Glossary of IP rights (Trademarks, Designs and more)
Certification Marks
also called "guarantee marks," are trademarks that can be used to tell apart goods or services that the owner has certified as meeting certain requirements for certification. With a single mark, you don't have to be a member of an organization like you do with a collective mark. All that is needed is to meet the standards that the owner of the mark has set for the material, the way it is made, the quality, or other things. A person or business can't own a certification mark if they already sell the goods or services that the mark is trying to certify.
Copyright
is an intellectual property right that lets the owner of a work stop others from copying it. It applies to a wide range of creative works, such as books, songs, pictures, software code, and other works of art. Most copyright protections last as long as the author lives plus 70 years. For anonymous or corporate works, for example, the copyright protection might last even longer. The owners of copyrighted material can decide who can use it and how, but they can't stop other people from making similar works. The U.S. Copyright Office has a way for people to register their rights, which gives them more rights and options if their rights are violated.
Counterfeiting
is when a fake version of a real product is made and sold under the real product's brand name without the brand owner's permission. This is done because the fake product is worth more than the real one. Counterfeiting products is illegal and can cause serious economic harm to the legitimate brand owners, as well as to consumers who are deceived into spending their money on fake merchandise. Additionally, counterfeiters may use inferior materials or production methods that could be dangerous or even harmful to customers.
Design
is how something looks, like a logo or icon. The Community Design Regulation (EU) defines a "design" as the way a whole product or part of a product looks because of its features, such as its lines, contours, colors, shape, texture, and/or materials, and/or its decorations. The Regulation goes on to say that a "product" is any industrial or handmade item, including parts of a more complex product, packaging, get-up, graphic symbols, and typographic typefaces. Because of these definitions, Community Design protection can be given to a wider range of designs than was possible under some national systems before. Registered design protection has traditionally been used to protect the designs of three-dimensional products and patterns. However, it is also possible to protect things like logos, computer icons, and fictional (e.g., cartoon) characters. So, in many cases, you can get both a design registration and a trade mark registration for the same thing. You can protect the look of a certain part of a product, like the handle of a mug or the top of a pen.
Design right
is sometimes called "unregistered design right." It is a right that comes up automatically to stop people from copying certain parts of an item. Its informal and has a lower protection level than eu registered community desing.
Designation of Origin
are products with a protected designation of origin (PDO) get their quality or other traits from their natural and human surroundings. These foods must always be grown, processed, and cooked in the area from which they get their names.
EUTM
stands for "European Trade Mark," which is a trademark registration for the whole EU. EUTM is a single registration, unlike the individual filings needed to get trademark protection in each country. This type of trademark registration only applies for goods and services within the EU region.
Geographical Indications (GIs)
is a sign that shows that a good comes from the territory of a member, or a place within that territory, when a good's quality, reputation, or other trait is mostly due to where it comes from. GIs can only be used for certain types of goods such as agricultural products, foodstuffs, and wines. Examples of GIs include Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from Italy and Scotch whisky from Scotland.
Handicrafts and Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs)
Traditional cultural expressions (TCEs), also called "expressions of folklore," can include music, dance, art, designs, names, signs and symbols, performances, ceremonies, architectural forms, handicrafts, stories, and many other types of art or culture.
When you break the rules of an agreement, break the law, or don't care about someone else's rights, you are infringing on their rights. Intellectual property infringement is when someone breaks the rights that come with a patent, copyright, database right, performer right, design, trade mark, etc.
Intellectual property/IP/IPR
gives the inventors or creators of that property certain exclusive rights so that they can make money from their creative work or reputation. There are many ways to protect intellectual property, such as with a patent, copyright, trademark, and so on.
IPR infringement can be anything from copying a performance or story, to reproducing a product without permission. It is important to abide by the laws and rules that protect intellectual property rights in order to respect and honor the creativity of others. Whether it's music, books, symbols, performances, ceremonies, architectural forms, handicrafts.
Licensing
is a voluntary agreement between two parties that lets someone else use an individual’s copyright-protected work. When someone licenses their work, they usually set a specific fee for how it can be used and what type of use is allowed. Licensing lets people monetize their creative works while also giving others the chance to enjoy them.
Monopoly right
is a right that lets the owner stop copying, even if the person who copied did it on purpose. It also allows the owner to put restrictions on how their work can be used, for example, the owner might control who can use it and where. A monopoly right is a legal way of preventing other people from using someone's intellectual property without permission.
Original work
a document, drawing, photo, piece of music, etc. that wasn't copied from somewhere else and can be protected by copyright. Under copyright law, a work is considered original if it was made by the author. This means that the author is considered to have created something new, even if it was inspired by other works. Ideas themselves are not protected as an intellectual property.
Patent
is an intellectual property right granting a 20-year monopoly on a technological invention. The holder of the patent can take action against anyone copying or using the invention without their permission.
PCT
stands for the Patent Cooperation Treaty. It is an international system that lets the first part of a patent application be handled centrally before it is split up and sent to different countries.
Registered design
is an intellectual property right that gives the owner a max. 25-year monopoly on a design. A Community Design registration is valid in every country in the European Union. This makes it easy and cheap to get designs registered across the whole of the EU. A single application is made, and the registration that comes out of it can be enforced all over the European Union with a single action for infringement.
Specification
is a list of the goods or services for which a trademark is registered. In patents, it is a document that describes the invention and how the patent protects it.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
runs the Madrid System, which is an international system for getting and keeping trademark protection in multiple countries with a single application in one language and one set of fees.
Trade mark
is an intellectual property right that gives the owner a monopoly on a sign that makes his goods or services stand out from those of other traders. One requirement is important and simple: you must have something that makes it stand out in order to be registered. The ability to stand out can be built in or come from using something for a long time. If it is not a registrable as a trademark, it may be registrable as a registered desing.
Traditional knowledge (TK)
is the knowledge, know-how, skills, and practices that are created, kept, and passed down from one generation to the next in a community. These things are often a part of a community's cultural or spiritual identity.
Utility model
is an intellectual property right that some countries offer. It gives the owner a monopoly on a technical invention, usually a product, for 7 to 10 years.