• A patent is a legal claim which, for a limited period of time, gives its user the right to prohibit commercial exploitation of his/her invention by any non-authorised third party.

• To be patentable, an invention must in large part adhere to the following three criteria:
  
  1. Novelty, that is to say that nothing identical has ever been made public knowledge by any means whatsoever.
  1. Inventiveness, that is to say that the invention cannot be obviously derived from state of the art as known to a person involved in the technical area in question.
  2. Industrial application, that is to say that the invention may be manufactured or used in any type of industry, including agriculture.

• The protection is limited in time (to 20 years) and to those countries where the patent has actually been filed and granted.

• In exchange for these rights, the invention is made public in the eighteenth month after the patent had been filed so that everyone may benefit from the information contained therein with a view to:
  • Identifying the state of the art and making use of it;
  • Following the activities of competitors;
  • Avoiding counterfeiting.

A trademark is a distinguishing feature which allows consumers to distinguish the products or services of one company from those of its competitors. This distinguishing feature may play an important role as it represents the image of the company, and the quality and origin of its products. It enables the identification of the source of a product or service. The registration of a trademark is not compulsory but highly recommended as, specifically, it gives the exclusive right to prohibit non-authorised use of the trademark.

Before registering a trademark (to designate a product or service), the Research Administration will check to see if it is available. In fact, identical or similar denominations (trademarks or registered names) may be an obstacle to depositing a trademark (if there is a risk of confusion or damage). Trademarks are also lodged to designate categories of products/services.

The registered name, on the other hand, is used to designate a company and may be acquired freely on condition that it does not cause any confusion with an existing name.

Know-how denotes information of different types which have a value in the manufacturing or development process of a product or service. It may be a patentable invention that has not been patented or expertise and information which allows for the improvement of a technique or product, or for optimizing the implementation of an invention.

Know-how may be protected by trade secret, which prospective partners are forced to respect by means of confidentiality agreements.

It should be noted that labour law forbids workers to divulge « manufacturing or business secrets » which they become aware of during the course of their professional activities.

It is important to indicate the confidential nature of information directly on supports used (affixing a « confidential » stamp on printed documents, automatic inclusion of the word "confidential" at the bottom of a page, etc.).

Copyright has as its aim the protection of artistic and literary works: it protects any original expression or presentation of an idea. It may relate to musical, literary or scientific works, architecture, paintings, sculpture, plays, films, etc. However, the ideas or principles which underlie these works cannot in themselves be protected and a distinction must be made between the works and material supports (cds, books, USB keys etc.) which do not involve the copyright on the work itself. For example, the owner of a painting by Francis Bacon has no copyright on the work itself. The aim of copyright is to encourage creation by guaranteeing those thus engaged the possibility of making their activity economically viable or even profitable and allowing public distribution of their creations whilst maintaining the association between these works and their creators.

A work is protected by copyright if it fulfils the following conditions: originality (the work must include the stamp of its author’s personality ») and design (the work must flow in a certain form; ideas cannot be protected.)

These conditions are broad and quickly unified.

Protection by copyright is automatic and does not depend on fulfilling particular formalities. The work is protected by its creation. However, certain steps may be useful to assert and prove authorship (e.g. insertion of "Copyright © + the name of the copyright owner + the year of first publication", any deposits, etc.

The original copyright owner is the physical being or beings who created the work, who may, of course, sell all or part of the copyright.

There may be exceptions to this rule : in terms of software the employer benefits from the presumption that the creators of programs yield their exclusive rights if they are in employment and if they created the software during the course of their professional activities or on the instructions of their employer.