Introduction to Patents and Design

Course Overview

The protection of new products and processes is of key importance to many innovative sectors of industry. Intellectual property laws ensure that inventors and designers, who create products with novel appearance or functions, or who conceive new industrial processes, are able to obtain a reward for their efforts.

This course, which supplements our Introduction to Intellectual Property course, provides a detailed description of the patent system, identifying the pitfalls that await the unwary and the benefits that flow from securing the strongest protection for an invention, and the methods of protecting industrial designs. While the emphasis is on domestic law, consideration is also given to the increasingly important European Community dimension and other international aspects of protection.

Course Outline

OUTLINE OF THE PATENT SYSTEM

• The Patents Act 1977
• The European Patent Convention
• The Community Patent

PATENTABILITY

• Novelty
• State of the art
• Inventive step
• Industrial application
• Exclusions

PROCEDURE

OUTLINE OF DESIGN PROTECTION

• The Registered Designs Act and the Community design system
• Unregistered design right in the UK and EC
• Copyright protection for industrial designs

REGISTRATION IN THE UK AND THE EC

• Subject matter
• Procedure for registration
• Ownership
• Exclusive rights
• Duration
• Infringement
• Licensing of right

UNREGISTERED DESIGN RIGHT IN THE UK

• Subject matter
• Originality and exceptions
• Ownership
• Duration of protection
• Infringement
• Licensing of right

COMMUNITY UNREGISTERED DESIGN RIGHT