Intellectual Property: Interesting and Relevant Things to Know About

Registering the company is not enough unless you tend to fulfill other factors which are of high need and importance for your company, market, and people.

Whenever you are about to register your company, consider other factors too during the process. For any type of company, in order to make it unique, to make product and service inimitable, and to make your personal work secure. All you need is to register a trademark, copyright, and/or patent for your company under multiple and different scenarios.

Intellectual property is the most valuable, sought-after factor, and one of the most demanding intangible assets any company can own and already have. The world is becoming more cautious of Intellectual Property. The business and company owners in the current era are rapidly sensing that Intellectual Property plays a pivotal role and is considered a key success factor in the achievements, accomplishments, and brand value of the company.

The business and company’s stakeholders must focus on the significance of intellectual property in order to effectively preserve the company’s assets. Spending on intellectual property will guarantee the core resources of a company from being stolen, imitated, and exploited by its competitors. By complying with intellectual property, a company could increase its brand value, brand equity, and also secure its brand reputation for the future.

You can empower your Business by Protecting your Brand:

A brand can be a name, logo, design, symbol, slogan or any other element that can assist people to identify a particular company or individual and differentiate it from other products. It also refers to the overall experience a customer undergoes when interacting with a business.

Brand helps people identify a particular company, product, or individual. The brand has a power that leaves a lasting impression on your consumers. It is not just about the physical appearance or visual identity of a product but it is the process of creating a strong, positive perception of a company, its products or services in the customer’s mind by combining such elements as logo, design, packaging, tagline, price, and a consistent theme throughout all marketing communications. Effective branding helps companies differentiate themselves from their competitors and build a loyal customer base.

You can secure your brand by registering Intellectual property rights. Intellectual property rights prevent others from stealing your brand, your identity and imitating your work and stop others from getting a free ride on the back of your success. Protecting your brand can be of more value than you may realize.

Intellectual Property Types:

The intellectual property is divided into following three categories:

• Trademark
• Copyright
• Patent

Trademark:

The word ‘Trademark’ proportionally is resonated to Trade = Business and Mark = Identity. Trademark recognizes and differentiates your product or service from one party to the other party. Trademark is registered on behalf of your goods or service in order to protect your brand name, logo, tagline and that in return it will provide you legal protection against all those who will try to replicate, copy, and counterfeit your brand. Trademark is registered for any individual, AOP partnership firm, Private Limited Company or any limited company.  

Copyright:

Copyright grants the possession of “rights over what you made is equal to what is actually yours”. It facilitates you with the exclusive rights on being an owner to perform and authorize any work of your choice like reproduce, publish, copy, broadcast etc. Copyright advances the progress of knowledge and new work by giving authorship to one. Copyright registration is inclusive of categories which involves; literature, art, cinematography, recordings, and etc. Copyright registration guarantees proprietorship over any produced asset which in return provides you with the authority that no other person than you can produce or copy without your permission.

Patent:

Patent facilitates you with the exclusive rights to stop others from inventing, manufacturing, copying, selling or importing your invention without granting of your permission. Only the patent owner can decide who or who can’t harness the patent invention for a limited time in which the patent is protected. The patent protection is guaranteed for a time period of 20 years. The patent owner could sell the patent rights to others in a bid to utilize the patent invention under the mutually agreed terms and conditions.  Once the patent expires the invention becomes the public property.

Intellectual Property Registration:

Following are the documents which are required for the processing and registration of Intellectual Property:

Trademark:

• TM-1 in duplicate
•  Six representations affixed on a durable paper of 13×8 inch
•  CNIC of the Trademark Holder/partners
•  Specification of goods or services sought to be protected in any class
•  Residential address of holder or Letterhead of the Business
•  Other Information or Documents as required

Copyright:

• Two Copies of work
•  Demand Draft / Pay order of fee as applicable per work
•  CNIC of the Copyrights Holder / partners
•  NOC from publisher if work has been published and publisher is different from applicant
•  Search certificate from trademark Office if the work is capable of being used on goods
•  Residential address of holder or Letterhead of the Business
•  Power of attorney
•  Other Information or Documents as required

Patent:

•  Form P – 1 or Form P – 1A application without priority
•  Form P – 2 or Form P – 2A application with priority
•  Form P- 3 for provisional or Form P- 3A for complete specification)
•  Patent Specification
•  Drawing(s), if any
•  Demand Draft / Pay order of fee as applicable per work
•  Form P – 28(power of Attorney) if any
•  Priority document (for convention application)
•  CNIC of the Copyrights applicant
•  Other Information or Documents as required

Benefits of Intellectual Property Registration:

Following are the benefits which you will avail after registering any of the mentioned intellectual property:

Trademark:

• By registering your trademark, you will have exclusive identity rights to exercise in Pakistan; by this no one can take advantage of your brand.
• By registering your trademark, you will have legal protection, and it will serve as evidence that you are the actual owner of your product or service.             
• By registering your trademark, in case of any trademark infringement you won’t have to prove your ownership as you are the rightful owner of your product or service.
• By registering your trademark, you will avoid intellectual property right issues and conflicts in the future.   

Copyright:

• By registering your copyright, it will enable you to put the matter in the court against those who knowingly stole and/or copied your stuff.
• By registering your copyright, only you will have the authority to reproduce your work.
• By registering your copyright, you can charge the compensation amount against those who breach your copyright.
• By registering your copyright, you will have the authority to reassign the work to whomever which were previously assigned to somebody.  

Patent:

• By registering your patent, only you will have the exclusive rights on your invention whatsoever it could be.
• By registering your patent, you will be able to sell your patent invention rights to others and in return you can earn from it.
• By registering your patent, it will enable other producers in the society to emphasize more on innovation.
• By registering your patent, only you will be making profit on your invention and also will be preventing others from making profit on your inventions.   

Best ways to Protect Intellectual Property:

How can someone protect its Intellectual property rights against possible violation?

Here are the best ways to protect Intellectual Property:

1. Keep your creation or innovation under wraps until its ready for launch

• Sign a confidentiality agreement before sharing

• crucial information with anyone to ensure IP rights

• Apply for Registration of Intellectual property

• without delay

• Register your business and domain name as soon as possible

• Avoid Joint ownership for Intellectual Property Rights, it may create complications for the business

• Consult Intellectual Property Expert

You can register your desired intellectual property with Befiler. As Befiler’s professional consultants are ready to serve you with their professional consultancy services.