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Patent
A patent is a monopoly granted to an inventor by the government,
securing him/her the exclusive right to manufacture, exploit,
use and sell the patented invention. While there is some homogeneity
internationally, there are differences in patent laws and
regulations for almost every country. Not all countries are
signatory to the various international treaties dealing with
intellectual property rights on a worldwide scale.
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Trade-mark
A trade-mark is a word, symbol, picture, logo, design or shaping
of goods, or a combination of these elements, used to distinguish
the goods or services of one person or organisation from those
of others in the marketplace. A trade-mark allows its owner
exclusive use of that mark to be identified with certain goods
or services for a prescribed and renewable period of time.
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Copyright
The exclusive right to publish and sell a literary, musical,
artistic or electronic work. Copyright laws protect the expression
of ideas and facts, not the facts or ideas themselves. A work
has copyright protection as soon as it is created. It does
not need to be registered or published. Copyrighted works
are protected for the life of the author, plus 50 years, after
which the work enters the public domain and can be used by
anyone.
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Due Diligence
The process by which an investor, underwriter, lawyer or auditor
gathers and verifies the accuracy of data pertaining to acquisitions,
mergers or divestitures. In the case of intellectual property,
due diligence is exercised to determine the value and possible
risk associated with a company's intellectual property portfolio.
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License
Agreements Generally
A license agreement is an agreement entered into between the
owner(s) of intellectual assets and a third party, or parties,
which permits the third party to legally benefit from the
ability to make, use and sell the intellectual property of
another. The legal title of the rights of the intellectual
property remains with the licensor.
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Exclusive
License Agreement
An exclusive license agreement is a legal document, licensing
an intellectual asset or assets to a third party for their
exclusive use. The intellectual asset(s) cannot be licensed
to any other party for any use, nor can the intellectual asset(s)
be used by the licensor.
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Non-Exclusive
License Agreement
A non-exclusive license agreement is a legal document that
entitles a third party or parties to make, use and/or sell
the intellectual assets of the patent holder for use in a
defined field. The intellectual asset(s) may be licensed to
additional parties for use in fields other than the ones specified
in previously executed license agreements.
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Cross-Licenses
Under certain circumstances, for example, if two or more parties/individuals
hold patents for inventions that share common subject matter,
they will not be able to work their inventions without the
permission of the other party. In situations like this, the
most common solution is to cross-license the technologies
between the parties.
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Non
Disclosure/Confidentiality Agreement
In the field of biotechnology for instance, NDAs are frequently
used to protect information regarding technology that a disclosing
party may give to a receiving party in order to interest the
receiving party in the technology for purposes which may include,
for example, a license or purchase of the technology. NDAs
are also frequently used in conjunction with other agreements
including, for example, research agreements, license agreements,
and material transfer agreements.
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Non-Disclosure
Agreements
A Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), or confidentiality agreements
as they are alternatively referred to, are agreements that
govern what a receiving party may do with protected information
received from the disclosing party, who is typically the owner
or licensee of the information being disclosed. These agreements
describe the nature of the information being disclosed; the
purpose for which it is disclosed; the uses to which the information
may be put and place an obligation on the receiving party
to keep the information confidential for a specified period
of time.
NDAs are recommended whenever proprietary
information is being disclosed that is not publicly available,
particularly in instances where information is being disclosed
regarding patentable technology for which patent protection
has not yet been sought.
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Material
Transfer Agreements
Material transfer agreements (MTAs) are agreements that govern
the use of material which is being supplied by one party,
typically the owner of the material, to another party for
a particular use, for example, evaluation of the material,
licensing of the material, or research. Such material may
include for example, cells, cell lines, cultures, pharmaceutical
compounds or compositions, transgenic animals, plasmids, bacteria,
proteins, as well as other materials.
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Litigation
The act of bringing a dispute before a court of law, engaging
in legal action or lawsuit.
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Alternative
Dispute Resolution
Methods for resolving problems without going to court. The
most common forms of alternative dispute resolution (sometimes
referred to as appropriate dispute resolution) are mediation,
arbitration, conciliation and a combination of mediation and
arbitration called “med-arb” (in which the mediator
will decide the issues for the parties if they fail to reach
agreement in the mediation).
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Trade-secrets
A trade-secret is a pattern, formula or other information
used exclusively by one company to create or deliver goods
and services. The defining qualities of a trade-secret are
that it is not generally known in the trade or easily ascertainable,
it is of commercial value, and it is kept secret by way of
specific steps taken by the owner. The cost is lower in terms
of protection, but its value is great because should information
of your pattern or formula reach the public domain, patent
protection may be worthless.
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Industrial
Design
An industrial design is a form of protection provided for
features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament which
are applied to a finished article made by any number of methods
including hand, tool or machine. The design aspects and functional
aspects of an article are considered separately according
to Canadian law and therefore one cannot list a function of
an article as an element of an industrial design.
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