Putting science
at the heart of development
Definitions
List of terms for Intellectual property
P
Parallel imports
Also called 'grey-market imports'. Goods that are brought into a country by a third party trader without the authorisation of the IPR holder, after those goods were placed legitimately on the market by a licensed producer in another country.
Patent
A legal certificate that gives an inventor exclusive rights to prevent others from producing, using, selling, or importing the invention for a limited period (usually 20 years). Legal action can be taken against those who infringe the patent by copying the invention or selling it without permission from the patent owner. Patents can be bought, sold, or licensed. A patent application must satisfy an examiner that the invention is novel, useful (i.e. has an industrial application), and involves an inventive step. The latter requirement usually means that the invention should not be obvious to a person skilled in the relevant technology. Patents can cover products, processes, or uses, or a combination of these.
Plant breeders' rights
Plant breeders' rights (sometimes called plant variety rights / protection) are a type of intellectual property right for plant varieties. To be eligible for protection a variety must be distinguishable by one or more characteristics from any other variety (distinct), remain true to its description after repeated reproduction or propagation (stable), homogeneous with regard to the particular feature of its sexual reproduction or vegetative propagation (uniform), and novel.
Prior Art
In patent law, prior art refers to publicly-available existing knowledge that is relevant to an invention for which a patent applicant is seeking protection. If the prior art is too closely related to the claimed invention, the application may be rejected on the grounds of lack of novelty. Patent offices are required to check for the absence of prior art before awarding a patent.
.jpg){kind=spacer}
