Why is it necessary to enforce intellectual property rights?
The primary purpose of having intellectual property protection is to help your company benefit from the innovations and creativity of your employees. Intellectual property rights held by your company can only yield profits when they are enforced; otherwise, infringers and counterfeiters can take advantage of the lack of effective enforcement mechanisms to profit from the hard-earned achievements. Typically, enforcement’s risk serves as a deterrent to potential rights infringers.
In summary, for your company, enforcing intellectual property rights is necessary to:
- Maintain the legal validity of your intellectual property rights before relevant authorities.
- Prevent infringements or ongoing infringements from occurring in the market, thereby avoiding damage to your reputation with customers.
- Seek compensation for actual damages, such as lost profits due to any infringements in the market.
Who is responsible for enforcing intellectual property rights?
The burden of enforcing intellectual property rights primarily falls on the rights owner. Therefore, enforcement depends on you, as the intellectual property rights holder, in identifying acts of infringement or counterfeiting and deciding on the applicable measures.
However, it is also the responsibility of the country or government to establish support mechanisms for enforcing intellectual property rights. In some cases, legal and administrative bodies such as intellectual property offices or customs agencies are government agencies responsible for addressing rights infringements, such as trademark counterfeiting or copyright infringement.
When border control measures are applied at your country’s international borders to prevent the importation of counterfeit trademarks or copyright-infringing goods, customs authorities play a central role in enforcing intellectual property rights. According to current legal regulations, customs authorities can take proactive action or act upon the rights holder’s request or court orders.
Furthermore, in some countries, professional associations also support their members in the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
