How do most companies protect their software through intellectual property law?

Source code could potentially be a trade secret for a software company, but in order to qualify for protection it would have to be actively guarded and not disclosed to anyone outside of the company. Trade secret protection is really for something like a secret recipe that has great value to the company solely because it is a secret known only by the company.

 Software Compliance Law Firm in Vietnam

A copyright is thebetter form of protection for software. As far as understanding what has been copyrighted — copyrights exist as soon as the work is fixed in a medium. So, any work (here, software) that you see has an implicit copyright on the original aspects of the work. The question of what parts of the work are original and thus protected by the copyright is a legal question that should be answered by an Intellectual Property Lawyers.

For that reason most companies will have copyrights on their software to some extent. Patents on software are more difficult to obtain than copyrights for a couple of reasons. First, the patent application process requires a strict review to ensure that the application meets the requirements — as opposed to a copyright which exists as soon as an author puts pen to paper. Second, patents are generally reserved for tangible inventions. It is possible that software can qualify for a patent, but it is much harder to show.

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What works are protected by copyright registration?

What is copyright?  

Copyright is the right of authors to control the use of their work for a limited period of time. In order to qualify for copyright protection, a work must be “fixed in a tangible medium of expression.” A work must be the result of some creative effort on the part of its author in order to qualify for copyright protection. For works first published after March 1, 1989, an author need not include a copyright notice to gain protection under the law. However, although a notice is not required, it’s helpful if you obtain one. When a work contains a valid copyright notice, an infringer cannot claim in court that s/he wasn’t aware the work was copyrighted. Thus, an author has a greater chance to win a copyright infringement case and spend much less litigating in the process if s/he has a copyright notice.

Copyright in Vietnam 

If a work is created on or after January 1, 1978 then it is protected for a term of the life of the author plus 70 years. However, if the work is a work for hire or is published under a pseudonym, the copyright lasts between 95 and 120 years, depending on the date the work is published.

Protected Works

A work becomes copyrighted when it is fixed in a tangible medium of expression. There are categories of work that fall under this definition:

Literary works

Musical works, including the accompanying words

Dramatic works, including the accompanying music

Pantomimes and choreographic works

Pictorial, graphic and sculptural works

Motion pictures and other audiovisual works

Sound recordings

Computer software

Architectural works

Not copyrightable:

Works not fixed in a tangible form of expression (ex. something said but not recorded)

Ideas, methods, principles and systems

Titles, names, and slogans

Works found in the public domain

Works that are strictly informational and contain no authorship

If you're looking for an affordable copyright attorney, check out ANTlawyers.vn. ANTlawyers.vn was established to meet these needs by providing fast, effective and economical solutions. Hope that clears things up a bit. Feel free to message me directly to chat further about any other IP questions that you face.

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What is the importance of intellectual property rights?

Intellectual property protection is extremely important. When it comes to protecting Intellectual property  two areas of protection should be taken in account:

1.protecting your liability

2.protecting your intellectual property (IP)

Liabilities like the terms and conditions prevent claims initiated by people who use your website. The other liability known as privacy policy is legally required for websites that collect user data. Protecting your intellectual property (IP) requires confidentiality agreement. Every employee, developers and programmers should sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to avoid disclosure of trade secrets, in case they are involved in your website development. IP assignment agreement is also essential for the protection of intellectual property (IP) when you hire people to work on your website.

Intellectual Properties Rights in Vietnam

Among the assets of intellectual property protection a patent is the most expensive and complex form of protection. A patent helps to prevent others from exploiting the owner’s invention. It is a territorial right exclusively applicable in the area or geographical region where a patent has been granted. It is highly recommended that you consult a patent attorney if you’re going to head in this direction.

intellectual property protection asset like a trademark is a sign that can distinguish a good or a service of an enterprise from the other. It is protected by intellectual property rights registered with a national or regional office of emblem, in order to confer an exclusive right to use the registered logo.

Copyright is the legal term that describes the rights of the creators on their creative inventions that could be a design, a painting; literary work etc. in simple words copyright protects the work of a creator.

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How do I copyright a website?

Copyright protects original works of authorship, including the text, graphics, photographs, sound recordings and audiovisual elements of websites and their underlying computer programs. To be copyrightable, website material must meet two criteria:

1.It must be an original work of authorship. It must originate with the copyright owner and show some minimal amount of creativity. You cannot copyright a domain name or the title of a website.

2.It must be fixed in some sort of tangible medium that allows it to be perceived, reproduced or otherwise communicated. This includes computers and digital media. You cannot copyright ideas, procedures, systems or methods of operation.

Who Owns the Copyright to Your Website?

A website is often a compilation of things – text, graphics, photographs, video and computer programs – created by several people. You only own the copyright to the parts of a website that you created, unless copyrights to the other parts have been transferred to you.

Copyright Enforcement Law Firm in Vietnam

If the website was created by your employees as part of their regular job, you will own the copyright.

If you hire someone to create a website for your business, the person you hired owns the copyright to whatever they created. If you want to own the copyright to all of the copyrightable portions of your business website, you will need work for hire agreements or agreements transferring the copyrightable content to you. An attorney can assist you with this.

Similarly, if you are a website designer, you own the copyright to the copyrightable portions of your designs and content, unless you have signed a written agreement transferring those rights to someone else.

