Contents of the Encyclopaedia

COMPETITION The World Association of Technology Teachers supports the following competition: The Intellectual Property Office with the help of Wallace and Gromit. 'Cracking Ideas Competition'.




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EXAMPLE ONE: An artist who spends many hours, days and months creating a unique painting expects his her work not to be copied and sold by anyone who has not asked for permission. The artist shown below is painting his favourite car rather like the artist of old painted famous race horses and mansions. The artist expects to sell his painting for a rather large amount of money because he is famous and fellow artists regard his work as a masterpiece.

One way of proving ownership of your own work is to seal it in an envelop and send it through the post to your own address. As normal, the date of postage will be stamped on the envelop. This is proof of ownership as long as the envelop is not opened.


COMPETITION The World Association of Technology Teachers supports the following competition: The Intellectual Property Office with the help of Wallace and Gromit. 'Cracking Ideas Competition'.


PDF FILE - CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE WORKSHEET A patent protects a person or company that invents something new. For instance, if you were to invent a new type of pen you should patent your design. This should prevent anyone or another company from stealing your idea, manufacturing it and making money for themselves. A patent protects your design for the first five years and them you must apply annually for the next fifteen years (twenty years in total). You can apply for a patent for many types of inventions, for example; A scientific discovery A literary piece of work (such as a musical) Computer programs, A new medical treatment, When applying for a patent it should be understood that the patent only applies to individual countries such as the UK or US. Separate patent applications should be made to the patent awarding body of each country. In the UK the ‘Intellectual Property Office’ awards patents after they have been investigated by the Patent Office and a suitable fee paid.

EXAMPLE ONE: This inventor has filed a patent on his new flying cloak. This means the only company that can make the cloak is one he has a financial agreement with. They manufacture the cloak and the inventor is paid a percentage of each cloak sold.

A trademark is a symbol/sign that identifies your products or services. A trademark can be words or pictures or a combination of both. A fee is paid to the Intellectual Property Office who decide whether your symbol/logo can be regarded as a protected trademark. Often trademarks are used to advertise products or services. Your trademark must be distinctive and distinguish your goods from those of other traders/manufacturers. It must not be confused with other trademarks. A registered trademark is denoted by ®.

EXAMPLE TWO: A website designer spends months developing an educational website. The site includes impressive animations, graphics and lots of information for people to use. However, a copyright statement says that the work can be printed out and used BUT it must not be altered in anyway.

Copyright infringement is the legal term used when someone or a company breaks the law by using the work belonging to someone else, without permission.

EXAMPLE TWO: This medical treatment has been developed by an international research company. It is designed to cure headaches developed at work. It works on the principle that anyone with a headache seeing this treatment will quickly recover before treatment commences and go back to work promptly.

Patent Infringement is the legal term used when someone or a company breaks the law by using the invention / discovery belonging to someone else, without permission.