The Intellectual Property Law - Case Study Example

Intellectual Property Name Institution Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Problem 3 Patent Law in the United Arab Emirates 4 Apple-Samsung Litigation 5 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 7 Intellectual Property Licensing Agreement 8 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction According to the intellectual property law, the owners of the intellectual property are giver some exclusive rights to intangible assets like inventions, designs, words, music, art works and such. Generally, the most well-known intellectual property rights consist of copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and in some places trade secrets (Ayn, 2006). The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and numerous allied international agreements are aimed at protecting intellectual property rights because of the significance in sustaining economic growth (Richard, 2008). This paper will analyze the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and its purpose, the Samsung vs. Apple litigation case, the Intellectual Property laws in UAE. Additionally, this paper will give an example of a licensing agreement between companies in order to avoid infringement of intellectual property. Problem Basically, intellectual property infringement and commercial fraud and counterfeits are the key issues that impact the growth of economy directly as well as the public safety. Additionally, these issues restrict innovation and creativity and also result to massive financial losses for businesses and governments as well. Still, companies that infringe intellectual property are prone to huge financial losses and countless court battles. This is the reason why UAE Government is focused to promoting and developing intellectual property environment within the UAE. Patent Law in the United Arab Emirates Within 1992, UAE ratified three intellectual property laws, namely; copyright law, trademark law, along with patent law. The UAE started implementing the copyright law in 1994 while the UAE government started registering patents within 1993 (Peter, 2006). Patent law in UAE is covered by Federal Law Number 44 which entails protection of patents, original developments, new ideas, trade secrets as well as industrial knowledge and industrial patterns and designs. The patent office in UAE is housed in the Ministry of Finance and Industry. Trademarks in UAE are regulated by Federal Law Number 37 and the office that houses trademark office in UAE is the Ministry of Economy and Commerce whose role is to accept registration applications of trademarks (Peter, 2006). According to the UAE trademark law, trademarks are protected for ten years with likely renewal alternatives. The rightful owner of a registered trademark has the right of suing within UAE courts if there is breach of the trademark. On the other hand, the courts have the power to attach, confiscate, obliterate or re-export counterfeit goods. The penalties for trademark infringement consist of fines and/or incarceration (Miller, 2012). The UAE laws banned utilization of unlawful software within IT applications and the companies in UAE are required to give satisfactory evidence on the utilization of original software. A study conducted within 2002 indicated that UAE has led in anti-piracy for seven consecutive years and this has led to reduction in piracy within the region. Basically, UAE is acknowledged as being among the nations having the least piracy levels (Peter, 2006). Similarly, in 2005, UAE started revising its intellectual property legislation and the review occurred in anticipation of a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US. The UAE reviewed intellectual property with the aim of it aligning with the FTA agreement with the United States and this has had an impact on the nation’s overall business undertaking, which includes media as well (Peter, 2006). Additionally, in 2009 new intellectual property laws for public consultation were released and these laws cover intellectual property rights like copyrights, patents, trade secrets, trademarks and allied rights. Through development of a strong legal structure to protect intellectual property, the new intellectual property laws have improved the platform for development within the financial firms. The new intellectual property laws have also promoted industry growth through creation of the suitable legal atmosphere for product and service innovation as well. Apart from the Trade Secrets Law, the other UAE intellectual property laws align with the international standards and conform to the perquisites of TRIP/WTO Agreement. The TRIP/WTO Agreement covers the civil law along with the common law jurisdictions. The Trade Secrets Law covers even the most important aspects of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act of 1985 which was outlined by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws within the US in addition to the Economic Espionage Act of the United States of 1996. These statutes are components of common law and thus the Trade Secrets Law is in alignment with the common law (Jason, 2006). Apple-Samsung Litigation In the law suit between Apple and Samsung, the ruling was that Samsung has violated Apple’s intellectual property. The court did not find any intellectual property violation of the Apple’s side. In this case however, Samsung was not found to have violated any antitrust laws or breached its agreements with the UMTS standards agencies (Lemley, 2009). To be precise, initial count of intellectual property violation by Samsung was the Apple’s bounce-back patent. In this count, the judge ruled that Samsung had infringed the entire single accused appliance. Coincidentally, things were correspondingly grim for the other patent breaches, whereby the judges established that most of the gadgets had been infringed by Samsung. This is so because even Apple’s patent covering scrolling and two finger gestures was found to have been infringed by Samsung. Nearly each and every gadget was established to have been infringed, where only devices such as Ace, Intercept along with the Replenish escaping were found not to have been infringed by Samsung (Lemley, 2009). Additionally, Samsung was found to having violated the design patent for the iPhone’s display of icons on the board and so was the D’677 patent, where only Ace was not established to have been infringed. Generally, in this litigation, the D’087 patent was the poorest performed for the Apple Company, where only Galaxy S, Galaxy S 4G along with the Vibrant were established to have been infringed by Samsung. The only devices that were not established to have been infringed were the Galaxy S 11 variants along with the Tab gadgets where Apple’s iPad patents and Galaxy Tab 10.1 variants were established to have violated Apple’s D’889 patent. In this case, the jury ordered Samsung Company to pay even more to Apple in case it was established that its patent infringement was deliberate and this occurred for all the three utility patents as well as both the icon design and iPhone front-face design patent. On the other hand, Samsung argument was based on patent invalidity. Samsung was arguing that Apple’s patents were not valid where Apple would have found itself with the charge of its intellectual property but this