There are several different rights which fall under this general heading.  It is important to realise at the outset that although these rights are provided for under the laws of the State and in some cases require a registration process, responsibility for enforcement rests with the owner of the rights.  It is the owner who must take a civil action against an alleged infringer, not the State.

It is also important to realise that these are distinct rights covering different aspects of a product. Thus phrases such as “copyrighting a trade mark” or “patenting a copyright” are confused and essentially meaningless.

Patents

Patents are used to protect inventions, i.e. new products or processes containing a new principle or idea.  It is the product or process that is patented not the idea.

Copyright

Copyright, while originally intended to protect the authors of literary and dramatic and artistic works, has now been extended to include most forms of reproduction of original works and can cover a diverse range of products including software.

Registered Designs

Registered Designs give protection for the appearance of the whole or part of a product e.g. features of shape or contours of the product itself or its ornamentation.  Features dictated purely by function cannot be protected however.  Also it is the design applied to the product rather than the product itself that has protection.

A Design Right which does not have to be registered also exists.  This is a special purpose form of copyright in three dimensions.  It has existed in the UK for some years and provision for it in Ireland comes under an EU regulation that has been adopted into Irish legislation.

Trade Marks

Trade marks are distinctive names, marks or other features of products or services and are used to make a connection between the promotion of the goods or services and the supplier. They can acquire considerable importance and value because of the goodwill they protect.

Protection of Software

Protection of Software - software protection is still a rather grey area.  One can state certain general principles that have emerged from legislative developments, both statutory and case law.  One cannot however be definitive in any broad way.  The situation highlights the need to take specialist legal advice before proceeding.

Know-how is secret or proprietary information of commercial value.  It is protected not by any of the statutory legal systems above but by being kept secret.  

For more detailed information on the above please view the individual fact sheets on these topics.

Examples of use of different forms of Intellectual Property for the same product:

In deciding on forms of protection one must realise that the different forms of intellectual property apply to different aspects of a product.  One can visualise a situation where they would all be relevant to the same product. 

Take for instance a household vacuum cleaner. A design engineer may have developed a novel and inventive way of achieving a vacuum which is more effective and efficient than any earlier design.  This could be patented.  One might then design an outward casing for the machine which gives it a distinctive shape that makes it stand out from other models.  This could be protected by a registered design.  Marketing experts could come up with a distinctive name for the product and/or a catchy slogan for advertising.  These could be protected by trade marks and would also have some protection under copyright.  Distinctive packaging could attract either design and/or trade mark protection.  There would be various drawings used in the manufacturing process which would be copyright and could be regarded as secret knowhow.  The latter would also cover various aspects of the manufacturing process – special jigs, certain skills etc.

Terms of Cover

Costs of Protection/Legal Advice

Patents, registered designs and registered trademarks require to be registered in the Patents Office.  There are official fees relating to this process.  Since it is a specialised area, it is foolish not to use the services of a professional adviser (Patent and/or Trade Mark Agent) to deal with these matters, which will incurr professional fees.  Copyrights, unregistered design rights and know how do not require any registration and therefore do not have any costs associated with obtaining them.