In the course of human evolution, legal relations have also developed that can arise between people and their property, property. In the time of Ancient Rome, the issue of property was resolved quite simply - by laying the winds on the thing. There was even a lawsuit of the same name for the recognition or alienation of property rights. However, as they developed, people realized that not every right has a material manifestation. In other words, not everything can be pointed with a finger and said: “This is mine!”
Thus, legal scholars began to develop special categories in order to somehow regulate such rights. As a result of scientific research, a specific sub-sector of the civil industry has appeared: intellectual law. In addition to the presence of a complex of rights and obligations, a special protection mechanism was also developed in it, which will be discussed later in the article.
Sub-sector Development History
Intellectual Property formed during the development of mankind itself. Conventionally, the history of this sub-industry can be divided into several main stages, namely:
- The first stage is characterized by the emergence of typography. From this moment, people not only published their own works, but also acquired certain rights as a result. It was then that copyright appeared, which was enshrined in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886.
- At the second stage , patent law was formed, or rather, its prototype. This was due to the development of factory relations and the industrial revolution. People working in this area began to introduce new technologies into the production process. Thus, everyone was interested in making his invention exceptional, and the idea of functionality of know-how was not adopted by other researchers. From here the patent law began its development.
- The third stage falls on the XX-XXI centuries, when scientific discoveries were made almost every day. The Internet entailed the emergence of the scientific community, and also largely developed legal regulation in the field of intellectual property. This has led to the emergence of global organizations dealing with intellectual property issues (WIPO, WTO, etc.).
Intellectual property - concept
Given the great development of this component aspect of civil law, it is necessary to highlight its concept. Thus, intellectual property is an exclusive right, enshrined in law, as well as a set of personal non-property rights of the author to the results of his intellectual activity or means of individualization. The legislator in this area establishes a certain nature of a monopoly, so that the author uses the results of his work on his own.
In this case, any use of such results by other, third parties is permitted exclusively with the permission of the author. Also, intellectual property is a certain set of forms of protection of its fruits from unauthorized use.
Objects that relate to intellectual property law
Use of Intellectual Property carried out through the facilities that relate to it. Their list was first announced at the Stockholm Convention in 1967. Also at this event, the World Intellectual Property Organization was established . According to her documents, the objects include:
- art, scientific, literary works;
- the activities of artists (sound recordings, television and radio broadcasts);
- all kinds of inventions in absolutely all areas of human activity;
- industrial designs;
- company names, commercial designations, trademarks, etc .;
- other rights that can be attributed to the category of intellectual property.
Intellectual property protection also extends to geographical indications of product origin, domain names, new plant varieties, databases, microcircuits, etc. This list is not exhaustive, because social relations are constantly evolving, which leads to the emergence of new fruits of human intellectual activity.
Misconception
The concept of “intellectual property” is integral. The words included in the term in no way can be interpreted separately from each other, because the very meaning of the name of the sub-industry is lost. This fact is quite important, since even some scientists, not understanding such an important fact, use the words “intellectual” and “property” separately, which misleads other people about the legal sphere of this component of civil law. It follows that intellectual property is not only legal, but also a specific linguistic category.
Analyzing the domestic branch of civil law, one can distinguish various types of intellectual rights, which are classified depending on the object, and more precisely, the fruits of human activity.
Copyright and related rights
Copyright law regulates social relations that arise as a result of the creation, use of scientific, literary works of art. In this case, the category “work” is used in order to emphasize the originality of a person’s creative result. In addition, this result should have an objective, materialized form. Protection of intellectual property rights in the field of authorship is not extended to ideas, methods, methods, concepts, facts and discoveries.
As for related rights, they are quite close to copyright. The need to create this kind of category appeared at the turn of the 20th - 21st centuries. It primarily concerns those cases when the result of intellectual work is not “good” enough to be recognized as a work of art. Nevertheless, his legal protection is simply necessary, because a person spends certain resources to create a specific result. The scope of related rights extends to the performing activities of musicians, broadcasting and other similar objects.
Patent law
The set of legal norms that govern relations in the field of protection of inventions, as well as new models and industrial designs, is called patent law. It developed during the industrial revolution, which was already mentioned in the article. Today, patent law is actively used in almost all countries of the world. With his help, people “erect” legal protection for their inventions in order to protect themselves from the actual theft of ideas.
Quite often, the entire totality of patent law objects is united by the term “industrial property”. Patents are issued by special executive bodies. In the Russian Federation, such is Rospatent.
