Page 35 - IP-HANDBOOK-07-2018

III. Types of Intellectual Property
Patent
If the invention meets the requirements to be granted patent protection you will want to ensure that you protect the invention by filing a patent application before it is disclosed to a third party. Because patent protection is costly, a business strategy should be defined that allows the assessment of the pros and cons. Patent protection is achieved by filing a patent application with a Patent Office. The Patent Office examines the application, publishes it and grants a patent, which takes several years. Patent are territorial and a careful strategy covering where geographically to seek protection should be in place. The protection in several countries is bound by strict timelines and therefore a suitable strategy will be of great value when protection decisions need to be taken.
The protection is granted for up to 20 years. After that period the invention becomes free to be used or modified by anyone. Trade secret
As long as the commercial information is kept confidential it is a trade secret. Reasonable attempts to keep it confidential need to be in place. Only a limited number of people who need to know about the confidential information to perform their business duties should have access to it.
HOW TO PROTECT OR OBTAIN A...?
It needs to be clear that it is confidential information and has to be marked accordingly. Confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements with anyone who may see the confidential information must be in place. Documents should be marked as “confidential”.
Domain Names
Domain Names are registered with specific registration agencies called Registrars that are granted powers to manage such registrations.
The rule is first come first serve... The first to register has the right over the domain name. However, as a domain name can be composed of or include trademarks or company names, registration as a domain name may infringe third parties rights. Domain names need to be renewed periodically and will be valid as long as they are timely renewed. If they are not renewed they fall back in the pool of registrable domain names and can be registered by any third party.
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