Intellectual Property Rights

DEFINITION

Intellectual property covers two main areas: industrial property, covering inventions, patents, trade marks, industrial designs, and protected designations of origin; copyright, represented by literary, musical, artistic, photographic and audio-visual works. (Source: IPR Helpdesk). Furthermore, copyright covers software and databases, the latter when displaying "originality" (see also Copyright, Patent, Trademark and Database Protection).

IMPACT ON e-BUSINESS

IPR helps you to protect your original works. Whereas some of the above mentioned rights need registration to grant protection (e.g. patents), others grant automatically protection such as copyright. For details, see Copyright, Patent, Patent - Prior Art, Trademark. IPRs can become important assets of a company. This is why major copyright holders like music labels and film distributors fight illegal file sharing on the Internet.

PRACTICAL LINKS

WIKIPEDIA article on Related rights

http://secretariat.efta.int/Web/EuropeanEconomicArea/EEAAgreement/protocols/changed_protocols/protocol28.pdf

Intellectual Property Rights and Exports: Avoiding Common Pitfalls
 
Amended proposal for a Directive on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of intellectual property rights
 
Council Regulation (EC) No 1383/2003 concerning customs action against goods suspected of infringing certain intellectual property rights and the measures to be taken against goods found to have infringed such rights
europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2004/l_328/l_32820041030en00160049.pdf
 
Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights

RELATED ISSUES

IPR
Copyright
Patent
Patent - Prior Art
Licensing
Open Source Software
Trademark

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