Selling your colleagues at the office goods or DVDs that are fake or for which you don’t deserve the rights of sale, could land you up in jail. But not all such cases dealt under criminal offences.Find out what the law states and the further course of action followed after the infringement of the laws.
Intellectual property rights infringement In the legal terms, “Piracy” Or “Counterfeiting” or “IP Crimes”.
- “Counterfeiting” defined by the law as manufacture, importation, distribution and sale of products that falsely carry the trademark of an original brand without permission and for gain or loss to another.
- “Piracy” defined in legal terms as copying, distribution, importation, of works.
How to be certain of infringement
- “Infringement” in legal terms means breaking a law.
- IP laws are infringed when a person without authority or permission exploits a product. Products are exploited when they are copied or used otherwise in vested interest.
The product can be a technology that is a patent of a firm or an individual or it can be the distribution of the copy of a film illegally on the internet,
Some very common examples of IP offences
- Employees, selling fake and branded good in the office setup.
- Use of intranet for the sale of goods to colleagues
- Visitors, selling counterfeit products in the office.
- Use of counterfeit software with the knowledge of the management.
PUNISHMENT
- The company and the individual involved in the practice can be fined up to £50,000, and a custodial sentence up to 10 years.
- This could severely damage the business and IT infrastructure of the company, amounting to heavy losses. All of this could invite further civil action against the firms and mean reputational loss and trust issues with the future clients.
- A majority of people are unaware of the intellectual property rights. Even the copyrights of a music CD can have four different natures of intellectual rights that are protected by different laws. To secure the business from the infringement of the rights, it is advisable to know the intellectual property rights and have a strategy before hand and the proper procedure to deal with it.
Some measures To follow
- Staff activities should be monitored,
- People stopping over at the office should be always introspected
- Ensuring the correct and essential documents and licence for the followed trade practice.
Infringements
- Civil Infringement
- Copyright Infringement
- Design infringement
- Trademark Infringement
- Patent Infringement
Each infringement necessitates different approach policy. If a person is considered to be infringing rights, then the party that owns the rights use mediation, to use of “cease” letters or by seeking to use other services in resolving disputes.
Copyright Infringement
Deals in the photocopying, reproducing or publishing the content without proper permission from the owner of the rights.
Patent Infringement
Caters the duplication of a commodity or using a patent method.Infringing a patent means manufacturing, using, selling or importing a patented product or process without the patent owner’s permission.
Design Infringement
Registering a design the proprietor gets the exclusive right for 25 years.
Trademark Infringement
The identical or similar trademark for identical or similar goods and services to a registered trademark – a person may be infringing the registered mark.
Simple Solution- Legal Advice
The solution is no rocket science, consulting a good legal advisor would ensure the security of the business. Creating a mindset and awareness for IP laws infringement is of paramount importance.
And awareness eliminates some problems before they can grow big enough to harm the business.
A professional guidance hence is mandatory in such cases where the laws are not clear enough to be interpreted by a professional, not from a legal background.
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