- Piracy in the world; - countries where sharing files without profit is legal; - Russian law on the issue.

4.19. Debates

Whether or not Internet intermediaries have liability for copyright infringement by users, and without the intermediaries' authorization, has been subject to debate and court cases in a number of countries. Liability of online intermediaries has been one of the earliest legal issues surrounding the internet.

What do you think of this problem?

4 .20. Scanning

Patents

1. Patents are granted to individuals and companies that can lay claim to an invention which is capable of industrial manufacture and which was not previously known in Britain or elsewhere. The granting of a patent gives the 'patentee' a monopoly to make, use or sell the invention for a fixed period of time - which in Britain today is a maximum of 20 years from the date on which the patent application was first filed. In return for this monopoly, the patentee pays a fee to cover the costs of processing the patent and, more importantly, publicly discloses details of the invention.

2. Patents are administered by the Patent Office, which analyses applications to ensure that the right to a patent exists and publicly provides information on every patent granted. The Office is an executive agency of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Design Right

3. An industrial design right protects the form of appearance, style or design of an industrial object. Protection is provided against the copying of original designs for five years after they have been initially marketed, although any person is entitled, as of right, to a licence to use the design during the following five years, and a right to remuneration is provided for during that period. However, unrestricted copying is permitted where there is no design freedom for either functional or aesthetic reasons, such as in the case of spare parts needed to keep equipment in good repair.

4. Design right is a full property right. But according to the 1988 Act certain designs are not registrable and protection is in effect provided only for truly aesthetic, 'stand-alone' designs which competitors do not need to copy in order to compete effectively.

Trade and Service Marks

5. A trade mark (or brand) is a means of identification - a symbol, whether a word or device or a combination of the two - which enables traders to make their goods and services readily distinguishable from similar goods and services supplied by other traders. Fraudulent use of a trademark is a criminal offence which incurs substantial penalties.

Service marks are the same thing as trademarks except that they identify and distinguish services rather than products.

Not all brands can be registered, however - the criteria for registration being set by the Trade Marks Registry, which is part of the Patent Office.

Trade Secrets

6. A trade secret (or "confidential information") is secret, non-public information concerning the commercial practices or proprietary knowledge of a business, public disclosure of which may sometimes be illegal. A trade secret is any formula, pattern, machine, pro­cess, database, method or operation used in the production of goods or services and known only to employees who need to know the secret to accomplish their work.

The protection of trade secrets covers the ideas themselves. It’s the main distinction from copyright.

7. Patents, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets and design rights are sometimes collectively known as industrial property, as they are typically created and used for industrial or commercial purposes.