★ Must-know
📌 Tangible assets are physical items such as buildings, machinery, and inventory, whereas intangible assets are non-physical sources of value such as patents, brands, software, and customer relationships.
Further detail
Ideas are non-rival in the sense that many people can use them simultaneously without exhausting them or reducing their quality, but their intangibility makes it difficult to prevent appropriation and reproduction.
In Magritte’s painting captioned “Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” the copyrighted work is the visual composition of the pipe image, its shape, colour, and lighting, together with the caption, rather than the physical canvas itself.
A shoe is tangible; the trademark identifying it is intangible.
★ Must-know
📌 Intellectual property is usually divided into industrial property and copyright and related rights.
Intellectual property rights generally provide exclusive rights that can be transferred or licensed, require procedures to obtain protection, and are limited by time and territory.
Intellectual property law seeks to balance private rights with societal interests by supporting innovation and technological development, creativity and culture, fair competition, and economic and social welfare without creating unjustified barriers to competition, access, or further creativity.
Further detail
The WIPO Convention lists: literary, artistic, and scientific works, performances, phonograms, and broadcasts, inventions, scientific discoveries, industrial designs, trademarks, service marks, and commercial names, protection against unfair competition, other rights resulting from intellectual activity in industrial, scientific, literary, or artistic fields
The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886) are administered by WIPO.
Intellectual property rights differ in the subject matter protected, the requirements and duration of protection, and the nature of the rights granted.
Exclusive rights can reward creators, while limits help prevent barriers to competition and access.
★ Must-know
Copyright protects the particular expression of an idea that meets the conditions for protection, not the underlying idea or knowledge itself.
Copyright protection requires an original expression of the author’s intellectual creation, and inspiration is allowed but copying is not.
Copyright economic rights protect economic interests and may be transferred or sold, whereas moral rights protect non-economic interests and remain with the author.
Further detail
Copyright protection generally arises automatically without registration and lasts for 70 years after the author’s death.
The course identifies fair use exceptions as limits on copyright protection.
Copyright protects an original expression, not the underlying idea.
★ Must-know
📌 Patentability requires an invention to have a new characteristic not known in the existing body of knowledge, to be inventive and non-obvious, and to have industrial applicability.
Further detail
The course lists as excluded from patentable subject matter: scientific theories, mathematical methods, plant or animal varieties, discoveries of natural substances, methods of medical treatment, as opposed to medical products, inventions whose commercial exploitation must be prevented to protect public order, morality, or public health
Patents are a widespread means of protecting technical inventions, including new products and processes that provide technical solutions to problems.
Disclosure of an invention earns time-limited protection; expiry places it in the public domain.
★ Must-know
📌 To qualify as a trade secret, information must be commercially valuable because it is secret, known only to a limited group, and protected by reasonable steps taken by its rightful holder to keep it secret.
Further detail
Trade secret information can include:
Businesses may protect trade secrets using confidentiality agreements such as non-disclosure agreements, non-compete agreements, and robust IT security infrastructure.
A trade secret is an iceberg of confidential business information, with patents as its visible tip.
★ Must-know
📌 Industrial designs must be new and differ from existing designs, and registration requires a national or regional application to the relevant intellectual property office.
Further detail
In France, registered design protection begins with a five-year period from filing and may be renewed in five-year blocks up to a total maximum of 25 years.
The origin-linked factors may be:
📌 A registered geographical indication remains in force until its registration is cancelled, and producers in the designated geographical area have the right to use the sign.
Design rights protect how a product looks; geographical indications link products to their place of origin.
★ Must-know
📌 A trademark must be distinctive and must not be generic, descriptive, or deceptive, nor identical or confusingly similar to another trademark.
Further detail
Trademark signs may include:
The first-come-first-served principle applies to trademark registration, and only the trademark owner may use the sign.
Trademarks help customers identify goods and services and can indicate their nature and quality while serving as a marketing strategy.
★ Must-know
📌 A registered company name is the official name identifying a legal entity, whereas a commercial name identifies a business in its commercial activities and distinguishes it from competitors.
Further detail
📌 The course describes commercial names as protected through use rather than registration, whereas a domain name is registered to identify a website address.
📌 In France, registered company names, commercial names, and domain names may be protected against identical or similar signs used for identical or similar activities when they create a risk of confusion, with domain-name protection limited to the relevant geographical area.
| Sign | What it identifies | Protection stated in the course |
|---|---|---|
| Trademark | Goods or services of an enterprise | Registration; protection lasts 10 years and may be renewed indefinitely |
| Registered company name | The legal entity | In France, protection against confusingly similar signs is based on unfair competition |
| Commercial name | A business in its commercial activities | Protection through use against signs creating a risk of confusion |
| Domain name | The address of a website | Protection against confusing use within the relevant geographical area |
| Right | Protected subject | Key condition or duration |
|---|---|---|
| Patent | Technical invention or solution | New, inventive, and industrially applicable; 20 years in many countries |
| Trade secret | Commercially valuable secret information | Known to a limited group and kept secret through reasonable steps |
| Industrial design | A product’s aesthetic or ornamental appearance | Must be new; French registration may last up to 25 years |
| Geographical indication | A sign linking a product to its geographical origin | Origin-linked qualities or reputation; registration lasts until cancelled |
| Trademark | A sign distinguishing goods or services | Must be distinctive; registration lasts 10 years and may be renewed indefinitely |
Take a 23-question practice quiz on Intellectual Property and Trademarks, with every answer explained.
1. Which classification correctly distinguishes a warehouse from a company’s brand?
2. A patented design is incorporated into thousands of manufactured products; what does the intellectual property right protect?
Memorize the key concepts of Intellectual Property and Trademarks with 56 flashcards.
What distinguishes tangible assets from intangible assets?
Tangible assets are physical items; intangible assets are non-physical sources of value.
What does an intellectual property right protect?
An intangible object.
Into which two categories is intellectual property usually divided?
Industrial property and copyright and related rights.
Upload your class notes and Revizly writes a study guide, a quiz and flashcards in about a minute.
Study guide maker