Roland
Wilding
Trade Mark
Attorney
Intellectual property. What is it?
What is it? Its property Jim, but not as we know it. Like bricks and mortar, it can be bought and sold, leased, given or passed in a will. Unlike land we cannot see it as it is an intangible creation of the human mind. Like land, owners of neighbouring rights may oppose your plans.
How do we know who owns what? Well, most of the valuable rights are described and recorded on registers kept by each country and at world and regional level. Note that these rights are territorial. Unrecorded or Unregistered rights often only become noticed when the owners take legal action to enforce them.
Where can I find out more? You can find out about Patents, Trademarks, Registered Designs and who owns them by free searching of the UK registers at the ipo.gov.uk website. There are links there to help with information overseas. The TV series Dragons Den has some useful website pages.
​
​
Patents
Patents cover inventions of a technical nature. Patents provide a monopoly for protecting both products, methods of operation and processes. If an invention has been published, you will not be able to obtain a valid patent – so don't disclose until you have filed a Patent application. They are very expensive to obtain and enforce. SMEs are advised to very quickly sell their first patent to a large competitor and use the funds to develop future inventions. Patents mostly last for a fixed term of 20 years, if they are renewed annually.
Trade marks
A Trademark informs consumers that the product or service you're selling is in fact yours: it raises awareness. The most common marks are words. They identify your goods or services and differentiate them from others. They can secure the markets you plan to exploit in the future. They minimise the chances of you having to put up with similar domain or company names that might otherwise provide competing goods/services. Mere possession of Company or Domain names only prevent identical names being owned by others. Trademarks can last for ever. (UK Registration No 1 is the Bass Beer triangle label – filed in 1876 and still valid), if they are renewed every ten years and kept in use.
Registered designs
Registered designs protect the Novel appearance of the whole or part of a product. They can be 3-dimensional or 2 Dimensional products, screen icons, website pages, logos, or packaging. They can last for 25 years provided they are renewed every five years. The novelty aspect is not examined by the registry and so it is often uncertain as to how strong the granted right is.
What is the difference between all these rights I can’t see?
Design rights
This applies to the 3D features of shape and configuration of a product that is not commonplace in the relevant field. As with copyright you must prove copying to enforce your rights.
Passing Off / Unfair competition/ Slavish Imitation
If a Trademark has been used it is likely to have goodwill attached to it. If this goodwill is damaged by a misrepresentation, then the owner of the goodwill can take legal action to prevent the misrepresentation.
These are automatic rights associated with a particular “copyright work” and do not need to be registered. Copyright gives the right to stop unauthorised copying of the work - which could be for example a screenplay, music, novel, computer source code, photograph or sculpture. It lasts 70 years after the author's death.
Moral rights give the right to object to false attribution of authorship by others and to object to derogatory treatment of works. In the UK these rights last until twenty years after the author's death even if the copyright is sold.
Other rights
For reasons of space, we have not discussed Confidential Information / Know how / Trade secrets, Plant Variety Names, Protected Designations of Origin, Protected Geographical Indications, State Emblems, Coats of Arms and special Olympic rights.
Any trader has the right to object to abuse of some of the above rights. For example, the exercise of rights by a large trader can amount to abuse of a dominant position.
​
What about those unregistered rights?
About me
I have worked for specialist Intellectual Property firms such as Murgitroyd and Wildbore and Gibbons. My clients have included BP, BMW, GSK and Unilever.
​
I have passed the qualifying examinations for the Institute of Trademark Attorneys and prior to Brexit, I was one of the most senior official representatives at the EUIPO. I can act on the client’s behalf before the World and UK Intellectual property offices. I regularly work with fellow attorneys on behalf of clients in much of the world.
​
More details are found on my LinkedIn profile.
I guarantee
01
Professionalism
02
Accuracy
03