IP-Services Trademark, Copyright, Patent, Design & Geographical Indications

TradMark

A Trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods or services of one undertaking from those of others.

Benefits & Advantages of Registering Your Trademark

Trade mark registration is very important to make your mark safe and not stolen by others. After registration of your trademark, you possess exclusive and full rights of using it. If anybody uses any mark which is identical or similar to your mark adequate relief and injunction is granted to the registered trademark rather than the unregistered mark. Following are the key advantages of registration of your trademark.

It gives exclusive and full right to the owner of the mark to use the mark and attach its identity with goods produced or rendered by it.
It is being assigned a prima facie evidence of ownership and validity
It protects and prevents the unfair competitor from using the registered trademark
It allows the usage of the registered trademark or other suitable abbreviations to validate the ownership of the brand

Copyright

Copyright is a legal right that is assigned to the originator for a fixed number of years to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary or musical material. This legal right of copyright is exclusive and is a part of intellectual property. It provides the owner with full and absolute rights to make copies of his created work for a limited period. The intent of copyright is to advance the progress of knowledge by giving an author of a work an economic incentive to create new works.

Copyright includes the following creative works

Literary works which includes Books, Magazines, Journals, Lectures, Dramas, Novels, Computer programmes/Software and compilation of data etc.
Artistic works like paintings, Maps, photographs, drawings, Charts, Calligraphies, Sculptures, Architectural Works, Label Designs, Logos, Monograms and other works alike.
Cinematographic works which includes movies, audio-visual works, documentaries etc; and
Record works which include sound recordings, musical works etc.

Copyright Office and Governing Legislation since Independence:

After independence in 1947, Pakistan adopted the British Copyright Act, 1911;
The British Copyright Act, 1911 was replaced by the Copyright Ordinance, 1962;
The Copyright Office, at Karachi in 1963;
The Copyright Rules of, 1967 as amended in 2002;
Registration started in 1967;
The International Copyright Order, 1968;
The Copyright Board (Procedure) Regulations 1981;
Branch office in 1984 at Lahore;
Part of IPO-Pakistan since 2005.

Steps for Registration of Copyright:

Filing of application
Examination
Publication in newspaper (Artistic Work only)
Opposition, if any
Issuance of Certificate by Registrar (Registration)

Patent

A patent is grant of exclusive rights for an invention to make, use and sell the invention for a limited period of 20 years. The patent grant excludes others from making, using, or selling the invention. Patent protection does not start until the actual grant of a patent.

A patent owner has the right to decide who may or may not use the patented invention for the period in which the invention is protected. The patent owner may give permission, or license, to other parties to use the invention on mutually agreed terms. The owner may also sell the right to the invention to someone else, who will then become the new owner of the patent. Once a patent expires, the protection ends and invention enters the public domain, that is, the owner no longer holds exclusive right to the invention which becomes available to commercial exploitation by others.

The patent system is desirable in the public interest that industrial techniques should be improved. The monopoly rights are granted in lieu of disclosure of the invention i.e advancement in technology. In order to encourage improvements and to encourage also the disclosure of improvements in preference to their use in secret. Any person devising any improvement in a manufactured article or in machinery or methods for making it, may upon disclosure of his improvement at the Patent Office demand to be given a monopoly in the use of it for a limited period. After that period, it passes into the public domain.

Patentable Inventions in Pakistan

In order to be patentable an invention should have the following characteristics:

– The invention should be process or product

– The invention should be novel or new

– It involves an inventive step

– It is capable of industrial application

Patent applications are examined under the Patents Ordinance, 2000 and Rules there under for both technical and legal merits. These characteristics are briefly explained below:

Types of Patent Application

Patent applications can be applied in the following manners:

– An ordinry patent application with “provisional or complete specification”, which is dated as of the official date of the application for the patent.

– A convention patent application claiming “right of priority”, which is dated as of the official date of the corresponding application for patent first made in a country which is the member of WTO (World Trade Organization).

– Application for a patent of addition, for improvement or modification of an invention for which a patent has already been applied for or granted.

Design

design is the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article. The design may consist of three-dimensional features, such as the shape or surface of an article, or of two dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or colour.

Industrial designs are applied to a wide variety of products of industry and handicraft: from technical and medical instruments to watches, jewellery and other luxury items; from house wares and electrical appliances to vehicles and architectural structures; from textile designs to leisure goods.

An industrial design is primarily of an aesthetic or visual nature, and does not relate to the technical features of an article.

Advantages of Registered Designs

The owner is able to prevent unauthorized copying or imitation of his or her design by third parties. In addition, as industrial designs add to the commercial value of a product & facilitate its marketing & commercialization, their protection helps ensure that a fair return on investment is obtained.

Protection of industrial designs encourages fair competition & honest trade practices. It leads to the production of more aesthetically attractive & diversified products, thereby broadening consumer choice.

Industrial design protection acts as a spur to a country’s economic development by contributing to the expansion of commercial activities & by enhancing the export potential of national product.

Disadvantages of Unregistered Designs

The owner is unable to prevent unauthorized copying or limitation of his or her design by third parties.

Non-protection of industrial designs discourages unfair competition & dishonest trade practices.

What may not be registered?

he following do not constitute registrable designs within meaning of the Ordinance:

A design, which in the opinion of the Registrar of Designs is not new or original.
A design which is the same as a design already registered or published anywhere in the world before the date of the application (or, in the case of an application claiming priority of date under Section 11, before the priority date), or which differs from such prior design only in immaterial details or in features which are variants commonly used in the trade.

But under Section 6 of the Ordinance, the following is an exception to this rule:
– “Where the registered proprietor of a design registered in respect of any article makes an application.

a. for registration in respect of one or more other articles of the registered design, or

b. for registration in respect of the same or one or more other articles of a design consisting of the registered design with modifications or variations not sufficient to alter the character or substantially to affect the identity thereof.
The application shall not be refused and the registration made on that application should not be invalidated by reason only of the previous registration or publication of the registered design:
Provided that the period of registration of a design registered by virtue of this section shall not extend beyond the expiration of the original and extended period of registration in the original registered design”.

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