5 IP Ownership Disputes Businesses Should Anticipate
All employers must be aware that your company may lose a lot of the money you have invested in a profitable idea or invention if you did not take the necessary steps to secure your rights.List of 5 IP Ownership Disputes Businesses Should Anticipate
Trademark registration in the Philippines can be easily overlooked. Businesses should not assume that they automatically own the intellectual property rights even when they're done by an employee who used the company’s finances and resources.
Although according to the laws, the trademark automatically goes to the company, having an employee go after his “rights” for having conceptualized an idea that earned well for the company can cause a lot of inconvenience for you and your team.
Aside from Trademarks, there are other forms of intellectual properties that you need to be aware of and secure the rights for, if necessary, as each IP’s ownership is determined differently.
1. Copyright
Copyright refers to the Intellectual Property ownership for published works, both in traditional form or digital, such as literary compositions, written materials, graphic works, scripts, recorded songs, sculptural works, and choreographic words annotated or documented in video.
Freelancers, by law, automatically own their works unless they have signed an agreement to relinquish their rights to them to another.
For example, you hired a freelance graphic artist to design a logo for one of your clients. The rights to that logo design automatically goes to the graphic artist unless he had signed the design off to the company it was created for or to you.
However, if the graphic artist is part of your regular-salaried staff and designing logos for clients is part of the scope of his job, then you own the design. The client may only acquire the rights through a written agreement with you.
2. Domain names
You should know that the rules in domain name registration is independent of your work agreement with whomever you work with.
For example, some companies ask their web developers to secure their domain names for their websites for them. If the web developer bought the domain names under their name, without a written agreement that all rights to the domain names go to the company, the ownership belongs to the web developer.
Sometimes, website hosting providers include securing domain names in the services they offer. There is a big chance that the domain names will be bought under the names of the providers, therefore, giving them the ownership to these domain names.
3. Patentable Inventions
Patentable Inventions usually refer to machines, industrial processes and products that “provides a technical solution to a problem.”
For example, you run a farm and one of your staff has managed to put together a machine that improves production using the company’s finances and other resources. This invention can be adapted by other agricultural organizations to advance the country’s state of agriculture as a whole.
By law, ownership of patent belongs to the inventor while the company that commissioned or funded the invention is given limited rights of free use, otherwise termed as “shop right.”
Full rights to the invention and use can be transferred through a contractual agreement between the inventor and the employer or company.
4. Trademarks
Intellectual Property of the Philippines defines trademarks as the signs representing a brand by which consumers will identify their goods and products.
Examples of Trademarks include the Jollibee trademark sign you will find in the boxes of their big sandwiches or the San Miguel trademark sign on the bottle of the popular Pale Pilsen.
Even though the concept for the trademark was by an employee, by law, the trademark maintains its ownership. Just make sure that this is clear to the people involved in the process to avoid any confusion later on.
5. Trade Secrets
Trade Secrets are the information that makes for the success of the company. These are the secret processes, procedures, agreements, contracts, and other confidential data that are valuable and vital to the company.
Although this should be common knowledge in the corporate environment, you should still take reasonable steps to ensure the security of these information and data.
For example, there are certain negotiations underway with specific requirements from the potential clients. Access to the contracts, documents and files must be kept among those involved. This action hints to the other employees that this information is confidential and must not be disclosed to anyone outside the company.
You should also ask those whom you will hire, especially freelancers who work with you from project to project, such as content writers or illustrators, to sign non-disclosure contracts. This way, you have forewarned them of the legal sanctions that they will have to face if ever they violate the stipulations in their contracts.
By doing this, you are securing your company under the Uniform Trade Secrets Acts that only protects you if you do your part in securing your company’s information.
Secure Your Intellectual Property Rights on All Fronts
Be aware of what may possibly happen and make sure that you have all sides covered when it comes to Intellectual Properties. Work only with people who can be trusted, or simply keep confidential information inaccessible to those who have no business with it.
Securing your IP rights have a lot of benefits for the company, aside from just restricting your employees from exploiting them at your expense.
For instance, in the case of trademarks, registering it can help you avoid having to go through unnecessary changes.
Without legal rights to your trademark, other companies might beat you to it and demand you to change yours. You will then have to go through the tedious process of reintroducing your brand and applying the changes which you could have avoided. Doing this may also compromise your corporate affiliations and partnerships with investors who may perceive your company as unstable and lacking in preventive security measures that may cost them.
And most importantly, by registering your trademark, you are securing your brand reputation from those who may use it inappropriately and without your authorization.
The Philippine laws on Intellectual Properties is similar to that of the United States, but you can always refer to the IPO website if you want to double-check the facts.
The process for registering your trademark is meticulously detailed, from the application to the examination procedures, publication and renewal, and will entail a lot of work and time from you. Finding assistance from a company that is already familiar with the requirement and the procedures will save you valuable time and cost in the long run.
Visit us via: Facebook || Twitter || Full-Suite
Author’s bio:
Danella Yaptinchay is the managing director of Full Suite, a service company providing back end support to small businesses. She is a cofounder of Co.lab, a coworking space, and of the media company Homegrown. In constant pursuit of balance and self-development, she tries to apply the practices of yoga to her daily life.
If this article helped you, share this in your friends on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Just click any of the buttons above. Sharing is giving. Salamat po!
