What is intellectual property IP )? Is it afforded the same protection in every country of the world what laws currently protect IP in the United States and Europe?

Q: Is intellectual property afforded the same protection in every country of the world?

There is no such thing as an international copyright” that will automatically protect an authors writings throughout the world. Protection against unauthorized use in a particular country depends on the national laws of that country.

Protect Your Intellectual Property

[16MB]

Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions; literary and artistic works; and symbols, images, names and logos used in commerce. Businesses are often unaware that their business assets include IP rights.

Your intellectual property is a valuable intangible asset that should be protected to enhance your competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Stopfakes.gov is a one-stop shop for U.S. government tools and resources on intellectual property rights (IPR). You will find business guides, country toolkits, upcoming training events, and more on the site.

How to Protect your IP

Copyrights, which cover works of authorship, such as books, logos and software, is part of intellectual property protection, as are patents, which protect inventions. Other types of IP include trademarks, designs and trade secrets.

The first thing you need to do to safeguard your intellectual property is to file for protection in the United States. Your state’s bar association can recommend experienced lawyers who can help you with that.

Then you must be the first inventor to file for protection in the countries in which you currently do business, or are certain to do business in the future. You should also consider filing for protection in countries that are well-known for counterfeit markets.

If you do business in nations that have free trade agreements with the U.S., IP protections are built into those agreements, but you’ll still need to file in each country to get those protections.

Conversely, if you do business in any country in the European Union, you only need to file for protection with the EU - not every individual nation.

If you have a registered IP right in the United States, these protections are territorial and do not extend to foreign countries. Additionally, most countries are a “first to file” country for trademark registration and “first inventor to file” for patent registration and therefore grant registration to the first filer regardless of first use in the market.

What Is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property is a broad categorical description for the set of intangible assets owned and legally protected by a company or individual from outside use or implementation without consent. An intangible asset is a non-physical asset that a company or person owns.

The concept of intellectual property relates to the fact that certain products of human intellect should be afforded the same protective rights that apply to physical property, which are called tangible assets. Most developed economies have legal measures in place to protect both forms of property.

Key Takeaways

Intellectual property is an umbrella term for a set of intangible assets or assets that are not physical in nature.
Intellectual property is owned and legally protected by a person or company from outside use or implementation without consent.
Intellectual property can consist of many types of assets, including trademarks, patents, and copyrights.
Intellectual property infringement occurs when a third party engages in the unauthorized use of the asset.
Legal protections for most intellectual property expire after some time; however, for some (e.g., trademarks), they last forever.

Understanding Intellectual Property

Companies are diligent when it comes to identifying and protecting intellectual property because it holds such high value in today's increasingly knowledge-based economy. Also, producing value intellectual property requires heavy investments in brainpower and time of skilled labor. This translates into heavy investments by organizations and individuals that should not be accessed with no rights by others.

Extracting value from intellectual property and preventing others from deriving value from it is an important responsibility for any company. Intellectual property can take many forms. Although it's an intangible asset, intellectual property can be far more valuable than a company's physical assets. Intellectual property can represent a competitive advantage and as a result, is fiercely guarded and protected by the companies that own the property.

Types of Intellectual Property

Intellectual property can consist of many types of intangibles, and some of the most common are listed below.

Patents

A patent is a property right for an investor that's typically granted by a government agency, such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent allows the inventor exclusive rights to the invention, which could be a design, process, an improvement, or physical invention such as a machine. Technology and software companies often have patents for their designs. For example, the patent for the personal computer was filed in 1980 by Steve Jobs and three other colleagues at Apple Inc.

Copyrights

Copyrights provide authors and creators of original material the exclusive right to use, copy, or duplicate their material. Authors of books have their works copyrighted as do musical artists. A copyright also states that the original creators can grant anyone authorization through a licensing agreement to use the work.

Trademarks

A trademark is a symbol, phrase, or insignia that is recognizable and represents a product that legally separates it from other products. A trademark is exclusively assigned to a company, meaning the company owns the trademark so that no others may use or copy it. A trademark is often associated with a company's brand. For example, the logo and brand name of "Coca-Cola," is owned by the Coca-Cola Company (KO).

Franchises

A franchise is a license that a company, individual, or party–called the franchisee–purchases allowing them to use a company's–the franchisor–name, trademark, proprietary knowledge, and processes.

The franchisee is typically a small business owner or entrepreneur who operates the store or franchise. The license allows the franchisee to sell a product or provide a service under the company's name. In return, the franchisor is paid a start-up fee and ongoing licensing fees by the franchisee. Examples of companies that use the franchise business model include United Parcel Service (UPS) and McDonald's Corporation (MCD).

Trade Secrets

A trade secret is a company's process or practice that is not public information, which provides an economic benefit or advantage to the company or holder of the trade secret. Trade secrets must be actively protected by the company and are typically the result of a company's research and development (which is why some employers require the signing of non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs).

Examples of trade secrets could be a design, pattern, recipe, formula, or proprietary process. Trade secrets are used to create a business model that differentiates the company's offerings to its customers by providing a competitive advantage.

