What to do with its intellectual property is always a tricky issue when developing or running a business. Is it really important and relevant? Does it really deserve to be protected? Is it worth money? Are we putting too much emphasis on this topic? These are a few of the questions that company owners and business developers may ask themselves, often without any clear answer.
In fact, intellectual property (IP) covers creations of the mind. Hence, any type of creation such as literary or artistic works, designs, images, names, logos, computer codes, inventions, etc. is considered as IP.
As long as this IP fulfils specific criteria, it is susceptible to be protected under the IP legal regime, with specific IP rights according to the nature of the creation.
And this point is crucial for companies and entrepreneurs as their creations or inventions are what they intend to build their business on. This is the reason why they must be particularly careful to ensure that they are able to exploit their IP by themselves and by the way they want, in order to get compensated for their efforts and work.
This is what IP rights are actually about; establishing the framework to allow or deny others to exploit creations and inventions. The following IP titles may be applicable:
- Trade marks, composed of words, logos, slogans, sounds and even smells, used to identify products or services
- Designs, for the appearance of products
- Patents, to protect technical inventions
- Copyright, which covers all original and creative works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression.
For example, poems, plays, musical works, drawings, photographs, architectural works and buildings, texts, software codes, etc.
Note that the famous concepts of copyleft and creative commons that are regularly used especially in the IT world, are also part of the IP game. They are just a form of Term and Conditions of use and other options can be available.
To gain a better understanding of the IP at stake for your business, do not hesitate to get in touch with the Institut de la Propriété Intellectuelle Luxembourg (IPIL G.I.E.), which provides free of charge coaching sessions (Boost IP coaching) as well as an online IP pre-diagnosis to guide you further in the topic.
You can also benefit from the SME Fund scheme initiated by the European Commission and the European Union Intellectual Property Office, which offers reimbursement of up to 75% of IP rights registration costs in 2022.
The SME fund initiative developed by the European Commission and the European Union Intellectual Property Office provides a reimbursement of up to 75% on IP rights registrations through a 4-step process:
In Luxembourg, the initiative is supported by the Intellectual Property Office of the ministry of the Economy (Office de la propriété intellectuelle, ministère de l’Economie), the Institut de la Propriété Intellectuelle Luxembourg, and the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property.
For more information on IP and/or the SME Fund, you can contact either the IPIL G.I.E, at [email protected] or the Office de la propriété intellectuelle, ministère de l’Economie, at [email protected].
Editor’s note: This article is brought to you by IPIL and reflects only the opinion of the author.
