View Source: MeetingTopics.2005-07-25 - Waikato Linux Users Group

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! WLUG Meeting - 25 July 2005

__Location:__ University of Waikato, [LitB]%%%
__Time:__ 7pm


Denise Tyrer-Harding of [Pipers|http://www.pipers.co.nz/] spoke to the WLUG about IntellectualProperty within NewZealand.

Denise outlined the 4 major forms of Intellectual Property protection:
* Copyright
* Design Registration
* Patents
* Trademarks

!!Copyright in New Zealand
* Free and automatic to the creator.
* Need evidence that you're the creator - "© year" on the work, and a "development record" is useful
* Does not protect against someone else independently coming up with the same thing.
* Copyright given to an entity - an individual person, a company, or an incorporated society.
* industrial copyright - 16 years from the date of the 50th model created from the design.
* written copyright - 100 years from the date of the creator's death

!!Design Registration
For hardware; lasts 15 years. Requires application to the Patent Office. This covers how a device looks, not its functionality.

!!Patents
Until recently, software could not be patented in NZ at all.
The key clause is "method of manufacture", and this has been re-interpreted to (sometimes?) include software when combined with hardware.
NZ is a signatory to the Patent Cooperation Treaty - 18 months of protection in ~~100 countries.

In NZ, patents last for 20 years. The benefit of the doubt (during application) goes to the patentee, because there are methods for revocation -- IPONZ review and judicial review.


!!Trademark
* For product identification
* not "lauditary" - ie, generally can't trademark names, placenames, sports clubs, etc.
* Trademarks not limited to words - the Harley-Davidson "sound", specific colours (eg the yellow used by the yellow pages or by ~McDonalds).
* Common law trademark is based on local reputation, and does not require registration.
* Registered trademark is national.

!!Other
* Trade secrets, "know-how"
* circuit boards
* Patent application process
* 85% of many companies is now "intangibles" -- brand value, trademarks, etc.

!!General Discussion/Q-and-A session
* moral/ethical aspects of patents
* drug patents
* cheaper to license a patent and get on with life than fight a bad patent
* employment contracts claiming rights to any employee's ideas.
* funny patents

One page links to MeetingTopics.2005-07-25:

MeetingTopics.2005

Last edited on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 7:55:21 pm by JohnMcPherson

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