Question

What has been the difference in protecting the intellectual (tradmark) creative process with the First Flight Associates compared to the Madrid Protocol?

Answer 1

Intellectual property is an asset, developed by inventive or creative work, to which rights to exclude its unauthorised use have been granted by law. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization

,

IP refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2120997

2

works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

1

Intellectual property rights (IP rules) constitute the formal mechanism by which property is established in intellectual assets. IP divides into two categories:

Industrial Property Copyrights



Patents



Trademarks



Industrial designs



Geographic indications of source



Literary and artistic works: novels, poems, and plays, films



Musical works



Artistic works: drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs. One interesting tool which use had notoriously increased since 19

th

century is trade secret, and this is because it is a very flexible instrument to protect confidential data through various mechanisms different from the conventional, such as contracts and technology. Trade secret is a concept recently added to the scope of industrial property, and it refers to any information with economic value derived from being kept private. Trade secrets encompass a formula, computer program, process, method, device, technique, pricing, information, customer lists, or other non-public information. Trade secrets are quite different from patents, copyrights, and trademarks, since patents and copyrights require a disclosure of information in detail for the application process, and eventually the information will become public after twenty years for patents, and a hundred years for copyrights. As mentioned before, trade secrets only require companies to actively maintain them secret and there is no limited duration or need to register. One of the most famous examples of a trade secret is

Coca-Cola

’s formula, which

was originally created by John Pemberton as a drug for the brain and the nerves. The global sales and consumption

The Madrid system (officially the Madrid system for the international registration of marks) is the primary international system for facilitating the registration of trademarks in multiple jurisdictions around the world. Its legal basis is the multilateral treaty Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks of 1891, as well as the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement (1989).

The Madrid system provides a centrally administered system of obtaining a bundle of trademark registrations in separate jurisdictions. Registration through the Madrid system does not create a unified registration, as in the case of the European Union trade mark[1] system; rather, it creates a bundle of national rights through an international registration able to be administered centrally. Madrid provides a mechanism for obtaining trademark protection in many countries around the world which is more effective than seeking protection separately in each individual country or jurisdiction of interest.

The Madrid Protocol system provides for the international registration of trade marks by way of one application that can cover more than one country. The opportunity of having a single registration to cover a wide range of countries gives advantages, both in terms of portfolio management and cost savings, as opposed to a portfolio of independent national registrations.

Madrid now permits the filing, registration and maintenance of trade mark rights in more than one jurisdiction, provided that the target jurisdiction is a party to the system. The Madrid system is administered by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland. There are 90 countries part of the Madrid System.