Intellectual Property Fundamentals and Core Legal Principles
Tshimanga Kongolo · 2024
This chapter covers the main principles and established rules in the field of intellectual property (IP), as adopted by the Paris and Berne Conventions and endorsed by the TRIPS Agreement. These norms helped to create standards within the IP system given their widespread implementation at the national level. These standards are found in the fields of trademarks with the requirement of a distinctive character of a sign to qualify as a trademark, novelty or originality for aesthetic design, original work in whatever form for copyright with no requirement of registration, new inventions involving an inventive step and industrial application for a patent, secret commercial information for a trade secret, knowledge and skills passed from generation to generation for traditional knowledge (TK), and the emotional attachment of consumers with a brand. The key feature is that IP relates to a natural person or a human being. All rights are detained or granted to a human being or a legal person representing natural persons. The question is whether these established principles and rules should continue to govern the current IP system or regulate new issues and challenges emanating from new technologies.