Find out what intellectual property is and why engineers are urged to prioritize understanding it and protecting their rights.
Have you ever taken a moment to genuinely appreciate the significance of intellectual property (IP) rights and laws in relation to your engineering designs? Well, there is no better time to delve into this topic than now, thanks to a recent online seminar conducted by Dr. Arti Siddhpura, a lecturer at the Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT), shedding light on the vital role of “Intellectual Property in Engineering.”
As an engineer, you could possess a remarkable idea with the potential to become a highly valuable asset for the company or university you are associated with, generating millions or even billions of dollars in revenue.
However, it is crucial to understand that intellectual property rights are usually transferred to the university or your employer when you invent something or develop a brilliant idea within an academic institution or workplace.
Consequently, esteemed engineering professionals like Dr. Siddhpura actively advocate for students to acquaint themselves with the intricacies of patent, copyright, trade secret, and trademark laws. By doing so, they can effectively safeguard their creations, allowing them to share their ideas and products without fear of infringement freely.
Now, you might wonder, what is intellectual property, and why should engineers pay keen attention to it?
The Lowdown on Intellectual Property
Intellectual property encompasses legal rights that protect intangible creations of the human mind, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. These forms of IP grant exclusive rights and control over use, reproduction, and distribution. IP fosters innovation, creativity, and economic growth.
For engineers, safeguarding intellectual property is crucial. They develop groundbreaking designs, technologies, and inventions with transformative potential. By protecting their IP rights, engineers retain control over their creations, preventing unauthorized use or imitation and enabling effective commercialization.
Moreover, IP rights give engineers a competitive edge. Securing patents establishes barriers to entry, safeguarding ideas from replication and enabling capitalization on investments. This exclusivity attracts investors, facilitates licensing agreements, and enhances engineers’ credibility.
Collectively, a focus on intellectual property benefits the engineering community. Respecting IP rights cultivates a culture of innovation, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. This exchange of ideas fuels technological progress, pushing boundaries and driving societal advancements.
In summary, engineers must prioritize understanding and protecting their intellectual property rights. Doing so secures their innovations, unlocks economic potential, and fosters innovation and progress within the engineering community.
EIT Lecturer Discusses the Dynamics
On Wednesday, 28 June 2023, Dr. Siddhpura presented a free technical webinar to help equip engineers with the essential knowledge to navigate this intricate realm. The webinar covered key aspects such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, and design rights, providing a solid foundation in IP understanding.
She gave a hypothetical scenario where an engineer (Alex) had created a one-of-a-kind invention and excitedly told his friends about what he had created. Little did he realize that one of his confidants would break into his workshop, steal his creation, and register it as his own.
“It would be an exaggeration to say that technology and law are two closely related fields of practice. However, engineers need to be aware of intellectual property laws and regulations to protect their own creations and respect the rights of others,” said Dr. Siddhpura over the live stream.
She highlighted that the basic concept of intellectual property rights (IPR) was that if a person puts original effort into an idea, they must be rewarded. IPR provides certain exclusive rights to the inventors or creators of that property to enable them to reap commercial benefits from their creative efforts or reputation.
Although this sounds cut and dry in principle, there are real-life situations where it can get messy and may only be resolved in a court of law. Such was the case with a young South African engineer and his employer Vodacom, one of the largest mobile network operators in the country.
When Courts Get Involved
Nkosana Makate and Vodacom were embroiled in a well-known legal dispute over Makate’s invention, the “Please Call Me” service. He asserted that he produced the idea and shared it with Vodacom executives while employed by the company. Seeking compensation for his invention, he entered lengthy negotiations and legal battles with Vodacom, but no resolution was reached. The case garnered significant media attention and public support for Makate’s rightful compensation.
In 2016, the South African Constitutional Court, which happens to be the highest court in the country, ruled in favor of Makate, declaring that Vodacom had an obligation to compensate him for the “Please Call Me” service. The court directed both parties to negotiate to determine a fair amount of compensation. Unfortunately, these negotiations persisted for years and failed to reach an acceptable agreement.
In 2020, Vodacom offered ZAR 49 million (approximately USD 3.4 million) to settle the matter, but Makate rejected the offer as insufficient. The legal battle between Makate and Vodacom remains ongoing, with a final resolution yet to be achieved. The case has sparked discussions and debates surrounding intellectual property rights, fair compensation for inventors, and corporate responsibility.
When asked about the advice he would give to other people who would be selling their ideas to big corporations, Makate said: “Based on the experience that I’ve had, people need to protect their ideas, and they need to make sure they get lawyers for advice and other people who are skilled and knowledgeable in business actually to take them through the process.”
Sound IP Advice for Engineers
Dr. Steve Mackay, the Dean of Engineering at EIT, has discussed the topic of IP in engineering at great length and has some solid advice for engineers when it comes to protecting their rights.
“You may be horrified about your value with your intellectual property. You need to look after it and protect it from your friends across the river who may be keen to steal it or use it in their commercial undertakings,” said Dr. Mackay in an article titled “Engineers Encourage Understanding of Intellectual Property in The Engineering Industry.”
Dr. Mackay also highlights three forms of intellectual property in his YouTube series, The Engineering News Network. In the 28th episode, he cautions engineers to protect their ideas through the following methods:
Patents: 20 years of protection. It gives you protection no one else can get once you have been granted it, but you must do it internationally. The other issue is once you have defined the patent, you may find that your friends who do not care about patents or any IP now have a defined product they can now go and copy. Mackay also says it is mostly ironclad.
Copyright: A drawing or a design. You can typically get 95 years of protection for a corporation, and then for an individual, it is the individual’s lifetime plus seventy years. The other good thing is that you do not have to register in countries like Australia. However, in other countries, you do.
For those interested in the registration policies of other countries, Dr. Siddhpura recommends logging onto the World Intellectual Property Organization site for contact details, treaty membership, national intellectual property laws, statistics, technical cooperation, outreach, and more.
Dr. Siddhpura also cautioned engineers against public disclosure when under pressure or put on the spot to present at technical events. “Be very careful in what you publicly disclose about your new developments before a patent application has been filed, or being over-enthusiastic or premature in presenting data, even if venture capital is on the line,” she advised.
References
What Is Intellectual Property
Engineers encourage understanding of intellectual property in the engineering industry
Understanding Intellectual Property for Engineers
World Intellectual Property Organization
