Trademark and IP infringement

Using someone else’s intellectual property and the outcomes.

On the occasion that one may be interested in using someone else’s intellectual property, IP, it is normal to be able to either buy from them the rights to use it, or to gain their permission to use it.

This could also happen accidently if you happened to incorporate another business’ trade mark into your own.

This is necessary otherwise you could be involved in ‘Intellectual Property Infringement’, which includes using someone else’s copyright, design, patent or trade mark without them giving you permission to do so.  Infringement is ‘a legal term for an act that means breaking the law’, and could be seen as a criminal offence.

The most common case of ‘Criminal IP Infringement’ is ‘counterfeiting’ or ‘piracy’. This is when you manufacture, distribute or sell products, which have the trade mark or design belonging to another company. With ‘counterfeiting’, it is for the gain of profit, whereas ‘piracy’ doesn’t have to have an outcome of any profit.

Some examples that could be taking place in your workplace:

-          Copies of protected work being sold by employees in their work place.

-          Unlicensed software being used on business computer systems under the knowledge of management.

Undertaking any form of ‘Criminal IP infringement’ will lead to Trading Standards getting involved by enforcing the criminal IP laws, and in addition, there would also be some input from the rights’ owners and the police.

IP crime could lead to you and your company being fined for up to £50,000 and possibly a custodial sentence of a maximum 10 years. Depending on the crime, it would also majorly affect the reputation of your business.

However, it is unlikely this is what would happen to you, and the most likely case would be that you would be dealt with the civil law, which deals with much smaller cases and thus sentences and outcomes.

So, our advice would be to make sure you are avoiding anything to do with ‘IP infringement’ by making sure when you are getting involved with trade marks, you ‘stay legal’ by not taking any risks, and sticking to procedures.

If you are unsure of what to do, you should get legal help and advice.

Trademarkroom.com

Written by Eloise Cleeter

Yr10 Pupil at Priestlands School

Lymington