Professional Issues in Information Technology

Intellectual Property Rights

ineffective, it may be appropriate to disclose the information to a profes-

sional body or to a public official. Only in the most serious of cases will

disclosure to the media be protected.

TRADE MARKS AND PASSING OFF

The law regarding trade marks in the UK is based on the Trade Marks Act

1994, which consolidated and updated existing legislation. The Act defines a

trade mark as:

. . . any sign capable of being represented graphically which is capable of dis-

tinguishing goods or services of one undertaking from those of other under-

takings. A trade mark may, in particular, consist of words (including personal

names), designs, letters, numerals or the shape of goods or their packaging.

Some of the best known examples of trade marks include the name Coca

Cola, the characteristic shape of the Coca Cola bottle, and the large M that

serves to advertise McDonalds hamburger outlets. Microsoft is a trade mark,

as are the names of many Microsoft products such as Outlook.

Provision is made for registering trade marks and most trade marks are

now registered. In the UK this is done through the UK Patent Office. The

Patent Office maintains a database of registered trade marks and their

owners that can be searched over the internet. Trade marks are associated

with particular classes of products so that it is quite possible for the same

trade mark to belong to several different owners because each has registered

it for a different class of product. There are comprehensive rules limiting

what can be registered as a trade mark. Place names and the names of people,

for example, will not generally be accepted for registration.

The1994 Act makes it an offence to:

 apply a unauthorized registered trade mark (that is, a registered trade

mark that you do not own or do not have the owner’s permission to use)

to goods;

 sell or offer for sale (or hire), goods or packaging that bear an unauth-

orized trade mark;

 import or export goods that bear an unauthorized trade mark;

 have in the course of business, goods for sale or hire goods (or packag-

ing) that bear an unauthorized trade mark.

In most circumstances, the offence will be criminal and punishable by a fine

or up to two years’ imprisonment. However, the trade mark owner can

also bring civil proceedings to claim for the financial damage he may have

suffered.

Under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), to which most

countries are signatories, countries that do not have suitable laws to protect

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