Why Focus on Understanding IP Basics
Today is the day after the General Election in the UK, and Labour has won.
One of the missions of this Government is to make the UK one of the fastest-growing major economies within 5 years. If that turns to reality and you hope to surf the wave of such growth by fostering greater success for your own or your clients’ business, then take time to understand IP basics.
In the 21st century IP is critically important to navigating society and business effectively.
The main asset of most successful businesses is the brand – represented by a business’ trademarks and copyrights. So, IP is part and parcel of correct design and growth of a business.
What often gets in the way of people learning the fundamentals of IP is their belief that IP is about the minutiae of the law. So people invariably assume they don’t need to understand IP law themselves.
The belief that IP is best left to the lawyers means that people fail to acquire the basic education in IP that they need to make effective business decisions and avoid mistakes. Mistakes happen all too often because the very early decisions people make have significant IP implications. Hence if people don’t understand IP well enough to make effective decisions, they won’t navigate business effectively.
I often talk about the distinction between IP principles and country specific IP laws to emphasise the need to learn and understand IP, despite its complexities.
IP principles derive from treaties agreed between nations. These international agreements impact individual IP rights like copyright (Berne Convention) or patents (Patent Cooperation Treaty) or IP rights generally (including trade secrets) in the case of the TRIPS treaty (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property).
These treaties set the context for the specific laws of each country. So despite the fact that countries have their own distinct legislation, and case law, there is a strong similarity in the approach to IP in countries that are party to these international treaties.
In other words, the treaties underpin the laws of participating countries. Learning IP involves understanding the general principles that inform their laws.
A few months ago, I relaunched the Brand Tuned podcast with the aim of interviewing foreign lawyers to demonstrate how IP principles are universal even though a given country’s laws and practices differ from those of the UK.
The first guest of the podcast to discuss this is Alvaro Ramirez Bonilla, a Latin American lawyer.
In this episode, we explore the approach to IP in Latin America. Among other things the episode discusses:
- How business design and naming unfold across Latin America
- Branding and intellectual property in Latin America
- Copyright protection for software and guidelines for naming conventions
- Branding and naming strategies for businesses
- Importance of understanding IP law for businesses.
You can listen to the episode on your preferred podcast platform using this link to the podcast or if you prefer to listen to podcasts on YouTube use this link to our new YouTube podcast channel.
