. Thus business goodwill and reputation is protected but this has a secondary effect of also protecting the buying public from deceptive practices.
In computer technology the trade mark law also deals with domain name disputes, and infringement or dilution of trademarks on Internet.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 21
Trade mark Law cont...
Trade mark Law in Tanzania Trade and Service Marks Act No. 12 of 1986. Trade and Service Marks Regulations G.N. 40
of March 2000. Business Registrations and Licensing Agency
(BRELA), under the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing, is vested with power to administer the trade marks Act.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 22
The Law of Passing off A related area of law to trade mark is
passing off. This derives from the common law and gives a right of action against anyone who passes off his goods or services as being those of someone else.
If a trader uses a particular name or mark or has particularly unusual method of doing business, he can obtain legal redress against others who use similar names or marks or business methods,
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 23
The Law of Passing off cont...
especially if there is a serious possibility that the buying public will be deceived and the trader's business goodwill damaged as a result.
The law of passing off is independent of trade mark law and will often be useful where a mark has not been registered as a trade mark.
For the law of passing off to be effective, the trader concerned must have established a goodwill associated with the name or mark or business method.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 24
The Law of Passing off cont...
In some respects, the law of passing off is wider than the trade mark law where to be registrable, the mark must conform to the requirements of the Trade Marks Act 1994.
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 25
Semiconductor Regulations
Integrated circuits, commonly called 'chips' or 'silicon chips' are protected by virtue of the Design Right (Semiconductor) Regulations 1989 which apply a modified version of the design right to semiconductors.
Semiconductors are given 15 years maximum protection (15 years from creation or 10 years from commercial exploitation).
May 10, 2011Intellectual Property Rights Slide 26
ReferencesBrainbridge, D. (2000). Introduction to computer law (4th Ed.). Pearson Education Limited:
Harlow Essex.
The Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act 1999. Retrieved April 8, 2011, from http://www.parliament.go.tz/Polis/PAMS/Docs/7-1999.pdf
The Patents Act 1987. Retrieved April 8, 2011, from http://www.parliament.go.tz/Polis/PAMS/Docs/1-1987.pdf
The Trade and Service Marks Act 1986. Retrieved April 8, 2011, from http://www.parliament.go.tz/Polis/PAMS/Docs/12-1986.pdf.
Wangwe, S.M., et al. (n.d). Case study on institutional capacity in intellectual property policy, administration and enforcement. Retrieved April 8, 2011, from http://www.iprcommission.org/papers/text/study_papers/sp9_Tanzania_case_study.txt