X. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Almost all business transactions and new product launches have intellectual property implications. Many products have various aspects that require protection. For example, a “patent” protects new, useful and inventive functional features of a product or process. “Copyright” protects, among other things, original drawings by which a product is designed and software. An “industrial design” registration protects a novel and original aesthetic design of a functional article. “Trade-mark” protection is available for a distinctive word or design identifying the source of a product or service. Any secret formula or process of manufacture of a product or business method that is known exclusively by the business would constitute proprietary “confidential information”. “Personality rights” may be involved if the name or likeness of a person is used to promote a product. “Topography rights” and “plant breeders’ rights” protect the products in certain industries. With only a few exceptions, federal law governs intellectual property in Canada. Federal statute law regulates patents, trade-marks, copyright and moral rights, industrial designs, topography rights and plant breeders’ rights. The only provincially regulated aspects of intellectual property are through the common law of passing off, personality rights and confidential information, and the statutes in some provinces governing personality rights. Provincial law also governs trade names and contracts related to intellectual property, such as transfers, licences and security interests.
1.
Federal Law
1.1 Patents 1.1.1
What inventions are eligible for a patent?
A patent is granted by the federal government for an invention that satisfies certain criteria pursuant to the Patent Act. The patentee may exclude others from making, using or selling an invention protected by a patent. A patent can only be obtained for certain classes of inventions, namely processes (such as a method for refining oil), machines (devices with moving parts), manufactured articles and compositions of matter (such as chemical compounds like plastics).
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