argument was rejected (Lemley, 2009). Nonetheless, in this litigation, even Apple Company encountered some setbacks. The jury ruled that the unregistered iPad trade dress as well as the iPhone/iPad amalgamation trade dress, which consisted of the iOS and design, were not protectable and neither were they well-known. In addition, when Apple brought up its antitrust claims that Samsung had breached its agreement with UMTS standards agencies for failing to reveal that standards-essential patents existed, Apple’s arguments were rejected (Lemley, 2009). World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) WIPO is among the seventeen specialized bodies of the United Nations (UN). WIPO was established within 1967 with the aim of encouraging creative activities and in order to encourage protection of intellectual property worldwide. Basically, the key responsibility of WIPO is to promote creative intellectual activity and to facilitate the transmission of technology allied to industrial property to the developing countries with the key aim of accelerating economic, social as well as cultural development, subject to the competence and roles of UN and its components, in particular the UN Conference of Trade and Development, the UN Development Programme as well as the UN Industrial Development Organization, and also the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organizations and of other bodies within the UN system (Rogers, 2010). WIPO promotes global intellectual property through several ways which include: running systems that make it easier to obtain protection of intellectual property and also resolving intellectual property disagreements, helping in developing global legal intellectual property, developing shared networks and technology laws of sharing knowledge and simplifying business activities that involve intellectual property and lastly building utilization of intellectual property in order to support economic development. UAE is a member state of WIPO and aligns to the regulations of WIPO in protecting intellectual property (Rogers, 2010). Intellectual Property Licensing Agreement This intellectual property agreement was entered on November 26, 2012 and is for License of Intellectual Property by and between Samsung Company and Apple Company. Recitals If the licensor develops, acquires and is the proprietary owner of specific rights and legally has the rights of holding valid licenses from others, which it perceives extremely proprietary about specific technology and owns specific patented procedures as well as certain rights, technology and information it possesses or legally owns. If the licensor holds patent pending applications which are also a component of this license agreement. If the licensee is a development and manufacturing firm that will manufacture, brand, develop, manage and offer sales strategy on entire marketing program to produce and trade each and every licensor’s intellectual properties according to this agreement. Where the pursuant to the terms and conditions of this licensing agreement has made an agreement to license and the licensee has also made an agreement to license the right to utilize the Patent pending application claims (Ray, 2008). Trademark Usage The licensor herein gives the licensee the right of using and displaying licensor’s trademarks, service marks, as well as trademarks and trade names that are pertinent to licensor products as per this agreement. The licensee can utilize any of the licensor’s Marks as a feature of its company, or trade (Ray, 2008). Business, Standing and Qualifications Licensor, Apple Ltd is a corporation, fully organized, genuinely existing and within good standing as per the law of United States. The licensor possesses the utter power and authority of carrying out its business as it is currently being carried and to possess property, assets and intellectual property it currently possesses. In addition, the licensor has all the rights of getting into this Agreement (Ray, 2008). Authorization As the licensor, the company has all the power and authority of executing and delivering the Agreement to carry out the transactions reflected herein. The implementation, delivery as well as performance of this Agreement and the usage of the transactions carried herein have been appropriately permitted as per all essential action obligated by the law, the licensor’s Article to be taken by the licensor to approve the implementation and delivery of this Agreement and the agreement stipulated hereby or the usage of the transactions carried out herein and therein (Ray, 2008). Binding Agreements This agreement consists of the legal, legitimate and binding responsibilities of the licensor, enforceable according to its items. No Infringement Both the implementation and delivery by the licensor of this agreement as well as utilization by the licensor of the transactions carried out herein are not allowed to: Breach any company’s provision of the Articles Go against or breach any statute, law, ruling or declaration of any court or government power binding pertinent to the licensor. The licensor is not responsible for any agreement or obligation that is against the implementation and delivery by the licensee of this agreement or utilization of the activities carried out herein (Ray, 2008). Litigation No court action, legal action, audit or to the best knowledge of the licensor should be carried out by the licensee (Lemley, 2009). Conclusion Intellectual property law is important in protecting IP infringement and the most common intellectual property rights consist of copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and in some places trade secrets. UAE has passed intellectual property laws which include copyright law, trademark law and patent law that protect the intellectual property. WIPO is an UN agency that promotes creative intellectual activity by protecting intellectual property infringement internationally and UAE is a member state of WIPO and this has assisted the UAE in reducing infringement of intellectual property within the country. An example of an intellectual property lawsuit is the lawsuit between Apple and Samsung, whereby Samsung was found to have infringed intellectual property of Apple Company. A licensing agreement is essential for companies working within the similar lines as this will reduce incidences of intellectual property infringement and the ensuing financial losses and court cases. References Ayn, R. (2006). Patents and Copyrights. New York: New American Library. Jason, M. (2006). Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 40. New York University Law Review 81. Lemley, M. (2009). The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It. University of Chicago Press. Miller, R. (2012). Fundamentals of Business Law: Excerpted Cases. New York: Cengage Learning. Peter, H. (2006). The United Arab Emirates Yearbook. Dubai: Trident Press Ltd. Ray, R. (2008). Intellectual Property Licensing: Forms and Analysis. Law Journal Press, 1998- 2008. ISBN, 973-58852-086-9. Richard, A. (2007). "Intellectual property rights". Library Hi Tech. Vol. 25/1. Richard, T. (2008). Intellectual Property Rights." In The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Rogers, M., (2010). Innovation, Intellectual Property, and Economic Growth. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Read More