Legal Obligations

IP

Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some.  This legal right allows you to own your own game and make sure no one else can steal this idea or product.

Copyright

Copyright protects your work, created by the original author. The original author is the person who created the piece of work. Copyright isn’t different from other types of IP. Once the copyright is claimed, it belongs solely to the author. You would need to create a detailed record of your work, to prove the work is originally yours; this can be done by depositing a dated copy with a trade association, bank or solicitor.

Trademark

Trademarks are the symbols/tags that distinguish your work. Trademarks are registered for specific goods and services within individual subjects. It is however possible to create and then register the same symbol or tag as long as it is not in the same class of work. For example; Swan rental cars, Swan matches and Swan Electricals. There are 45 different classes to choose from.

Patent

A patent is basically how something works. It is for an invention is granted by government to the inventor, giving the inventor the right to stop others, from making, using or selling the invention without their permission. If companies ignore the patent they are up for legal abuse. When a patent is granted the invention becomes the property of the inventor, which like any other form of property or business asset can be bought, sold, rented or hired. Patents are territorial rights, so a UK patent will only give the holder rights in the UK and rights to stop others from importing the patented products into the UK. They have no effect over sea apart from the good been distributed from the UK (if the patent is UK territory)

Registered Design

Registered designs are what the product or idea looks like. The design is registrable if it fits the following characteristics:

·         a) The design is new

·         b) The design is distinctive when compared to the prior art base for the design as it existed before the priority date of the design.

After the design is registered, the legal owner is allowed to the following rights:

·         a) To make or offer to make a product, in relation to which the design is registered.

·         b) To import such a product into a country for sale, or for use for the purposes of any business.

·         c) To sell, hire and otherwise dispose of, or offer to sell, hire or otherwise dispose of, such a product.

·         d) To use such a product in any way for the purpose of any trade or business.