Why Should You Register a Copyright?

There are several advantages to registering your copyright with the Vietnam Copyright Office. These advantages include:

Registration serves as a public record of your copyright ownership.

You cannot sue someone for copyright infringement unless you have registered your copyright.

If you register your copyright within three months of publication or before an infringement occurs, you can recover statutory damages and attorneys fees if you win a copyright infringement lawsuit. Statutory damages are awarded for each work infringed and do not require you to prove your monetary loss or the infringer’s gain.

Special Rules for Website Copyright Registration

A copyrightregistration only covers the copyrightable elements of your website that you identify and submit to the copyright office as part of your registration.

Updates to websites must be registered separately unless they fall within limited exceptions for automatic updates and serials. Details about these exceptions can be found on the copyright office website.

If you developed a computer program, such as an html program, that establishes the format of text and graphics when a website is viewed on a computer screen, you can register a copyright in the computer program, but the registration will not cover the content of the website.

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Why is software copyrighted?

Copyright is the answer to a major problem: how do you protect something creative that took a lot of work to create, but very little to copy? That protection is important, because few people will, or even can, create something that other people want to enjoy, unless they have some reward at the end. This is especially true for software, where making an absolutely perfect copy is easy.

Software Compliance Law Firm in Vietnam

Writing software is as creative as writing a book or movie. A lot of decisions and tradeoffs have to be made, and today software takes millions, even billions, of dollars to put together. As a society, we want to incentivize that work. Copyright provides the solution.

Example: Company A develops some new software. An engineer of company A makes a copy of the software and starts a new company selling the same software. Most people would consider such an action illegal.

Software is copyrighted because it represents the intellectual property of its creator, so it needs to be protected from being copied.

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Procedure of extending mark certificate in Vietnam

Time Limit of Trademark Protection Extension

As regulation of law on intellectual property, the mark, trademark or service mark, is one of protected subjects of industrial property right. However, to be protected by law, the owner of mark shall apply protection registration dossier to competent authority prior. When the owner registers and is granted a certificate of registered mark, the owner shall have the exclusive right to label the product, service or both, right to allow others to use the mark throughout mark license contracts, right to assign the mark ownership and right to prevent breaching action from any third party.

Register trademark in Vietnam

However, a certificate of registered mark shall be valid from the grant date until the end of ten (10) years after the filing date. When the validity terminates, in order to continue being the owner of mark, the owner of Certificate shall implement the procedure of extending the protection validity of the certificate. It is important that the owner has to be aware of the time to apply dossier for a certificate extension in accordance with the law.

As regulation of law, time limit of extending mark certificate is prior or after six (06) months from the expiration date of mark certificate. If the extension is applied prior 06 months since the expiration date, the owner shall pay extension fee. If the extension is applied after 06 months since the expiration date, the owner shall pay extension fee and fine for late payment as month.

Procedure of extending mark certificate:

• Application form (as template);
• Original Mark Certificate (if any);
• Power of Attorney (POA);
• Payment voucher.

With highly professional staff and great experience in IP aspect in Vietnam, ANT Lawyers would like to support you in extending your trademark or service mark or both in Vietnam.

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What is "intellectual property"?

Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.

Intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over these creations. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time. IP is protected in law by patents, copyright and trademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create.

Infringements of intellectual property rights in Vietnam

Have a look at some of the most common forms of intellectual property protected bylegal provisions, along with their unique characteristics

Trademark

•           Applies to: Words, logos, slogans

•           Applicant: Business owners

•           Validity: Indefinite, but to be renewed every 10 years

•           Ownership without registration? Limited Rights for unregistered Trademark holders

Copyright

•           Applies to: Photographs, movies, music, software code

•           Applicant: Artists & creative professionals, primarily but anyone can apply

•           Validity: Lifetime of the author, plus 60 years

•           Ownership without registration? Yes, but with qualifications. Limited Rights.

Patent

•           Applies to: Inventions & ideas

•           Applicant: Inventors & designers

•           Validity: 20 years

•           Ownership without registration? No

Provisional Patent

•           Applies to: Inventions & ideas

•           Applicant: Inventors & designers

•           Validity: 1 Year

•           Ownership without registration? No

Other than these three* primary types, Trade Secrets are also a form of intellectual property. What are those? Trade secrets typically rely on private measures to be protected rather than state action. A trade secret is any information that helps make the operation and functioning of a business or any other enterprise smoother. The secret maybe a formula, process of manufacturing, list of customers or a pattern of machines. An intellectual work is not a trade secret if it is generally known within the industry, published in journals, books, etc.

Businesses and enterprises usually ask new employees to sign a contract to safeguard their trade secrets before letting them join. However, anon-disclosure clause may be added to the contract whereby the employee is not supposed to ‘disclose’, reveal or share any of the company’s trade secrets.

*Provisional patent serves as a preliminary to the permanent patent, and one must apply for a permanent patent grant within 12 months of applying for a provisional patent.

If you’re looking to read more about intellectual property then head to the Answers page on the website ANTLawyers.vn. Also, we have pre-vetted, experienced Intellectual Property Lawyers in Vietnam available to complete any IP work you need done for an affordable price. Good luck!

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