Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property Rights are the common terms used to include issues of copyright, patents and other legal methods of protection for the products resulting of creative work , discovery and invention.

The Information or all stuff published on a public channel such as Internet open around the world, should be properly protected against fraud, misused and illegal replication.

If some material or information are public, they don't need to be protected because they belong to everyone : res publica.

If they are species, a protection is required : trademarks, logo, graphics, formulas, scripts and so on.

That means the most of web sites have at least a disclaimer and a copyright notice included on each page visible by any user. The first one fixes the responsibility in case of misusing of the data and information published by the users and the second one fixes the property of some graphics, logo or other visual items as property of the Client* of such a web site.

The logo and the domain name are the property of the Client and cannot be used as it is without any allowance or courtesy .Of course to link to a web site, a request for linking is enough if the Client is agreed with such a link. Most of the time, he agrees .Indeed, on one hand it is a way to increase its visibility on the Internet and on the other hand its a way to feel the trends on the Internet audience who can be interested in its web site ...

Some Websites provide a restricted area interface to populate some data like name, account, phone mumber and so on.In this case, a privacy notice or a disclaimer is required to guarantee the no-publication and prevent any misusing of personal Data.

*the Client is not the webmaster who has only the responsibility of the avaibility of the Data,howeverthe Client who has ordered the publication is responsible for their content.

Hereby please find some helpful examples:

IPR & the Web : the policy from the W3C.

"The following World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Icons and marks have specific policies associated with their use. Some usages may differ from the generic W3C Trademark and Servicemark License . The policies are further described for these instances."

IPR & Innovation : services to entreprises.

IPR are temporary grants of monopoly intended to give economic incentives for innovative activity under patents, copyrights, and trademarks.

The European Commission developped in its first FP6, FP7 programme(now within FP8)services for SMEs to give them some help on IPR regarding the Transnational Tranfer of technology : the IPR-Helpdesk project aims to provides training and advices on IPR regarding the Innovation matters such as the Transnational Transfer of technology. Their main targets are SMEs and support providers to theses entreprises like former IRC network (now EEN), EBAN and others. These Websites rely also on some tips on IPR for SMEs.In 2008, the former IRC and EIC Networks merged in a big Enterprise Europe Network.

The European Commisssion launches a portal dedicated to SMEs in Europe in which all information related to Innovation can be found.

IPR & the world : tools for professionals .

The IPR issues are defined in every countries following their own application rules."On 1 January 2004, various changes to the international patent filing system established by the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) came into effect. They include a simplified procedure of designating countries in which patent protection is sought, and a new system for international searches and examinations of patent applications"(source from IPR-Helpdesk). So despite of PCT within Europe, a company that would like to work worldwide or dedicate its export to specific countries such as USA has to look for an existing similar patent before lauching the business activities. Please have a look to thoses search engines :

• FreePatentsOnline(US)
• SumoBrain(US)

Litigation :: trial cases

Litigation is a law suit filed in a court seeking a legal remedy to the question or dispute existing between the plaintif and the defendant.

In criminal law, the trial is a display, discussion and examination of certain charges or claims and evidences in a formal environment like a Court presided by the judge and/or jury, to determinate whether the claims and evidences are recievable or not.

These cases require that the Clients or Offencers will be defended by a lawyer who recieves the mandate ad litem to represente his/her client in a Court : the barrister.

The lawyer who starts a carrier at the bar is a solicitor or barrister. These denominations come from the common law (British law).

"A Barrister is the person who is graduated in law and passed the required training , qualification or examination for appearing before the court as attorney or as lawyer". In UK only a Barrister can plead at the bar where as other law graduates can perform all legal works other than appearing in a court.A Solicitor is the law professional rendering all legal services but has not qualified for appearing before a court. In British legal system only a barrister who got special training can appear before the Court.

In continental law or in the french-german system, the lawyer at the bar is a barrister.

The lawyer begins with the cases of the Lawyers 's Office he is working in during his training period.Please note that s/he is a trainee for her/his colleagues only not for clients or administrations . However, s/he can choose for starter some matters as divorce cases, youth cases, buisness affairs or criminal law and can open his own office.After this period of training (from 2 to 3 years regarding the National rules), s/ he is admitted as barrister as he/she is among the pairs.

At the attorney's Office

Subsitute and magistrate

The subsitute is a person who is working in the Attorney's Office as attorney.In European law, the Attorney is also chief of Unit regarding the territorial attributions. The criminal law is applyied as territorial rules.

The magistrate of Instruction is a specific judge who takes care of the process.He does the follow -up of claims and evidence during investigations.

These 2 persons are involved during the investigation period called :legal Information or Instruction regarding who has initiated such a process. Once the investigations closed, the trial starts with a decision from a Court of instruction that send the case to the relevant Court. That means the evidences and the suspicions have been checked and verified.

legal expert

The legal expert doesn't plea to the Court but do preparation and supplies some lack of legal knowledge in specific matters to the Subsitutes or magistrates

Some legal experts are criminal experts and develop some profiling programmes as database, methodology or templates. *(only available in French)