Intellectual Property Rights
Know which intellectual property right protects your work. Trade marks, copyrights and patents each cover a different kind of creation, and choosing the right one is what decides whether your work is actually protected.
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Enhance and protect your brand value with a trademark
A trademark represents the brand value or goodwill of a business. It covers a brand name, logo, symbol, device, numerals or any combination that can be represented graphically.
Trademark Registration
The first step to exclusive rights over your brand name, and the one that matters most: registration is what protects the mark rather than merely enhancing it.
Learn moreTrademark Objection Reply
An application passes through several stages of examination. If the Registry issues an examination report, your grounds have to be put back to it, or the mark does not proceed.
Learn moreTrademark Opposition
Found someone applying for a mark close to yours? An opposition is how you contest it. It is also what you answer if somebody opposes yours.
Learn moreTrademark Assignment
Transfer ownership, or the partial right to use your mark, to a third party. This is how brand value becomes an asset that can be sold or licensed rather than only defended.
Learn moreTrademark Renewal
Registration runs for ten years from the application date. Renew before it expires and the ownership rights continue uninterrupted.
Learn moreIs your brand name even available?
A search before you file is the cheapest step in the whole process. We will check the register and tell you what the mark is up against.
Secure your exclusive inventor rights with a patent
A patent grants the inventor the right to stop others dealing in the invention. Protection runs through a provisional filing and then a complete specification.
Patent Search
A patentability search looks for existing patents and other prior art close to your invention. Done by a patent attorney, before anything is filed, because it decides whether filing is worth it.
Learn moreProvisional Patent
Secures a filing date while the invention is still being worked on. It carries a detailed description and drawings, and it is filed before the complete specification.
Learn morePermanent Patent
The complete specification, which is the registration application itself. It describes the invention to its full extent, including the method of practising it.
Learn more
Give your creative work a legal backing
Copyright is an absolute and assignable right granted to the creator of an original work. It covers authorship of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works.
Copyright Registration
Copyright arises automatically and needs no formality. Registration is what gives you prima facie evidence in court when ownership is disputed, which is the moment it matters.
Learn moreNot sure it is copyright you need?
Software, a logo and a product design can each fall under a different right, and sometimes more than one. The table below sets the three apart.
Trademark, patent or copyright?
The three protect different things and are obtained in different ways. This is the comparison the live page answers in three sentences inside an FAQ.
| Attribute | Trademark | Provisional Patent | Permanent Patent | Copyright |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it covers | ||||
| Brand name and logoA logo, a design, packaging material, or the name of a business or company | InventionsA new invention idea, with a prototype | InventionsA new invention idea, with a prototype | Artistic worksAll types of original artistic, dramatic or musical work | |
| Governing Act | Trade Marks Act, 1999 | The Patents Act, 1970 | The Patents Act, 1970 | The Copyright Act, 1957 |
| How you get it | ||||
| MandatoryRequired to claim an exclusive right over the mark | MandatoryThere is no unregistered equivalent | MandatoryThere is no unregistered equivalent | OptionalCopyright arises on creation, but registration is what lets you sue | |
| NoDoes not require any provisional application | NoIt is the provisional application itself | OptionalA complete specification can be filed directly, or within 12 months of a provisional application | NoDoes not require any provisional application | |
| What it gives you | ||||
| Yes™ once the application is filed, ® once registered | NoThere is no symbol for a patent | NoThere is no symbol for a patent | Yes© | |
| 10 yearsRenewable every 10 years, with no limit on the number of renewals | 12 monthsThe complete specification must be filed inside that year, or it lapses | 20 yearsFrom the date of application, including the year of the provisional filing | Lifetime, plus 60 yearsThe creator’s lifetime, and 60 years after their death | |
| Next step | Know more | Know more | Know more | Know more |
Swipe the table sideways. Open any attribute to read the detail behind all 4 answers.
Common questions
Still have a question? Our team is happy to help, at no charge and with no obligation to buy anything.
What are Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)?
Intellectual property is intangible property that results from creativity and intellect. IPR is the set of rights that protects it.
The modes of protection are broader than most businesses need: patents, copyright, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications, the layout design of integrated circuits, undisclosed information such as trade secrets, and new plant varieties.
What is the difference between a copyright, a patent and a trademark?
A trademark is attached to a word or logo and secures your brand. Copyright protects original creative content such as books, music, video, or software. A patent secures a new invention or inventive process that is novel, useful and involves an inventive step.
The comparison table above sets out what each one covers, how long it lasts and what it costs to keep.
Is IPR registration mandatory for a business?
No. There is no requirement to register under intellectual property law.
What registration buys is exclusivity: the owner gains the right to stop others using the property without approval, and the legal standing to enforce it. That is the whole reason to register rather than rely on the unregistered position.
How is IPR registration economically beneficial?
Once registered, the owner can assign the right to use the mark, the copyrighted content or the patent for consideration. The assignment may be absolute or partial, and it may be limited to a stated term.
That is what turns a brand or an invention from something you defend into an asset you can license or sell.
Is registering my company name enough to secure trademark rights?
No, and this is the most costly assumption in this area. Registration of a company name, a business name or a domain name is not trademark registration, and none of the three stops the public using the name.
Only trademark registration gives the owner the exclusive right to exclude others from using the same or a similar brand name.
What is expected of a patentee in return?
Disclosure. The patentee has to set out every detail of the invention in the specification, so that the public can use and benefit from it once the patent expires, and can license it while it is in force.
That disclosure is the essential requirement of obtaining a patent at all.
How can a copyright be transferred?
A copyright can be assigned along any of three dimensions, separately or together:
- By territory, for the whole world or for a named country
- By time, for the full term of copyright or part of it
- By right, for all the rights making up the copyright or only some of them
What counts as the date of a patent?
The term runs from the date the application is filed. Where a provisional application is filed first, that is the date; where a complete specification is filed first, the term runs from it.
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Not sure which right protects your work?
Tell us what you have made and how you intend to use it. We will tell you which right applies, and whether more than one does.
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