Intellectual Property Rights in General

As stated above [Movable Property in General], all property rights, which do not constitute immovable property, are movable property. Intellectual property rights are also movable property. Intellectual property rights grant the holder an exclusive right, subject to certain conditions, to exploit the work or product within the scope of the intellectual property rights in question. The same product or work may simultaneously be protected in different ways. For example, a product may be subject to both patent and copyright protection. In case of imitation, therefore, it is often better to be able to claim protection provided by different types of intellectual property rights.

Intellectual property rights form a part of a company’s assets. It is important to ensure effective management of such right, in order to safeguard the company’s capital and to utilize the rights in a financially efficient way. The consideration of intellectual property rights in a company’s business operations is discussed further in the chapter IPR Strategy and IPR Insurances [IPR Strategy and IPR Insurances].

Intellectual property rights can be divided into copyright and industrial property rights. Whereas copyright protects the originality and integrity of the author and the work, alongside the commercial interests of the author, industrial property rights protect solely the financial interests of the right-holder. Industrial property rights include, among others, right to business name, trademarks, indications of origin, domain names, patent rights, utility models and rights to layout-designs of integrated circuits. Only copyright arises automatically when a work subject to copyright is created. Other intellectual property rights arise when the author actively seeks protection for the subject matter of the right.

Generally, all industrial property rights must be registered: protection of the industrial property right is, as a rule, only available through registration of the right. Exclusive rights to a trademark or a business name may, however, also be obtained in the absence of registration by establishing the trademark or the business name through use.

Registration is either national or regional in scope, in other words, the industrial property right is only effective within the area in which it has been registered. The period of validity of the protection of an industrial right is shorter than protection of copyright, usually no more than a few decades from the date of registration.

When properly managed, industrial property rights may be of significant financial value to a company. The activities of a company may, for example, be based on exploitation of a certain industrial property right, such as a patent, in which case it is, naturally, even more important to ensure best possible protection of the industrial property right in question.