How can an intellectual property lawyer help me?
If your company has a brand name, or a logo, or you have spent years building up the business by developing a particular product, invention or an artistic work then you could certainly be in the market for the services of an intellectual property lawyer. In relation artists, intellectual property law protects artists work through copyright. In Australia, there is no need for copyright registration, you can simply claim copyright as the result of being the author of the original work. If you wish to remind people that the work does have copyright claimed over it you can place a small c with a circle around it on the work and state that there be no unauthorised reproduction of the original work. This emphasises your intellectual property rights and warns potential copyright violators that you will claim your property rights in the work if there is a challenge.
If you are the inventor of the device which is original and only you can claim to be the developer of the device then you may be able to register a patent over the device. A patent is a legal right which prevents others from developing and selling commercially the same technology which you have developed for a limited period of time. In western developed countries, this limit is normally between 10 and 20 years. However this is normally more than enough time to get the product to market and to make substantial commercial profits from a new invention which is popular. If competitors attempt to copy a patented product, there are serious penalties imposed by the trademarks and patents act in Australia.
If your company has a particular image, or association with its business which is unique then it may be possible to protect this is a trademark. A trademark is a symbol, in each, or representation which a legal person can own as property and prevent others from using without their consent. There are many commercial symbols which have trademark rights attached to them such as McDonald’s symbol, the Coca-Cola symbol, the Telstra symbol and symbols of many other companies which have protected their rights using trademark law. To register a trademark, it needs to be registered with intellectual property Australia which is a devoted government agency to protection of trademark. If you have any questions about trademark law you can contact a lawyer using the chat button to the right.
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