Intellectual Property

Confidential Information can be vital to the success and growth of a business and it needs protecting. Therefore, it is critical that all those interacting with your business together with your employees and consultants are contractually bound to treat all such information confidentially.

The law acts to provide protection for confidential information and it is well established that an individual who has received information in confidence cannot take unfair advantage of it and cannot disclose that information or make use of it for any purpose other than that for which he has authority. It will not always be clear if information is in fact confidential as considered by law but the general rule is that to be protected, the information must be confidential in nature and be disclosed in circumstances importing an obligation of confidence.

The types of information that a court may well consider to be confidential include financial and statistical information, customer lists, plans, sketches and drawings, business plans and methods, computer programs and improvements to products or processes.

We have considerable experience of drafting confidentiality agreements and contracts of employment to protect your legal position. If confidential information is under threat, we can obtain injunctions from the court that will protect your confidential information.

Copyright is a right to prevent copying. Unlike trademarks and patents, copyright is an unregistered intellectual property right, which means that it arises automatically upon creation of the work without a need to formally register the work.

Copyright does not protect an idea, but rather the expression of that idea, especially in literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. In addition it protects sound recordings, films, broadcasts, computer programs and databases

In summary, the skill and labour invested in a creation is protected. This means that business letters, websites, company logos, advertising leaflets, photographs, charts, sales brochures, manufacturing drawings, plans can all fall within the definition of copyright work.

Copyright allows the owner of a copyright work to control the use of its original work and to commercially exploit the work by assigning (transferring) or licensing the work.

We have experience of advising business and individuals in this area to protect their copyright works and ensure they are exploited appropriately.

Database rights include intranets, back off systems, purchase order systems, websites, document management systems and contact lists. A database is a valuable asset that businesses are increasingly looking to exploit in their own right. Since the implementation of the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997, database rights have been protected. A Database Right lasts for 15 years, but if the database attracts copyright it is protected for 70 years.

If your database is under threat, we can move to obtain an injunction from the court to protect your data. We are often instructed to secure the return of data or a database from a former employee or director who has set up or joined a competing business.

A trademark entitles the owner to a monopoly over the use of that mark for the classes of goods and/or services for which it is registered. Trademarks are governed by the European Law and protect against the use of the mark and the use of the trademarks to protect the value of brands and to prevent others from obtaining an unfair advantage from associations with successful brands.

The Law Department has experience and knowledge in the exploitation and protection of trademarks and domain name disputes.

A patent is a registered intellectual property right which gives an inventor a monopoly right to prevent third parties from making, importing or marketing a product or process which incorporates the invention without consent.

A patent may only be granted to an invention if:

• It is new
• It involves an inventive step
• It is capable of industrial application

Businesses should be aware that disclosure to third party prior to a patent application being filed could invalidate the application (even if it has not been commercially exploited). If the patent is granted, the invention can be protected for 20 years from its filing date.

A transfer or licensing of a patent to a third party on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis can be lucrative for the patent holder. The Law Department has experience of drafting patent related contracts including licensing agreements, research and development agreements, co-operation agreements, distribution agreements and non-disclosure agreements.­­­­­­­

The terms “trade secret” and “know- how” both refer to commercial confidential information. Under European legislation know-how is defined as “a package of information resulting from experience and testing which is secret, substantial and identified”. Many businesses will also have a body of knowledge which they consider to be highly commercially sensitive and comprising a “trade secret”. The key to the value of know-how is accordingly the maintenance of that secrecy.

If the requirements of confidentiality are met, “know-how” may qualify for protection in UK law by using the law of confidential information. The law of confidential information can be used to protect that which is not capable of being protected by other intellectual property rights. The law of confidential information provides indefinite protection.

Businesses will require advice as to how to deal with the transfer and licensing of know- how. The Law Department can provide advice with regard to the appropriate exploitation, licensing and protection of know-how.

Design rights can protect the external appearance of products or their three dimensional shape. Design rights can protect a shape from being copied, whether that shape is dictated by aesthetic or purely functional reasons. A registered design right is also a monopoly right, which allows the holder the exclusive right to stop the use of the design on any products.