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WACQT SUMMER SCHOOL
Introduction to Intellectual Property (IP)
Peter Deakin and Victor Westergård

August 2019
Agenda
• Utilisation
• Why does Intellectual Property (IP) matter?
• Example of the use of different types of IP to protect a product
• Practical considerations
• IP in open networks
• Support available for WACQT
• (Appendix: Types of IP and ownership, Patents / Knowhow, Copyright,

Semiconductor topographies)
Utilisation is broader than commercialization
What is utilisation?
”What we do to ensure that our

knowledge and results impact society and
contribute to a sustainable future.”
04/17/2023 Chalmers Innovationskontor 5

Utilisation? Everyone does it!
We do it daily, perhaps without thinking about it
PRACTICES RULES & GOVERNANCE LOGICS & BELIEFS 17 SDG
New products in use New or updated: Change in:
New services adopted - Standards - Perceptions
New efficient processes implemented - Laws & regulations - Attitudes
Changing organizational culture & - Policies - Beliefs
practices - Theories
Methods & Tools
Thriving start-ups
Why does Intellectual Property (IP) matter?
Exclusive rights: Creation of an incentive to improve the
world
• IP Rights are legal rights for ‘creations of the mind’

• Grant exclusive control to decide who can e.g. make / sell a protected
product / service
• Incentive designed to reward creativity / investment in bringing a
product / service to the world
• Balance between inventor/owner and society – time-limited exclusivity,
then all of society can use the creation freely
What would happen to the creator’s motivation /
incentive in the case that…
• A pharma company brings a new cancer drug to market (cost of ~$2.5

Bn and maybe 10 years work)
• Clinical trials, manufacture & scale up, marketing & sales, distribution, etc.
• But a competitor can launch a generic equivalent for a fraction of the

cost?
Imperfect system, but it’s the best we’ve got
• Criticisms of the patent system, for example, include:
• Different laws in different countries / territories

• Slowing / blocking innovation
• Poor patent quality – ‘granted too easily’
• Patent Trolls – parasitic use of patents
• Litigation costs – risk to small companies vs. large
• Pharma industry – cost to developing countries
• Different industries but one system
*
*manufacturing, technology and business services
Source: Intellectual property rights intensive industries

and economic performance in the European Union,
Industry-Level Analysis Report, October 2016, Second edition
Example of the use of different types of IP to protect a
product
What product is this? US patent filed in 2005
Abstract: Disclosed herein is a multi-functional hand-held device

capable of configuring user inputs based on how the device is to be used.
Preferably, the multifunctional hand-held device has at most only a few
physical buttons, keys, or switches so that its display size can be
substantially increased.
Claim 2: A hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1,

wherein said handheld electronic device includes two or more of the
following device functionalities: PDA, mobile phone, music player, camera,
video player, game player, handtop, Internet terminal, GPS receiver, and
remote control.
WO 2006/094308 A2
Apple iPhone
Source: https://www.apple.com/iphone/
Examples of other types of IP protecting an iPhone?
Trademarks: Apple, iPhone, FaceTime, iTunes, etc.
Copyright: Software/Apps, iOS
Patents: control circuitry for LEDs, A system and method of locating

“friends” devices on a network, methods of data processing, sensor for
detecting force of touch on the screen, etc.
Semiconductor chip topology: Apple A12 Bionic (Apple-designed system on

a chip, includes implementation of 64-Bit ARM architecture)
Types of Intellectual property rights (IPR)
• Trademarks: protects ”designation of origin” (identity, reputation)

• Patents: protect what something is, how it works or what it can be
used for (Utility models also exist, sometimes called ’patent light’)
• Designs: protects how something looks
• Copyright: protects original creative work (software, literature and art)
• Integrated Circuit Design: functional layout (topography) of an IC
• Know-how: may be confidential information as Trade secret
• Database rights: protect collections of data
Practical considerations (for academic researchers)
Practical considerations I: Creatorship / ownership
General rule: a creator is someone who has made a creative, intellectual

contribution to the IP (as defined by the relevant law)
Consider: important experiments showing a method works vs. creating the
method itself
General rule: ownership follows creatorship, unless a contract / other law

changes this
Consider: employee of a Swedish company
Consider: software created by an academic researcher in a collaboration with
industry where a contract says the company owns the ‘arising IP’
Tip: Always check the contract!

