The law of Intellectual Property seeks to protect
inventions, designs, products, names, logos, original art and
artistic works etc. which are used in trade and industry and are
of value to their originators, but cannot be considered to
constitute tangible property so as to be protected by the
relevant laws.
If a product is
introduced on the market
without securing any form of protection for the intellectual property in the
product, the risk exists that another party (e.g. a competitor) may copy
elements of the product forming part of the intellectual property, thus gaining
the benefit of those elements. In some instances it may be possible to enforce
intellectual property rights against the copying party, but in many other
instances it will not be possible or it may be difficult to enforce such rights
if they were not secured beforehand. The major benefit in acquiring statutory
protection for the intellectual property in the product is that the remedies
contained in the legislation can be used to enforce intellectual property rights
against any infringement of the intellectual property.The
legislation covering various categories of intellectual property grant the
proprietor of the intellectual property exclusive rights in respect of the
intangible elements contained in the product, which are generally not protected
by law, apart from laws relating specifically to intellectual property. It is
thus strongly recommended, before a new product is launched on the market, that
the benefits of intellectual property protection are obtained through
registration in terms of the appropriate legislation and/or that the proprietor
of the rights is appraised of such rights and the requirements for their
enforceability, so as to avoid the situation where either no rights will be
obtainable or the rights obtained may not be fully enforceable
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Patents
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