Nearly every day, we hear warnings about counterfeit products and the harm they can cause to the public. For example, in the “put the brakes on fakes” campaign, U.S. Homeland Security investigators, in collaboration with the U.S. Customers and Border Protection and several other agencies, recently warned consumers about unsafe and potentially deadly counterfeit auto parts, including airbags.
“Fraud in a bottle” is potentially just as deadly; it ranges from the sale of counterfeit drugs for cancer treatments and harmful pharmaceuticals sold through fake online pharmacies to unauthorized glucose test strips used at home.
Certainly, not all examples of counterfeit or fake products cause physical harm. An consumer may have purchased a knock-off designer bag, or may have downloaded software from an authorized site, or streamed copyrighted content on an unauthorized platform.
But in all cases, the unauthorized use, exploitation, or outright theft of an organization’s trade secrets, patents, trademarks, and copyrights are unlawful.
What is intellectual property law?
Intellectual property law is the discipline of law that protects and establishes the rights to intellectual creations, including inventions, designs, brands, artwork, writing, music, movies, and even ideas. The primary goals of IP law are to protect inventors from improper competitive activities, and to encourage investment and/or creativity by rewarding innovation.
Why is intellectual property law important?
Intellectual property (IP) violations can be dangerous because they can threaten the U.S. economy, public health and safety, and even national security. For example, harmful counterfeit goods could be introduced into the market (while supporting illegal labor practices), misleading consumers as to the value or country of origin of imported goods can cause other harm.
Not only can intellectual property law violations cause physical harm; they also can damage individuals, businesses, and governments that have invested substantial time and resources to develop their intellectual property. At scale, violations also undermine innovation and economic growth. Without IP protection, others are free to replicate or use inventions or creations without the owner’s consent, diminishing—or removing altogether–the incentive to innovate.
In fact, there is a positive correlation between IP rights, promulgated by intellectual property law, and economic performance, though there is continued debate around how intellectual property laws can be “reimagined” to adapt to fast-changing global economics.
What is protected under intellectual property law?
Intellectual property law offers the following types of protection:
- Copyright law protects the rights of owners of their works in art, publishing, software, and entertainment, and protects them if others copy, use, or display the owner’s work without permission.
- Trademark law protects a design, symbol, word, or phrase used by an entity to identify its product or service (for example, McDonald’s golden arch, Izod’s alligator logo, and Apple’s apple logo).
- Patent law protects new inventions, including products, processes, or designs, and protects patent owners from others producing, using, distributing, or importing the products.
- Trade secrets are business practices, designs, processes, or formulas used for competitive advantage (for example, the formula for Gatorade or Tylenol, or the knowledge required to produce biologics).
What acts violate intellectual property law?
There are many ways intellectual property laws can be violated, and different levels of intention. Sometimes violations are inadvertent. Someone prints copies of someone else’s written work without permission, uses an online photograph without licensing rights in a blog, uses music without express authorization by the artist in a video, or accidentally sends an email that contains a trade secret to the wrong person.
Intentional violation can happens in a number of ways, from misappropriation of trade secrets and counterfeiting to academic plagiarism and infringement on websites and social media sites.
Which bodies govern intellectual property law?
In the United States, multiple agencies are responsible for enforcing intellectual property rights. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the government agency that oversees intellectual property laws, and enforce IP rights in the U.S. and internationally. In addition to the USPTO, the U.S. Copyright Office, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Customers and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative all play a role in domestic IP protection and enforcement.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement (IPE) oversees the effective protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights around the world, helping deter access to counterfeit and pirated products that can harm consumers, and ensuring that U.S. citizen IP rights holders are protected abroad.
In some industries, such as pharmaceuticals, both USPTO and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) laws govern pharma patents. For example, the FDA provides a five year exclusivity for a new chemical entity used in a drug, rewarding the innovator for all of the R&D effort and expenses of bringing a new drug to market. (Unlike other U.S. agencies, it does not have enforcement responsibility).
There are a host of international intellectual property laws that have set the standards for protecting IP rights and trade-related IP rules. While IP laws differ from country to country, several international treaties and agreements set standards for IP protection. These include the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva; the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (an international IP treaty signed in Paris in 1883); the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (adopted in 1886); and, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which is considered the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on IP.
The future of intellectual property law
Current IP laws are designed to protect creators and inventors from having their work copied or otherwise exploited without their authorization. With ever-changing global economies, an increasingly online marketplace, innovation in technology and AI, intellectual property laws may very well evolve to address constantly changing times.
UnitedLex helps companies and law firms of all sizes effectively align their IP strategies to their business realities, resulting in measurable value. To learn more, lets’ talk.