Practical considerations II: Teacher´s exemption
(Professor’s privilege)
Found in two EU countries: Sweden + Italy
Exemption-like status also exists (Germany, Poland, Oxbridge…)
Ownership of Intellectual Property created during course of employment lies with

employer in many countries
Often governed by employment agreement
Swedish law contains two ’exemptions’ for teachers ( Interpreted to include researchers)
Rights to employee inventions: Lag (1949:345) om rätten till arbetstagares uppfinningar
Copyright to literary and artistic works, customary exemption: Lag (1960:729) om
upphovsrätt till litterära och konstnärliga verk
Tip: Often changed by contract in collaborative projects with industry – always check
the contracts!
Practical considerations III: Publication and IP
IP is created all the time in research! Have you ever:

thought: ‘that’s interesting…’, ‘that’s unexpected..’?
written some software?
designed something to be produced in a semiconductor?
IP isn’t always needed: other forms of utilization
There can be a tension between publication and capturing IP

A patent application needs to be filed before publication!
Tip: There may be (contractual) obligations to collaboration partners – always check

the contract!
Tip: If in doubt contact your local Innovation Office
https://innovationskontor.chalmers.se/en
https://www.kth.se/en/innovation
https://www.innovation.lu.se/
Open networks – or ‘open’ networks
Open invention network - Linux
Code contributed freely to the networks – can be used / modified by the

network members
BUT
Applications / uses of the code are patent protected. Members agree to

freely licence their patents to each other AND not to sue anyone
CREATES a network that is both OPEN and CONTROLLED

Support for WACQT researchers
The Innovation Office offers free support…
Identification of assets Personal development
Collaboration with
external partners Impact communication
Utilisation strategies Help with applying for

research funding
Funding for verification Advice on patenting &

– at an early stage licensing
… suited to your needs and situation

Thanks for listening!
Peter Deakin
[email protected]
(Also available at MC2 coffee every month)
Victor Westergård
[email protected]
Appendix
Types and ownership of Intellectual Property
Types of Intellectual property rights (IPR)
• Trademarks: protects ”designation of origin” (identity, reputation)

• Patents: protect what something is, how it works or what it can be
used for (Utility models also exist, sometimes called ’patent light’)
• Designs: protects how something looks
• Copyright: protects expressions of ideas
• Integrated Circuit Design: functional layout (topography) of an IC
• Know-how: may be confidential information as Trade secret
• Database rights: protect collections of data
IPR protection periods
• IC Design 10 years
• Patent 20 years
• Trademark renewed every 10 years, forever..
• Copyright 70 years after death of author
• Design 5 x 5 years
Ownership of Intellectual Property
• Main rule: inventor/creator etc. owns

• Exceptions:
• The employer
• Work for hire
• The ownership right may be assigned, as a whole or in part
Teacher´s exemption (Professor’s privilege)
• Found in two EU countries: Sweden + Italy

• Exemption-like status also exists (Germany, Poland, Oxbridge…)
• Ownership of Intellectual Property created during course of employment lies with
employer in many countries, not in Sweden
• Often changed by employment agreement
• Swedish law contains two ’exemptions’ for teachers
• Interpreted to include researchers too
• Rights to employee inventions: Lag (1949:345) om rätten till arbetstagares uppfinningar
• Copyright to literary and artistic works, customary exemption: Lag (1960:729) om upphovsrätt till
litterära och konstnärliga verk
• Often changed by contract in collaborative projects with industry
Patents
What is a patent?
 Blunt economic instrument
designed to incentivise innovation
Owner: Society:
20 year Invention
monopoly published
Invention: More likely to be developed

+ basis for new inventions
04/17/2023 Chalmers Innovationskontor 35
What is a patent?
• 20 years of exclusive right to prevent others from:

• Making
• Using
• Selling
• Importing
• an invention disclosed in a granted patent,
• in/to the country where the patent was granted (patent rights are
national)
• Enforceable in a court of law (Expensive to litigate…)
Patentability criteria
• Novelty – file before publication!

• Inventive step – surprising!
• Industrial applicability
• “Technical solution to a problem”
Examples of what can be patented within the electronics
area
Material per se
(composition of matter)
e.g. precursor material New use of material
e.g. new (composition of) Process of producing

semiconductor material New combination of known a material / device
materials (e.g. new device)
Sources http://www.edisontechcenter.org/semiconductors.htmlhttps://chem.libretexts.org/@api/deki/files/97858/3.jpg?revision=1&size=bestfit&width=480
https://www.olympus-lifescience.com/es/microscope-resource/primer/lightandcolor/ledsintro/ http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.7567/JJAP.54.05ED05
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352507X15200091
US2981877
Patent vs. Trade secret
 Example of a trade secret protecting a product since 1891:
 Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Sugar, Colour (Caramel E150d),
Phosphoric Acid, Natural Flavourings Including Caffeine
vs. 20 years negative right

with recipe disclosed
Utility of trade secrets in

a world of open science?
2023-04-17 Chalmers Innovationskontor 39

Patent on ”computer/software implemented
inventions”
• EU/EPO Computer implemented invention (…that can be

patented):
• For a patent to be granted for a computer-implemented invention, a
technical problem has to be solved in a novel and non-obvious manner.
Software + interaction between hardware and industrial machine or

process = TECHNICAL EFFECT
Software
”Software” Copyright - Ownership and commercial use
Copyright is a legal right that arises automatically and grants the creator of an original work
exclusive rights for its use and distribution.
• Formalities?
• No… but registration and © are useful
• Copyright law: ownership- right to control use of software
• Person creating (copyright in software belongs to researcher unless sponsorship states
otherwise)
• Employer under employment contract (though teacher’s exemption applies)
• Commissioned work – transfer of ownership should be outlined in the agreement
• The author / creator always has a moral right to be identified as such
• Software copyright can be infringed:

