We may think that registering intellectual property (IP) ownership rights are somewhat new occurrence it is not. Even the Romans stamped bricks to show their sign of ownership. Trademark law is quite ancient dating back to the year 1266 in England. The old law known as the “bakers marking law” used to show the maker of a loaf of bread. Each baker would have their own registered mark.

Trademark law is now well established worldwide. Almost every single established business now has their own mark that uniquely defines their brand. Most people think that you have to legally register a mark to be able to use it but the opposite is true. You register a mark so that others cannot use it! When you register a trademark you gain the unique right to be the only one to use the mark or to control who can use it.

A trademark is a specific mark that allows customers to distinguish you without seeing your product or service. It is a unique part of your brand. Tests have shown that you can exhibit just part of a noted trademark and people know which brand it belongs to. This indicates the power of a good image and how the brain works at recalling such things. This is why it is important to legally protect important marks and words.

A patent gives you the power to protect your inventions from being misused by unscrupulous entities. However, in order to reap the benefit of the protection given by a patent, you have to register your invention with the authorities.

Applying for a patent can be quite a tough task. Here are a few things that should be taken into account so that the chances of your application being disapproved are minimised.

To begin with, your patent needs to meet the NUN thumb rule – novelty, utility and non-obviousness. This in turn means that your inventions should be innovative and be able to capture the attention of customers and have some commercial worth, so that it is not rejected by the authority for being of no use. Your invention should be patentable in the sense that it should not be a small variation of an existing commercial product or have only a trivial, short term utility. Also, it must be non-obvious for an individual with normal know-how of that specific trade or commerce.

Patents offer legal validity to the right of an inventor to stop unscrupulous individuals from making use of his or her original invention for their personal gains. They allow the inventor to bring in prosecution against any person or firm that is found to be making such unlawful use of his product or the process for its manufacture. However, there are a few aspects that have to be considered before taking legal action against an infringement.

First, you have to ensure that the alleged infringement is a literal infringement of your patent. In other words, it must infringe all the major features of your patented product. It is only in exceptional cases that anything short of a literal infringement is considered a valid infringement of a patent. However, you will have to prove that the essential aspects of the imitation are same as the patented product in all respects and yield the same result as the patented product.

Secondly, you cannot be an outsider and take legal action against the infringer, which means that you must have some direct connection with the patent. You can either be the owner of the patented product or a licensee – exclusive or partial – of the product in order to be eligible for filing a suit for violation. You also need to take into account the law of limitation of the jurisdiction and take legal action within the time allotted for such cases, as otherwise the claim would be considered as expired.

Even intangible property like ideas having commercial value need safeguarding from people who could misuse them for their advantage without the permission of the creator or owner. Intellectual property or IP rights allow you to safeguard your idea under law as well as to take action against violators. Some of the alternatives for protecting your interest in your intellectual property are discussed below.

First and foremost, you should ensure that no one other than you has the details of the idea that is sought to be protected. You should exercise a lot of caution while engaging in discussions on public forums, especially on the internet. If you want to share your idea with your colleagues through email, you must ensure that your account is protected by a strong password.

It is good to be personally aware of some of the basic intellectual property laws. This legal understanding will help you shape your business policies to protect your intellectual property and take actions against those who infringe upon it. For instance, if you engage a team to further develop your idea, you can make the members of the team know that what you are providing them is classified information. One way of ensuring confidentiality is by asking all the associated persons to sign non-disclosure agreement, so that you can turn to legal measures if required.

Industrial design applies a blend of art and science for improving a product in a way that there is an increase in its market value through enhanced appearance and functionality. It comes to use both for products which are in the development stage and those that have already been launched in the market.

Industrial design primarily emphasizes on how the customer will relate to a particular product. The customers must see the product as worthy and valuable enough to spend money on. The desired result in such cases can be achieved by improving the functionality as well as appearance of the product, which will make the product attractive to several customers.

A detailed research into the buying habits of consumers and their choices and preferences is the first step towards designing a particular product. This step is succeeded by sketching, model making, prototyping and final testing before launch of the product in the market. Nowadays, 3D software is employed to accomplish a lot of these tasks, and CAD applications are of excellent help to designers.

Industrial designing essentially concentrates on a product’s overall shape and texture. Designers need to concentrate upon many factors other than the looks of the product. These include sturdiness, functionality, ergonomics and the convenience of usage of the product. Moreover, it is also possible for the designer to decrease the expenditure on production by making more cost effective designs.