Running Head: Intellectual Property1

Institution

Name

Date
Intellectual Property

QUESTION ONE

1 a)

Utility Patents is the law that is imposed to protect the structure, composition or the

functionality of the new invention. The utility patent is majorly used to protect a physical

device, a guide that can equally be employed to protect invention like software or newly found

production methods. The scope of the utility patent majorly depends on the claim of the one

filling for the patent. This normally lasts for 20 years.

A design patent is on the other side used to protect the parts of the invention that are not

functional. This could be an ornamental feature of the product. This protects the outlook or

even the cooler of one's product. This normally lasts for 14 years. The lid that Sally has invented

thus dully falls under the utility patent. The aspect of the new plastic invention is however

protected under the design patent.

1b)

In a bid to protect their patents in Canada, US and Europe, based on the law, they do not have

to file for patents in each and every country. They only need to file for their international

patent ownership after filing for patent ownership in a member country that is partisan to the

Patent Cooperation Treaty. Under this treaty the patent cooperation advocates for a uniform

filing and protection of the patent rights. The application is called an international application

and would thus ensure that the patent is well guarded in all the member states. An

international application in itself does not grant patent to a claim as there is no such thing as an
Intellectual Property

international patent. PCT applications must then be followed by appropriate regional and

national procedures towards the grant of the patent.

1c)

New rules in different countries stand to uphold reverse engineering and the information you

get from your research engineering project can be legally held by you. If their product can be

determined by reverse engineering, they have no cause to worry. This is because under the law,

reverse engineering can only be used for research purposes and one is prohibited to use the

reverse engineering process to discover or duplicate a product and claim patent to it. If the

product cannot be determined by reverse engineering. They are well protected from

complications that could result from an act of other entities putting a patent claim to their

invention. The answer in 1b would thus stand as it is as it will not be adversely affected by

reverse engineering.

1 d)

Patents are intellectual properties thus Dan cannot claim to be the inventor. Sally claims the

intellectual right to the property thus is dully the inventor. Patent are given as an intellectual

property. According to law, intellectual property is a work or invention that comes as a result of

creativity, to which one has a right on and may thus apply for patent. Unless upon working on

creating the patent, they combinedly thought of further modifications on the product and

jointly contributed towards it. If that is not the case, Dan cannot claim to be the inventor as the

idea is solely Sally’s idea.

1 e)
Intellectual Property

It is a general rule that an employer owns the right to intellectual property that is created by

their employees during their employment. Intellectual property that is created by employee

that does not go hand in hand with the employment activities is solely the employees. During a

working tenure on any company, if the mentioned company funds both intellectual and

materialistic they have a right to patent the product. However, based on the invention that is

nowhere nears to the field of operation of the above-named company, the company cannot

claim the patent right to the product. They did not fund or help develop the project.

1f)

The patent is novel because of the design; it will thus dully be protected under the utility patent

without any legal impediment. The patent scope is wide due to the colossal nature of

inventions. Under this, Sally has a legal right to claim for the utility patent of the lid,

1 g)

According to the patent law, novelty essentially refers to the originality of an idea. A patent is

only rewarded if the idea is totally original. The claim is novel because as much as the claims

tend to serve a specified purpose, they are different in terms of structure.

1h)

These claims can be proved based on the parameters set on proving design patent. In the case

where they are the sole inventors of the composition of the lead then they have a right to the
Intellectual Property

patent. The plastic they have used to develop their product is their own invention thus the claim

is valid and can be filed under design patent.

i)

The patent enforcement project involves one identifying the type of patent protection one

needs. The owner of the invention then has to ascertain if the invention is patent. After

determining the particular protection, they want they submit their full application. Under this

period the product is labeled pending. The inventor thus works with examiner to approve the

claims. On approval the Inventor is awarded the patent. On approval, the patent owner has all

the legal rights to institute legal measures against those infringing his patent rights.

1j)

The owner of an intellectual property has to first determine the protection that they need and

if the invention is patent. After determining they patent that they need they apply and submit

their initial application. During this period the product is labeled as pending patent approval.

They thus work with the examiner until proving the patent is their and being awarded the right

to that particular intellectual property. The first approach would be through non-infringement,

here the accused will try to argue that the defendant no longer uses or sell the patented

version of the product. The next approach under the Canadian law would see the accused try to

invalidate the patent arguing that the patent shouldn’t have been granted in view of prior.
Intellectual Property

The whole process of invalidating patent rights is also called patent impeachment,

through this, the would-impeacher uses different legal parameters in a bid to prove the patent

is invalid. These parameters include, a non -infringement defense claiming the invention is no

longer in use, asserting that the issuance of the patent was invalid or by employing user right

and statutory based defenses.

k)

This is among the special cases according to the Canadian law, based on the section 10 of the

patent act, if the infringement occurs after the application has gone public, the accused will

suffer the full hand of the law and is liable to pay for the damages as any other infringer would

do. The Canadian law recently suggests that a limitation period of less than six years could

apply to a cause of action for patent infringement in Canada if all the elements of that action

occur in a single province with a shorter than six-year provincial limitation period.

l)

In cases of patent infringement. The patent owner has a legal right to enact infringement

action in a court. If the lawsuit goes through the patent owner will be paid for the damages and

the person infringing will receive court order preventing further infringement. He is also likely

to pay for damages caused to the patent owner during the course of infringement.

m)
Intellectual Property

In the event of a failing company, they could hammer agreements with interested parties in a

bid to be paid royalties in a bid to raise more cash for the company. In cases of bankruptcy

there are very many ways to leverage patent for financial gains. One can take advantage of the

buyers’ market in the IP acquisition. One can also secure IP based debt funding on favorable

terms. One can also license their IP in a bid to generate revenue. One can also invest the IP in

lucrative new opportunities that have large return on investments.

References

Anon, (n.d.). Intellectual property: Copyright, trademarks and patents. [online] Available at:

https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/intellectual_property [Accessed 2018].

Anon, (n.d.). Laws, regulations, policies, procedures, guidance and .... [online] Available at:

https://www.uspto.gov/patent/laws-regulations-policies-procedures-guidance-and-training

[Accessed 2018].

Anon, (n.d.). Patent | Wex Legal Dictionary / Encyclopedia | LII / Legal .... [online] Available at:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/patent [Accessed 2018].

Anon, (n.d.). Trademark and Copyright Law. [online] Available at:

http://www.trademarkandcopyrightlawblog.com/ [Accessed 2018].

Anon, (n.d.). Trademark, Patent, or Copyright? | USPTO. [online] Available at:

https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-getting-started/trademark-basics/trademark-patent-or-

copyright [Accessed 2018].

Anon, (n.d.). United States patent law - Wikipedia. [online] Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_patent_law [Accessed 2018].