May 10, 2024
What comes to mind when you hear the term Intellectual Property?
At first glance, it may certainly seem that this concept belongs solely to the legal realm. However, its applications impact countless activities carried out by managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs.
In this sense, ensuring that the inventors and creators of a brand, process, intellectual work, or innovation protect their assets is essential to control and prevent unauthorized use by third parties.
Thus, it is crucial to understand how Intellectual Property works, its legal framework, and the benefits it offers in protecting assets as a way to preserve your own or your company’s inventions and innovations. Throughout this article, we aim to explain the concept of Intellectual Property, what it protects, and the different types that fall within this domain.
Intellectual Property is a set of rights designed to legally protect human creations, granting the inventor or creator the right to use them for profit. Patents, trademarks, and geographical indications are just a few examples within the realm of Intellectual Property.
Implemented in numerous countries, this concept recognizes the priority of creators and inventors over their intangible assets. It therefore establishes penalties for those who use such inventions or innovations without the express authorization of those who produced and registered them.
Intellectual Property emerged after the Middle Ages, around the year 1781, in France.
The development of this concept took place at a time when methods to facilitate the reproduction of texts were being invented, such as the Gutenberg Press. This press was made up of movable type, applying pressure to an inked surface and transferring it onto a printing surface, such as paper or fabric.
This concept is extremely broad. To clarify this domain, one can refer to the definition provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
This organization states that Intellectual Property encompasses the sum of rights relating to literary, artistic, and scientific works. In addition, it includes performers’ interpretations and performances, as well as phonograms and radio broadcasts.
On the other hand, all inventions in fields of human activity, scientific discoveries, and industrial designs and models are also protected under Industrial Property.
In this sense, industrial, commercial, and service marks, as well as trade names, are included within this set of rights.
Finally, Intellectual Property protects against unfair competition and all other rights inherent to intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary, and artistic fields.
In this way, WIPO classifies protected assets into two main categories:
Industrial Property and Copyright.
As previously mentioned, Intellectual Property is a set of legal rights that protect creations of the mind. Whether it is an invention, a work of art, a symbol, or a trade name, Intellectual Property ensures that creators and inventors receive recognition and benefit from their assets.
In addition, Intellectual Property encourages innovation by protecting creations, safeguarding investments, and fostering the market by facilitating the commercialization of innovative products and services. Given the wide range of IP domains, there arose a need to organize them into distinct types.
This domain aims to ensure that the exploitation of a creation or invention is an exclusive right of its creators or inventors. This type of protection can be obtained through patents, trademarks, designs, or models.
Thus, the holder of these intangible assets must register them, ensuring, for a defined period, that they are the only one authorized to manufacture, market, import, sell, and transfer the industrial property.
In this sense, both patents and utility models grant the holder the exclusive right to produce, use, and market an inventive act that results in a functional improvement in its use or manufacturing process
On the other hand, trademarks are characterized by distinctive signs that can identify a product or service
Finally, a design or model is defined as the visual form that can be applied to a product, resulting in a new and original appearance.
This type of IP refers to artistic, cultural, or scientific productions. In other words, copyright is the right of creators over their literary and artistic works.
The works protected by copyright range from books, music, paintings, or sculptures to films or performances. In addition, computer programs, advertisements, and maps are also protected under copyright law.
Therefore, the author holds both moral rights and economic rights over the work they have created.
Moral rights are inalienable, non-waivable, imprescriptible, and perpetual.
On the other hand, economic rights can be transferred, are limited in duration, and grant the author the exclusive right to use the work. In Portugal, the competent authority is the General Inspectorate for Cultural Activities (IGAC), and the applicable law is the Code of Copyright and Related Rights.
Additionally, copyright expires, in the absence of a specific provision, 70 years after the death of the intellectual creator, even if the work was published or made public only posthumously.
Anyone who produces copies, distributes, or improperly uses an intangible asset without prior authorization from the rights holder is committing an infringement or a criminal offense.
Consequently, the rights holder may take legal action to assert their rights. A case is brought against the infringer based on the severity and consequences of the offenses committed. In general, the infringer is prohibited from continuing to use the IP and may be ordered to pay compensation to the rights holder for moral and/or financial damages.
Finally, in extreme cases, infringers may be punished with hefty fines or criminal prosecution.
In summary, intellectual property encompasses numerous types of creations and inventions, offering legal guarantees for both businesses and individuals. These intangible assets are divided into two categories: industrial property and copyright.
When these rights are misused by third parties, it can lead to legal penalties which, in serious cases, may even result in the infringer’s imprisonment.
Protect your assets and safeguard your intellectual property!
