Iprs

Intellectual property 1) Outline of the course a. What can IP do for companies (the function of intellectual property rights IPRs) i. Intellectual property rights transform knowledge into value. ii. The territory of IP is a territory for growth and wealth. b. Many IPRs, much opportunity iii. Patents, industrial designs, but also trademarks and copyright: iv. Economic value of IPRs through legal mechanisms: 1. For their granting (through registration or automatically) 2. For their enforcement. v. Exclude others from a property right. c. Two ways to get the rights vi. Through registration 3. Italian patent application – app. Reviewed by patent office. Not verified and therefore not very strong (weak = cheap = easily accessible). 4. (strong = expensive = substantive examination) 5. Some states have done away w/ substantive examination because too many people have to be hired for the analysis, getting the patent would be expensive, nobody would apply for patents. 6. Patent = national property title. a. Remains national (maintain sovereignty in this area) b. International cooperation otherwise. 7. Value linked to who granted it. c. You may want a weak patent (want to show that you have grounds for the patent, but in reality you really don’t). vii. Automatically. 8. Harder to enforce than one that is granted after analysis. d. Quality of enforcement – viii. US has good enforcement, but costs a lot. ix. China – strong IP granting system, but weak enforcement system (Some areas, not all. Many Asian countries are this way). x. Equilibrium between Quality of granting/quality of enforcement. xi. The bad guys of IP – 9. Section 301 – blacklists for countries that