Wayfortravel | IP Infringement

IP Infringement

Your intellectual property (IP) is one of the most significant assets that you handle on a daily basis as a business owner.

In order to ensure that your inventions are neither stolen nor copied, intellectual property right (IPR) protection is essential. Incentives are put in place so that what you develop can spread and benefit more people without breaching your legal rights.

In this article, we go into what’s considered IP infringements and how to protect your brand or business from IP infringements.

What is considered intellectual property infringement?

It is illegal to violate the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) that attach to a piece of intellectual property in any way. Owners of intellectual property rights (IPRs) have the power to prevent others from reproducing, duplicating, or exploiting their work.

Intellectual Property infringement might fall into numerous categories:

Copyright infringement: Copyrights protect creators of original works (e.g. books, photographs, art, programs, etc.). Copyrights generally last for the owner’s lifetime plus 70 years.

Trademark: Trademarks protect recognizable marks (e.g. logos, designs, slogans, etc.) that signify a product or service’s origin. Trademarks can last forever provided they are renewed usually in 10-year increments.

Patent: Patents provide exclusive rights over new inventions or improvements to prior inventions. For utility patents protection lasts for 20 years before entering public domain.

Trade secret: Trade secrets are formulas, processes, commercial methods and other information or items that provide a competitive advantage. Protection doesn’t end as long as it remains a secret.

Common examples of Intellectual property violations

IP infringement can occur in a variety of ways, but some of the more common ones are as follows:

Fake websites try to pass themselves off as the official outlet for one or more brands of the IP owner.
Putting your logo on a defendant’s product in order to boost sales.
Copying and passing off your writing or artwork as their own.
Intellectual Property infringements on social media where fraudulent profiles use trademarks or copyrighted material to represent a brand.
Stealing confidential information (with or without an employment agreement).

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