UKZN Hosts Webinar on Intellectual Property Rights

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UKZN InQubate’s Technology Transfer Office (TTO), which is responsible for the identification, protection, use and commercialisation of intellectual property (IP), presented a virtual workshop on intellectual property rights.

UKZN alumnus and partner in the patent department of Adams & Adams Attorneys, Mr Vishen Pillay, hosted the event designed to educate the UKZN community about IP and how to protect it.

Describing IP as a tangible asset created by human beings for economic value, Pillay said the law protected various forms of IP such as trademarks, patents, copyright, design rights, know-how, trade secrets and plant breeders’ rights.

He said a patent was an instrument used to protect inventions and discussed key requirements needed for an invention to be patented which include being inventive and novel. Examining the exclusions of patents in South Africa, Pillay noted how applications differed from country to country.

Pillay examined the patent of the PageRank technology (a method used to analyse the relationships between websites and rank them according to relevance) owned by Stanford University in the United States and which Google has exclusive rights to. He also explored the ownership of patents, highlighting how inventions created by staff members during the course and scope of their employment positions belong to the employer.

He explained how ‘a registered design can protect a specific product entering the market through an extra layer of protection’.

Pillay reviewed the two categories of registered design: aesthetic design in which features are judged solely on what is seen, requiring the product to be new and original and protected for 15 years; and functional design where the features are necessary for the product’s function, requiring it to be new, not commonplace, and protected for 10 years.

Examining the design timeline for registrations - which are cheaper to acquire than patents and requiring only one application - he said an applicant had six months to decide in which country to register a design.

Pillay also spoke about the importance of having confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in place until a product had been formally registered.

Moving onto copyright law, which he said in South Africa was automatically generated and used to protect original works, he noted how the author or the creator of the work was usually the owner and how the lifespan of copyright law was valid for 50 years from the date of the author’s death and 50 years from the date copies of the work were made available to the public for software developers.

Pillay encouraged owners to keep accurate records of when their work was created and advised software developers to put in dummy loops for their codes. He said work could not be copied or recreated without copyright permission.

Reviewing trademarks, Pillay said it was important to distinguish and identify goods and services in the marketplace. He evaluated the unlimited lifespan of trademarks, mentioning brands such as Coca-Cola and Mercedes Benz as excellent examples.

He said it was wise to always file for trademark registration from a strategic perspective and explained how trademarks were closely vetted before registration, a process which takes up to three years.

Said Pillay: ‘You use ™ before your trademark is registered and once it is registered you use ® which is a powerful mark to have.’

In conclusion, Pillay explained how businesses should use multiple forms of IP protection to increase their competitiveness.

For queries on IP-related matters contact Innovation Officer Mr Mandla Hlongwane at hlongwanem4@ukzn.ac.za.

To watch the webinar, click here (password: NS+QF8+U).

Words: Hlengiwe Khwela

Photograph: Supplied