What is intellectual property? Flashcards
To learn some of the basic considerations that you need to take into consideration when designing biotechnology. (7 cards)
IP (Intellectual property)
Intangible expression of ideas to which ownership can be attached.
What are five component of the Intellectual property?
(Need to add to this what each of these equivocate to)
- ‘Good will’ (The perceived quality of a brand)
- Trade marks - Sometimes the brand can be more valuable then the asserts of the company, e.g. If Coca-cola lost everything, they could survive based purely on its branding.
- Registered design -
- Copyright -
- Patents -
- ‘Trade secrets’ -
Trade secrets
The value is often underestimated and can range from asserts to methodology of a product.
Why are trade secrets a double edge sword?
Trade secrets can protects a company from exposing its methodology into the public domain for protection, and allow them to hold a monopoly over a design for longer. On the other-hand if someone manages to figure out how it’s done and patents it before the company, they may be subject to pay royalties. You could minimise this by patenting some of the methods to building this but you run the risk of exposing too much of the method.
What are some of the pros’s for issuing a patent?
In most drug trials, phase 3 testing can estimate to around one billion dollars in testing costs. By holding a patent company have a small duration of time in-order to recover from this these costs, and allow them to make profit in return. Monopoly only last for about 20 years, and in some cases a possible research extension can be integrated to prevent other companies from developing the company technology.
When filing a patent what happens?
A detailed report of what and how the product your filling under patent needs to be made clear, and then published publicly. (This does allow for companies to develop their own ‘generic’ brand.)
What are governments general opinions of patents?
Often governments don’t like the idea of companies holding a patent or even trade secrets, because that then means that only one company can make money from that biotechnology.
