Michael E Melton – Brief Guide to Intellectual Property Rights

If you are a business owner then you will know only too well about the dangers which exist when it comes to staying on the right side of the law. There are all manner of rules and regulations which you must comply with which have been put in place in order to protect business, taxation and a whole host of parties. One aspect of the law which we are going to focus on today is intellectual property law, a complex and at times confusing law which helps out a huge number of people. To understand this better we spoke to industry insider Michael E Melton to find out what you need to know about intellectual property law, and why it is important that you do so.

Importance

The reason as to why it is important for you to understand about intellectual property is because it can be very easy to fall foul of these laws and acts. In fact many businesses in the past have used materials for advertising purposes for example, which go against many of the rights and laws that have been set up to protect the creators of this world, as you may be using something which you have no right to use. Penalties for not complying with intellectual property rights can range from a warning, a fine, to the extreme cases which could see your business shut down.

Types 

Here are the types of intellectual property rights that you need to be aware of, you may not need to have in-depth information about each, but you should certainly be aware of what they are.

Copyright – The protection of the way in which an idea is expressed, this covers scripts, literature, computer code, architectural drawings and music.

Trademark – This covers the logos, symbols, sounds, smells, phrases or signs which have been created to identify a company.

Trade Secrets – The theft of information from one business which is used in another is prevented by this act, it covers formulas, strategies, devices, processes and procedures.  

Patent – A patent is filed by an inventor after the creation of a product, a mechanism or an idea which gives them sole responsibility for how it is thereby used.  

Moral Rights – Anyone who has a patent, a copyright or a trademark are considered as having moral rights around what happens with their product.  

Unfair Competition – This act prevents a company from gaining an advantage on its competitors through the use of trademark infringement, trade defamation, misappropriation of names or images or even false advertising.

Publicity/Personality Rights – These protect a person from having their image, likeness or their personality from being exploited for the benefit of others without giving their approval first.

These are just the main highlights of what intellectual property rights are in place to do and it is worth your while to understand them and make sure that you are doing all that you can to avoid any kind of infringement of them.