• Through literal copying: copy paste
• Through non-literal copying: same structures and the same steps, in the same order, to solve
the same issue
Other means of protecting your ”software”
More specific More conceptual
PROTECTION FUNCTIONAL SYSTEMATIC SYMBOLIC OPERATIONAL DATA
Works of
Invention,
VALUE TO Design / authorship Organisation or
implementation Object Code
PROTECT Structure Source and section of data
of an idea
Binary code
MEANS OF Copyright,
Patents Trade Secrets Copyright Database rights
PROTECTION Licence
Use,
Copying Decompiling, Access,
Manufacture,
RESTRICTS Disclosure Distributing commercialisa- extraction,
Commercialise,
Modifying tion, copying, etc. reuse
Importing, …
How to protect data
You (usually) cannot protect raw data (except by trade secrets) nor can you “license”
data.
A database is protected by copyright if the selection or arrangement of its content is

original (EU Directive 96/9/EC). While the database as a whole can be protected by
database rights.
SO
• You can legally protect and license the protected contents (Content license)
• You can protect and license the access to the data/database (Access license)
• You can legally protect and license the extraction and use of the organised data
(Database license)
Licencing models
• Proprietary (closed) software
• Open source software
• source = software in source code form
• open = freedom to:
• view the source code
• to run the program for any purpose,
• to study and modify the program, and
• to freely redistribute copies of either the original or modified program
(without royalties, etc.)
Software licencing
Integrated Circuit Designs
What is an IC Design? – An EU perspective
• European Council Directive 87/54/EEC is the relevant EU framework:
transposed into national law
• Implementation varies across EU, some have registration schemes some
treat as unregistered design rights
• ~10 years of exclusive right to prevent others from:
• Reproducing a topography
• Commercially exploiting a topography
• Importing a topography or semiconductor product for commercial
exploitation
• Research and teaching exemption provided for
• If not exploited commercially or registered within 15 years, rights expire.
Criteria
• Creator’s own intellectual effort
• Not commonplace in the semiconductor industry
• Combinations of commonplace topographies allowed
• Registration needs to be done:

• Either, within 15 years of first creation if not commercialized, or within 2
years of first commercial exploitation
• With exemplification of the topography
• With the date of first commercial exploitation stated (if applicable)
• Costs: admin fee per country (e.g. NL €79)

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WACQT SUMMER SCHOOL

Introduction to Intellectual Property (IP)

Peter Deakin and Victor Westergård

• (Appendix: Types of IP and ownership, Patents / Knowhow, Copyright,

”What we do to ensure that our

04/17/2023 Chalmers Innovationskontor 5

• IP Rights are legal rights for ‘creations of the mind’

• A pharma company brings a new cancer drug to market (cost of ~$2.5

• But a competitor can launch a generic equivalent for a fraction of the

• Criticisms of the patent system, for example, include:

• Different laws in different countries / territories

*manufacturing, technology and business services

Source: Intellectual property rights intensive industries

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a multi-functional hand-held device

Claim 2: A hand-held electronic device as recited in claim 1,

Trademarks: Apple, iPhone, FaceTime, iTunes, etc.

Copyright: Software/Apps, iOS

Patents: control circuitry for LEDs, A system and method of locating

Semiconductor chip topology: Apple A12 Bionic (Apple-designed system on

• Trademarks: protects ”designation of origin” (identity, reputation)

General rule: a creator is someone who has made a creative, intellectual

General rule: ownership follows creatorship, unless a contract / other law

Tip: Always check the contract!

Ownership of Intellectual Property created during course of employment lies with

IP is created all the time in research! Have you ever:

IP isn’t always needed: other forms of utilization

There can be a tension between publication and capturing IP

Tip: There may be (contractual) obligations to collaboration partners – always check

Code contributed freely to the networks – can be used / modified by the

Applications / uses of the code are patent protected. Members agree to

CREATES a network that is both OPEN and CONTROLLED

Utilisation strategies Help with applying for

Funding for verification Advice on patenting &

… suited to your needs and situation

• Trademarks: protects ”designation of origin” (identity, reputation)

• Main rule: inventor/creator etc. owns

• Found in two EU countries: Sweden + Italy

Invention: More likely to be developed

• 20 years of exclusive right to prevent others from:

• Novelty – file before publication!

e.g. new (composition of) Process of producing

vs. 20 years negative right

Utility of trade secrets in

2023-04-17 Chalmers Innovationskontor 39

• EU/EPO Computer implemented invention (…that can be

Software + interaction between hardware and industrial machine or

• Software copyright can be infringed:

PROTECTION FUNCTIONAL SYSTEMATIC SYMBOLIC OPERATIONAL DATA

A database is protected by copyright if the selection or arrangement of its content is

• Registration needs to be done:

• Costs: admin fee per country (e.g. NL €79)

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