Apple values inventions, respects intellectual property, and recognizes the appropriate role of developing voluntary industry standards. Standardisation is beneficial when it fosters cooperation and interoperability in the market and gives consumers confidence that products will interact reliably with other products. However, it can also pose problems if companies use the power conferred by standardization to eliminate competition through selective patent licenses or discriminatory and excessive royalties. A welcome advantage is that industrial design rights are a relatively inexpensive form of protection. Registration and maintenance are much cheaper than for patents. It is therefore advisable to have this done by a lawyer who knows not only the rights of commercial designs, but also patent law. With a good mix of technical and legal knowledge, he or she can provide comparable and broad protection on which your business can be built. Of course, such intelligently implemented design protection is by no means as relevant to every consumer product. Choosing the best form of protection comes from your idea and not the other way around. Nevertheless, it should be recognized that such opportunities are available and that the smart use of intellectual property rights can significantly strengthen your market position.
Apple is one of the largest companies in the world thanks to its intelligent use of intellectual property rights, but how did we get here? Intellectual property rights are visible to all, so why does one party seem so much more adept at dealing with them than others? To a large extent, this has to do with the skillful use of commercial design rights. What are they and how are they used? No licensor of any type of patent, including SAHs, has the special legal right to charge royalties only for a portfolio-wide license; SEP licensees should not be forced to purchase bundled licenses or wallet licenses. Whether companies use patent portfolios to foster innovation or stifle competition, protecting intellectual property (IP) is an important part of the company`s strategy. As ktMINE has already noted, companies rely on patent and trademark infringement lawsuits to prevent competitors from copying valuable designs and inventions. Apple, in a notable example, has been arguing in court since 2011 that Samsung committed a patent infringement by copying the features of its smartphones and tablets. In the most recent ruling at the end of May this year, the U.S. District Court in San Jose ordered Samsung to pay Apple $539 million in damages for violating three design patents and two utility models. You may know that there are several ways to protect intellectual property. Such as patent law, industrial design rights, copyright, trademark law and more. All these forms of protection work a little differently, but I will limit myself here for the moment to patent law and industrial design rights. The Apple TV+ Service and all materials incorporated into the Service (including, but not limited to, text, photographs, images, videos, music, and audio) are protected by copyright, patent, trade secret, or other proprietary rights under the laws of the United States and other countries and regions.
Certain titles, signs, logos, or other images incorporated by Apple into the Apple TV+ service are protected as registered or unregistered trademarks of Apple Inc. and its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wait a minute, isn`t it a trademark for a word, phrase or logo? Like the Apple® verbal sign or the logo with the apple – a design that everyone knows? How can a retail design be filed? There is not only a difference between patent law and commercial design law, but also between patent law and design law. Many patent attorneys have only a technical background, while most industrial design attorneys have a legal background. At Apple, they have often mastered both. Your lawyers look at the design from a technical perspective. As a result, they are able to capture a relatively large number of properties of a new product as part of design rights. The absence of a product or service name or logo from this list does not constitute a waiver of Apple`s trademark or other intellectual property rights in such name or logo.