Patents, Trademarks and Copyright
If you're a business innovator, you'll want to protect your best ideas from being used by competitors. If your idea is new and inventive, you may be able to get patent protection for your product or process. Once granted, a patent prevents others from making, using, advertising or selling an invention for a product (or using or advertising your invention, if it is a process) in the country in which the patent was granted for a certain period of time. In the U.K. and in most other countries, a patent is granted for a term of 20 years.
Your brand can also be a valuable asset. If your business relies on its branding, then you should consider applying for trade mark protection. A trade mark protects words, names, symbols, and, in certain circumstances, also sounds or colours, that distinguish your goods or services from those provided by others. Unlike patents, trade marks can be renewed forever, as long as they are being used in business and the maintenance fees are paid.
Copyright can protect the form of expression of your literary, graphic and artistic works (but not the underlying idea or concept). For example, providing they are original, your literature, product manuals, and artwork could be protected by copyright. This means that neither your competitors, nor anyone else, can copy them. Protection lasts for a set period, most often 70 years from the end of the calendar year of the author's death.
In the U.K., you must file for patents and trade marks with the U.K Intellectual Property Office. If you want to protect your invention in several European countries, then you can apply for a European patent centrally at the European Patent Office. If your brand is used across Europe, then you may also consider applying for a Community Trade Mark, which would protect your brand across the entire European Union. In the U.K., you don't need to register any copyright-protected works—they are protected as soon as they are created. Many developing countries have been somewhat lax about safeguarding intellectual property rights, but globalization is streamlining regulations everywhere. In India, for example, the legal framework has been greatly strengthened in recent years.
