Intellectual Property

 

Rights to intellectual property have been recognised for more than a century as a means of ensuring that "inventors" may enjoy a monopoly to exploit their work for a set period of time, depending on what was created or invented.

 

Information Technology is one of the most important areas of IP. In an age when even CDs can readily be copied on cheap equipment, the whole value of software is lost if rights to it as intellectual property cannot be established.

 

A wide variety of means are available to protect IP, ranging from the assertion copyright, seeking a patent, or registering a design, trade- or service- mark and, increasingly, a domain name. It is important to consider whether it is adequate to protect the invention in the UK only, in Europe or the rest of the world as well.

 

We can advise on exploitation of IP before formal registration and has considerable experience in representing both the inventors of new IP and those who exploit it and of working with Chartered Patent Agents and other non-legal specialists in the field.

 

IP Licencing

 

If you grant someone an IP licence you give that person permission to use your IP. Without the licence, such use would be an infringement of your IP. The person who grants the licence is usually called the licensor, and the person who benefits the licensee.

 

A common example of an IP licence is the one you receive whenever you buy a copy of software.

 

Why might I license my IP or take a licence of IP?

 

Some examples are:

 

To generate revenue: An owner of IP may commercialise the IP itself and may obtain additional income by licensing the IP to someone else to commercialise it in a different field.

 

To increase market penetration: An owner of IP may license another business to sell in territories that the owner cannot cover.

 

To reduce costs: A business may get its products or services to market more quickly by acquiring a licence to use existing IP, instead of re-inventing the wheel.

 

Contact Aberdeen Office
Tom Rennie	01224 428000
Angus Easton	01224 428216