World Intellectual Property Organization
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest.
WIPO was established by the WIPO Convention in 1967 with a mandate from its Member States to promote the protection of IP throughout the world through cooperation among states and in collaboration with other international organizations. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. The Director General is Francis Gurry.
Strategic Goals
WIPO's revised and expanded strategic goals are part of a comprehensive process of realignment taking place within the Organization. These new goals will enable WIPO to fulfill its mandate more effectively in response to a rapidly evolving external environment and to the urgent challenges for intellectual property in the 21st Century.
The nine strategic goals set out in the Revised Program and Budget for the 2008/09 Biennium are:
- Balanced Evolution of the International Normative Framework for IP
- Provision of Premier Global IP Services
- Facilitating the Use of IP for Development
- Coordination and Development of Global IP Infrastructure
- World Reference Source for IP Information and Analysis
- International Cooperation on Building Respect for IP
- Addressing IP in Relation to Global Policy Issues
- A Responsive Communications Interface between WIPO, its Member States and All Stakeholders
- An Efficient Administrative and Financial Support Structure to Enable WIPO to Deliver its Programs
Visit this site: http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en
Indian Intellectual Property Office
The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM) is located at Mumbai. The Head Office of the Patent office is at Kolkata and its Branch offices are located at Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai. The Trade Marks registry is at Mumbai and its Branches are located in Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and New Delhi. The Design Office is located at Kolkata in the Patent Office. The Offices of The Patent Information System (PIS) and National Institute of Intellectual Property Management (NIIPM) are at Nagpur. The Controller General supervises the working of the Patents Act, 1970, as amended, the Designs Act, 2000 and the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and also renders advice to the Government on matters relating to these subjects. In order to protect the Geographical Indications of goods a Geographical Indications Registry has been established in Chennai to administer the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registeration and Protection) Act, 1999 under the CGPDTM.
v Patents
v Designs
v Trade Marks
v Geographical Indications
v Patent Information System
v National Institute of Intellectual Property Management (NIIPM)
v Annual Report
Visit this site: http://www.patentoffice.nic.in/
The United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) is the Federal agency for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks. In doing this, the USPTO fulfills the mandate of Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, of the Constitution that the Executive branch "promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to inventors the exclusive right to their respective discoveries." The USPTO registers trademarks based on the Commerce Clause of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3). Under this system of protection, American industry has flourished. New products have been invented, new uses for old ones discovered, and employment opportunities created for millions of Americans. The strength and vitality of the U.S. economy depends directly on effective mechanisms that protect new ideas and investments in innovation and creativity. The continued demand for patents and trademarks underscores the ingenuity of American inventors and entrepreneurs. The USPTO is at the cutting edge of the Nation's technological progress and achievement.
The USPTO advises the President of the United States, the Secretary of Commerce, and U.S. Government agencies on intellectual property (IP) policy, protection, and enforcement; and promotes the stronger and more effective IP protection around the world. The USPTO furthers effective IP protection for U.S. innovators and entrepreneurs worldwide by working with other agencies to secure strong IP provisions in free trade and other international agreements. It also provides training, education, and capacity building programs designed to foster respect for IP and encourage the development of strong IP enforcement regimes by U.S. trading partners.
The USPTO headquarters occupies five interconnected buildings located at 600 Dulany St, Alexandria, Virginia. The office employs more than 8,900 employees-including engineers, scientists, attorneys, analysts, computer specialists-all dedicated to protecting U.S. Intellectual Property rights.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum located on the USPTO Alexandria, Virginia campus, is open to the public. Established in 1995, the National Inventors Hall of Fame and Museum strives to educate the public about the patent and trademark systems, and the important role intellectual property protection plays in our nation's social and economic health. The Museum is open Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. (except for federal holidays).
Visit this site: http://www.uspto.gov/
United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office
The Intellectual Property Office can help you get the right type of protection for your creation or invention. Intellectual Property (IP) results from the expression of an idea. So IP might be a brand, an invention, a design, a song or another intellectual creation. IP can be owned, bought and sold. But how can that help you?
There are many simple and cost effective ways of protecting your ideas and your business. The information below shows you what you need to think about from the beginnings of an idea to starting a new business and marketing and manufacturing your product or service.
New idea
· Search for existing patents
You can use the free patents database or our Search and Advisory Service to check whether your idea already exists or identify existing technology to help develop your own.
You can use the free patents database or our Search and Advisory Service to check whether your idea already exists or identify existing technology to help develop your own.
Development phase
· Licensing
You may need to licence-in other people’s technology to help you develop your idea, either from a University or another business
You may need to licence-in other people’s technology to help you develop your idea, either from a University or another business
Partners
Collaboration with other businesses or educational organisations can be vital to the development phase. Our Lambert Collaboration Tool kit can help.
If you talk to anyone about any new secret or collaboration make sure you ask them to sign a confidentiality agreement first.
