INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW
Maria Sannikova
,INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW
WHAT IS INTELECTUAL PROPERTY LAW?
• There is no requirement to register your copyright. For patents the protection only happens when you register it.
• Copyright protection is usually given for life of the author and 70 years extra.
• Patent is an exclusive right and is given only for 20 years.
• Trademark law distinguishes one product from the other. Can be protected for as long as the product exists.
• These fall under the general umbrella of IP.
• IP protects intangible property. It is a monopoly right and exclusive right. Many academics argue that the word
property shouldn’t be used in the terms of IP law.
JUSTIFICATION FOR PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
• Unjust enrichment
• Natural Rights
• Personality Rights
• Human Rights
• Utilitarian
Question to consider: How do you balance public and private interests?
Why do give protection to the IP if no one’s right of enjoyment is enshrined?
• Natural right theory – if you were the author/ creator you should naturally own a right. (academic).
• Some academics talk about when you create something, the idea is that it shows some side of your personality
therefore it should be protected.
• There are other arguments that the IP rights should be protected as human rights.
• Benton talks about the fact that the laws are based on utilitarian idea, the idea is that the IP should be protected
because it will cause more creations to be made.
• Copyright doesn’t depend on the quality of work.
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Legislation; Cases; Important; Commentary
,COPYRIGHT
• Area of IP law that regulates creation and use of a range of cultural goods
• Copyrights arises automatically as long as it is recorded
• Range of rights granted to owner (who may not necessarily be the author) of copyright
• Copyright duration – life + 70 years
MAPPING COPYRIGHT PROTECTION
• Statute of Anne, Copyright Act of 1710 – first piece of copyright legislation
• Heavy European Influence on UK IP law (Harmonising Directives – for example, Information Society Directive,
Enforcement Directive, Database Directive, Term Directive, Software Directive)– but now Brexit and implications
• Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886) {World Intellectual Property
Organisation}
• Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (1995) {World Trade Organisation}
• Anti-counterfeiting Trade Organisation (ACTA) rejected by European Parliament – but revival of ACTA through
TPP; TTIP, FTA and other bilateral, multilateral or plurilateral international trade agreements???
• Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA) 1988 (Copyright and Related Rights* Regulations 1996; Copyright and
Rights in Databases Regulation 1997; Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002
• Recent reforms in the UK – Intellectual Property Act, 2014 and Digital Economy Act 2017 (Brexit …)
WHAT DOES COPYRIGHT PROTECT?
s.1 CDPA 1988
• Literary works
• Dramatic works
• Music works
• Artistic works
• Films
• Sound Recordings
• Broadcasts
• Published Editions
First 4 rights protect the right of the author; the last 4 can be referred to as neighbouring/relating rights and these
protect the rights of the entrepreneur.
LITERARY WORK
s.3(1) CDPA 1988
‘Literary work’ mean any work, other than a dramatic or musical work, which is written, spoken or sung… and includes:
(a) A table or compilation other than a database
(b) Computer program
(c) Preparatory design material for a computer program, and
(d) A database
Some areas of the computer program are protected under copyright law, other areas under patent law.
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Legislation; Cases; Important; Commentary
, Note: Patent law gives exclusivity for 20 years, copyright gives you protection for life and extra 70 years. The difference
is that there is no right as strong as patent right. Because copyright can share the same inspiration therefore the
copyright will be given to two people. With patent law, if two people independently created an innovation, the one
who registers the innovation will have patent law protection, it will not matter who created it first, but who filed it first.
WHAT ARE ‘LITERARY WORKS’?
• Literary works include symbols and numerals, timetable index, trade catalogues, street directories, football fixture
lists, etc.
• Secondary works may also attract copyright protection:
– Translations
– Editorial work containing critical annotation or explanation, selection and abridgement Macmillan v
Cooper (1923)
– Copyright present in each of a succession of drafts of a manuscript Sweeney v Macmillan Pub (2002)
• Hollinrake v Truswell 1894: Creation must afford either information and instruction, or “pleasure, in the form of
literary enjoyment”?? (not an exhaustive definition). Information and instruction -> must be capable of conveying
an intelligible meaning (but the threshold for ‘intelligible meaning’ is very low) (Bingo game cards are literary
works)
• Exam papers: University of London Press v University Tutorial Press 1916: Literary works are expressed in printing
or writing, irrespective of quality or style
• Titles of books, films and plays? Generally treated as insufficiently substantial to attract copyright in themselves.
Invented names not generally literary works: Exxon v. Exxon Insurance (1982)
• Newspaper Headlines? “capable of being original literary works…” and therefore copyright protectable
Newspaper Licensing v Meltwater Holding (2011)
LITERARY WORKS – TABLES & COMPILATIONS & DATABASES
• TV schedules, timetable index, trade catalogues etc protected as tables and compilations. ‘Tables and compilations’
no longer include Database.
• Database is a separate type of literary work
S.3 CDPA
…"database" means a collection of independent* works, data or other materials which
(a) are arranged in a systematic or methodical way and
(b) are individually accessible by electronic or other means …a literary work consisting of a database is
original if, and only if, by reason of the selection or arrangement of the contents of the database the
database constitutes the author's own intellectual creation.
C-444/02 Fixtures Marketing v Organismos
Concept of independent: this requires the constituent material to be separable from one another without their
informative…or other value being affected.”
Concept of systematic or methodical manner so as to be individually accessible: this requires either that there
be technical means for searching or other means, such as an index, table of contents, plan, or classification to
allow retrieval.
WHAT ARE ‘DRAMATIC WORKS’?
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Legislation; Cases; Important; Commentary
