How do firms safeguard their innovations?
The development of Ireland as a leading smart economy, with a thriving innovation-focused enterprise industry and high-quality employment, is a crucial focus of the government as one of the most important ways that Ireland can provide economic growth, generate jobs and emerge from recession.
A brief history of Ireland’s “smart” movement shows plenty of samples of entrepreneurship originating from our universities and other higher educational institutions. IT companies like Iona Technologies, born in Trinity College Dublin, are a good example of how ground breaking technology can arise from collaborative work and commercialisation between universities and industry. More recent examples involve Beemune and Blue Box Sensors, both the result of the commercialisation of intellectual property and technology developed at NUI Maynooth.
Innovation is not limited to higher educational institutions: a lot of companies within the private sector are also dedicated to research and development (R&D) with a view to creating innovative products and services which can be marketed. Any business linked to innovation will wish to make sure that it is safeguarded from unjust exploitation by others. A company’s intellectual property may consist of both registered and unregistered rights.
Registered rights are legal rights granted on application to an official body, such as the Irish Patents Office. Unregistered rights occur automatically on creation and aren’t subject to any registration program. The primary samples of registered rights are patents and trade marks. The key instances of unregistered rights are copyright and confidential information. Patents protect inventions that, amongst other things, are novel, involve an inventive step and are susceptible to industrial application. Examples include patents for brand new drugs or even for a new form of tea bag. In 1952, by way of example, Lipton patented a novel foursided tea bag. Trade marks are created primarily to safeguard a company’s brand names or logos. Examples include Vodafone and also the slogan Intel Inside.
To safeguard its innovations, a company should look into contractual protections or “assignments” with its employees, contractors and third parties who are active in the company’s business and may therefore need access to, or be involved with creating, its intellectual property. On a practical basis, a business can separate its private information between employees and contractors so that no single worker or contractor has full knowledge of all the trade secrets needed to make the company’s products and solutions.
By developing a coherent tactic to handle its intellectual property, a company is best placed to safeguard its innovative developments.
If you want to learn more about Intellectual Property Law in Ireland then contact McCann FitzGerald. They are Ireland’s top legal adviser in developing intellectual property strategies.
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