A patent gives the owner the right to stop others from reproducing the invention. The patent is virtually the garden fence around the sowed seed and protects and ensures, that the harvest belongs to that person who made the effort to sow the seed in the first place.These attorneys are not only elegant, they also cut right to the chase. For example, here's something I've often wondered:
What other Intellectual Property Rights do exist?
For technical inventions a so-called utility model exists besides patent. For aesthetic models or design a design patent is available.
The copyright protects works of art, science and literature as e.g. books as well as computer programs. Words and logos for goods and services can be protected through trademarks.
Further property rights follow from the plant variety protection law for plants and the semiconductor protection law for microelectronic semiconductor devices.
I’ve often wondered about the differences between patents and utility models. Here are some:
1) Utility models expire after 10 years.
2) They are easier to get than patents.
3) They are not examined by the patent office prior to registration. Their protectability is only checked after a lawsuit has been filed for infringement.
4) They only cover the shape, structure or combination of articles, unlike patents, which also cover processes.
5) They are better if you want to protect a short-lived product.
6) They are better if you don’t want to wait for a full-blown patent.
There is also a discussion of the different types of marks here.
I'm doing a similar text today. This is about abstract-sounding terms like indications and designations. Here's the excerpt from the EU legislation:
ReplyDeletea) „Ursprungsbezeichnung“ der Name einer Gegend, eines bestimmten
Ortes oder in Ausnahmefällen eines Landes, der zur Bezeichnung
eines Agrarerzeugnisses oder eines Lebensmittels dient,
— das aus dieser Gegend, diesem bestimmten Ort oder diesem
Land stammt und
— das seine Güte oder Eigenschaften überwiegend oder ausschließlich
den geographischen Verhältnissen einschließlich der
natürlichen und menschlichen Einflüsse verdankt und das in
dem begrenzten geographischen Gebiet erzeugt, verarbeitet und
hergestellt wurde;
b) „geographische Angabe“ der Name einer Gegend, eines bestimmten
Ortes oder in Ausnahmefällen eines Landes, der zur Bezeichnung
eines Agrarerzeugnisses oder eines Lebensmittels dient,
— das aus dieser Gegend, diesem bestimmten Ort oder diesem
Land stammt und
— bei dem sich eine bestimmte Qualität, das Ansehen oder eine
andere Eigenschaft aus diesem geographischen Ursprung ergibt
und das in dem begrenzten geographischen Gebiet erzeugt und/
oder verarbeitet und/oder hergestellt wurde.
And in English:
(a) designation of origin: means the name of a region, a specific place
or, in exceptional cases, a country, used to describe an agricultural
product or a foodstuff:
— originating in that region, specific place or country, and
— the quality or characteristics of which are essentially or exclusively
due to a particular geographical environment with its
inherent natural and human factors, and the production, processing
and preparation of which take place in the defined
geographical area;
(b) geographical indication: means the name of a region, a specific
place or, in exceptional cases, a country, used to describe an agricultural
product or a foodstuff:
— originating in that region, specific place or country, and
— which possesses a specific quality, reputation or other characteristics
attributable to that geographical origin and the
production and/or processing and/or preparation of which take
place in the defined geographical area.