Collaboration with other businesses or educational organisations can be vital to the development phase. Our Lambert Collaboration Tool kit can help.
If you talk to anyone about any new secret or collaboration make sure you ask them to sign a confidentiality agreement first.
IP protection (pre-market entry stage)
· Technology
You are developing your technology but how should you protect it?
If it would be difficult to copy the process, construction or formulation from your product itself, a trade secret may give you the protection you need.
You could file for a Patent which would start to protect your technology from your competitors. You must not tell anyone about your idea before you file it with us.
You are developing your technology but how should you protect it?
If it would be difficult to copy the process, construction or formulation from your product itself, a trade secret may give you the protection you need.
You could file for a Patent which would start to protect your technology from your competitors. You must not tell anyone about your idea before you file it with us.
· Design or Artistic Creation
If the design of your product is unique and makes you stand out from your competitors then consider design registration.
Original, creative and artistic works are automatically covered by copyright.
If the design of your product is unique and makes you stand out from your competitors then consider design registration.
Original, creative and artistic works are automatically covered by copyright.
Visit this site: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/
IP Australia
IP Australia administers Australia's IP rights system, specifically patents, trademarks, designs and plant breeder’s rights.
Our core task is to administer statutes relating to IP. By granting these rights, IP Australia helps to
Our core task is to administer statutes relating to IP. By granting these rights, IP Australia helps to
- create a secure environment for investment in innovation
- enable firms to build brand value and business reputation
- encourage the disclosure of inventions and the transfer of knowledge and technology
- provide a legal framework for trading intellectual assets.
IP Australia incorporates the Patent, Designs, Trade Marks and Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR) Offices. It is a prescribed agency within the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR), operating independently of the Department on financial matters and with some degree of autonomy on other matters. By charging fees for services, IP Australia recovers more than 95% of costs.
Helping Australian business to prosper
Currently, our main ambition is to make the IP rights system more effective. We will achieve this by improving the consistency of our decision, our response times and our business systems.
IP Australia will
IP Australia will
- deliver robust IP rights and satisfy our customers in terms of timeliness and value for money
- be recognised as one of the leading IP offices in the world for the quality (including accuracy and consistency) of the IP rights we grant
- enable Australians to derive maximum value from the IP system through effective information and education services
- be regarded as a leading Australian government agency, respected for its valuable contribution to the national innovation system.
Visit this Site: http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/
WTO – TRIPs
Ideas and knowledge are an increasingly important part of trade. Most of the value of new medicines and other high technology products lies in the amount of invention, innovation, research, design and testing involved. Films, music recordings, books, computer software and on-line services are bought and sold because of the information and creativity they contain, not usually because of the plastic, metal or paper used to make them. Many products that used to be traded as low-technology goods or commodities now contain a higher proportion of invention and design in their value — for example brandnamed clothing or new varieties of plants.
Creators can be given the right to prevent others from using their inventions, designs or other creations — and to use that right to negotiate payment in return for others using them. These are “intellectual property rights”. They take a number of forms. For example books, paintings and films come under copyright; inventions can be patented; brandnames and product logos can be registered as trademarks; and so on. Governments and parliaments have given creators these rights as an incentive to produce ideas that will benefit society as a whole.
The extent of protection and enforcement of these rights varied widely around the world; and as intellectual property became more important in trade, these differences became a source of tension in international economic relations. New internationally-agreed trade rules for intellectual property rights were seen as a way to introduce more order and predictability, and for disputes to be settled more systematically.
The Uruguay Round achieved that. The WTO’s TRIPS Agreement is an attempt to narrow the gaps in the way these rights are protected around the world, and to bring them under common international rules. It establishes minimum levels of protection that each government has to give to the intellectual property of fellow WTO members. In doing so, it strikes a balance between the long term benefits and possible short term costs to society. Society benefits in the long term when intellectual property protection encourages creation and invention, especially when the period of protection expires and the creations and inventions enter the public domain. Governments are allowed to reduce any short term costs through various exceptions, for example to tackle public health problems. And, when there are trade disputes over intellectual property rights, the WTO’s dispute settlement system is now available.
The agreement covers five broad issues:
v How basic principles of the trading system and other international intellectual property agreements should be applied
v How to give adequate protection to intellectual property rights
v How countries should enforce those rights adequately in their own territories
v How to settle disputes on intellectual property between members of the WTO
v Special transitional arrangements during the period when the new system is being introduced.
Visit this Site:http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_E/trips_e/trips_e.htm#WhatAre
UNESCO – Copyright
Copyright and neighboring rights protection is essential for enhancing individual creativity, for the development of cultural industries and the promotion of cultural diversity. Rampant piracy and low level of enforcement of copyright laws destroy the incentives for the creation and distribution of local cultural products in all the countries of the world and reveal the need for concerted efforts to encourage creativity and to foster sustainable development.