Rights to means of individualization of goods
Intellectual property protection extends to means of individualization of goods. These may include trademarks , trade names, geographical names and domain names. In the economic environment, all the funds presented are combined into a single institution of marketing designation. The need to allocate intellectual rights to means of individualization arose as a result of the development and global growth of the world market. To ensure the inviolability of trademarks and other similar objects, special methods have been created for their registration and protection. For the first time, means of individualization were officially enshrined in the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
Plant Variety Rights and Production Secrets
Production secrets include any kind of knowledge, skills and information that falls into the category of trade secrets. Moreover, this kind of information should have unique aspects that may be applicable to a competitive advantage.
The intellectual property law also defines the protection of the work of breeders who periodically develop new unique plant varieties.
Intellectual Property Justification
The reasons that the protection of intellectual property is justified arise due to certain aspirations of the government. Thanks to them, laws are created, international acts that regulate public relations in the presented legal sphere. As a rule, aspirations are motivated by the following aspects:
- through the created protection to induce a desire to create something new among other subjects of civil law;
- officially recognize the creators of the fruits of intellectual work;
- create a mechanism for the reward of creativity;
- in every possible way to promote the development of national culture and industry, as well as represent the state in the international arena in a worthy manner.
Intellectual Property Violations
Given the fact that intellectual property is a set of rights and obligations of individuals in the field, the state provides legal protection for this category. To create a competent intellectual property protection strategy, you need to know what violations exist. To date, a number of the following violations can be distinguished:
- Copyright infringement (piracy and plagiarism).
- Distribution or use of objects that contain methods described or contained in patents.
- The import into the territory of the Russian Federation of counterfeit goods.
- Any actions aimed at circumventing existing methods of protecting copyright and related rights, as well as disseminating objects for these purposes.
- Change or forgery of information that has intellectual value or is associated with the results of intellectual activity.
- Violations of rights to the geographical designation of goods.
- Other violations of rights to intellectual property.
It should be noted that in each country there is a special service for intellectual property, which deals with the protection of this category, as well as in some cases considers disputes regarding violations of citizens' rights.
International Intellectual Property Protection
Over the past few years, the role of such a category as international intellectual property has increased. Most often, this statement combines not only the rights of organizations in this area, but also international legal forms of protection. To date, the most famous world organization involved in the protection and development of the intellectual property industry is WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). It was founded in 1967 as part of the UN. But only in 1974 did WIPO begin to deal directly with issues related to intellectual property. In Russia, the local analogue of this organization is the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, although its functions are somewhat different from WIPO.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has a number of specific tasks for which WIPO was created. It is necessary to highlight the most priority of them, namely:
- comprehensive assistance to the parties in the process of signing new international legal acts in the field of intellectual property;
- modernization of the laws of states in order to ensure closer cooperation in this area between countries;
- assistance to state authorities in the creation and regulation of bodies whose activities are aimed at ensuring and protecting intellectual property.
Of course, there are other areas of WIPO’s activities, because public relations do not stand still, which leads to the emergence of new types of intellectual property. This fact makes us think about changing the legal regulation not only at the local level, but also internationally.
History shows a high level of WIPO's effectiveness in the regulation of intellectual property issues. From 1999 to today, with the assistance of the organization, agreements have been signed that regulate key aspects of intellectual property at the international legal level (there are such types as local, national and federal intellectual property, depending on the territorial structure of the state and its role on the world stage )
Federal Service for Intellectual Property
The Russian Federation is one of the most economically developed countries today. Thus, intellectual property management produced through special public services. Such in Russia is Rospatent. Its purpose is to carry out functions aimed at direct control and supervision in the use of intellectual property, as well as to ensure the protection of intellectual property, patents, trademarks, geographical names, etc.
Today, the main functions of Rospatent are:
- implementation of the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, laws, by-laws, the object of which is intellectual property;
- conducting and monitoring special examinations of intellectual property objects, as well as issuing special security documents for such objects;
- licensing of contracts and consolidation of rights to intellectual property;
- supervision and control of the process of paying patent fees;
- registration and certification of patent attorneys.
Therefore, intellectual property management in Russia is carried out due to the activities of the service, the structure of which includes special subordinate organizations that have specific tasks and functions.
So, in the article we examined the concept of intellectual property, the main aspects and types of this sub-sector of civil law, as well as the organization of intellectual property. It should be noted that this sphere is developing more and more every day. Therefore, the features of the legal regulation of intellectual property are the highest priority among practicing scientists today.