Digital Assets

Digital assets are also increasingly recognized as IP. These would include proprietary software code or algorithms, and online digital content.

Type of IP
IP	Protection	Duration (in the U.S)
Patents	Inventions, industrial designs, computer code	20 years
Trademarks	Unique identifiers for a business or its products or services (e.g., logos, brand names)	As long as the trademarked material remains active
Copyrights	Works of authorship, including books, poems, films, music, photographs, online content	70 years after the author dies

Intellectual Property Infringement

Attached to intellectual property are certain rights, known as Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), that cannot be infringed upon by those without authorization to use them. IPRs give owners the ability to bar others from recreating, mimicking, and exploiting their work.

Patents infringement occurs when a legally-protected patent is used by another person or company without permission. Patents filed before June 8, 1995, are valid for 17 years, whereas patents filed after this date are valid for 20 years. After the expiration date, the details of the patent are made public.

Copyright violations occur when an unauthorized party recreates all or a portion of an original work, such as a work of art, music, or a novel. The duplicated content need not be an exact replica of the original to qualify as an infringement.

Similarly, trademark infringement occurs when an unauthorized party uses a licensed trademark or a mark resembling the licensed trademark. For example, a competitor might use a mark similar to its rival's to disrupt business and attract their customer base. Also, businesses in unrelated industries may use identical or similar marks in an effort to capitalize on other companies' strong brand images.

Trade secrets are often protected by non-disclosure agreements (NDA). When a party to the agreement discloses all or parts of a trade secret to uninterested parties, they have violated the agreement and infringed upon the trade secret. It is possible to be guilty of trade secret infringement when an NDA is not present.

Penalties for intellectual property infringement range from fines to prison sentences.

Tips to Avoid IP Infringement

Many times, infringement is done unwittingly. To avoid being sued for infringement on intellectual property, make sure that your business is not using copyrighted or trademarked material, and be sure your brand or logo is not too similar to that of others that it could reasonably mislead somebody to think it was the other brand. Also, do a patent search to ensure that any ideas are your own, and if not that you are able to license them through the proper channels. There are IP lawyers that specialize in this process to make sure that you are not using anybody else's protected IP.

If you hire somebody to do creative work for you or your company, make sure the contract explicitly states that any creative works generated would become the property of the company and not the person you hired.

Special Considerations

Many forms of intellectual property cannot be listed on the balance sheet as assets since there aren't specific accounting principles to value each asset. However, the value of the property tends to be reflected in the price of the stock since market participants are aware of the existence of the intellectual property.

Some intangible assets are recorded as property, such as patents because they have an expiration date. These assets are recognized by a numerical value through the process of amortization. Amortization is an accounting method that decreases the value of an intangible asset over a set period of time. This process helps the company to reduce its income by expensing a set amount each year for tax purposes as the useful life of the intangible asset winds down.

For example, a patent might only have 20 years before it's registered as public domain. A company would assign a total value to the patent. Each year for 20 years, the patent would be expensed or amortized by the same amount by dividing the total value by 20 years. Each year the amortized asset amount would reduce the company's net income or profit for tax purposes. However, intellectual property that is considered to have a perpetual life, such as a trademark, is not amortized since it doesn't expire.

Real-World Example

In 2017, there was a widely publicized intellectual property case in which a company called Waymo sued Uber over alleged stealing and implementation of technology relating to Waymo's self-driving car program. The plans for the technology, although not yet completely viable, constituted significant intellectual property for Waymo. When they alleged that Uber had obtained their intellectual property, they were able to take action through the court system to attempt to keep Uber from utilizing the information to enhance their own self-driving car program.

What Are the 4 Main Types of Intellectual Property?

The four main types of intellectual property are patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.

Who Owns Intellectual Property?

Generally, the creator of a work is deemed its owner. However, intellectual property ownership can be determined differently for different types of property and under varying circumstances. For example, if work is created for an employer, the employer is the owner of that intellectual property. Also, ownership rights can also be transferred to other parties.

What Is Intellectual Property Used for?

Intellectual property can be used for various reasons, such as branding and marketing, as well as to protect assets that give a competitive advantage.

What is intellectual property IP is it afforded the same protection in every country of the world what laws currently protect it in the United States and Europe?

Is it afforded the same protection in every country of the world? What laws currently protect it in the United States and Europe? Intellectual property is recognized as a protected asset in the United States. The U.S. copyright laws extend this privilege to the published word, including electronic formats.

Is intellectual property afforded the same protection in every country of the world?

There is no such thing as an “international copyright” that will automatically protect an author's writings throughout the world. Protection against unauthorized use in a particular country depends on the national laws of that country.

What means intellectual property?

Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.

What is intellectual property and its protection?

Intellectual property (IP) pertains to any original creation of the human intellect such as artistic, literary, technical, or scientific creation. Intellectual property rights (IPR) refers to the legal rights given to the inventor or creator to protect his invention or creation for a certain period of time.