IP Law: Preventing Your Dream from Becoming an Illusion
March 01, 07You’ve been preparing for months for the upcoming exhibition in Hong Kong. Your preparations started when you had that idea about a really special diamond that you would dedicate to your spouse, to your children, or even to yourself (!). This would be the diamond, not only with fabulous, dazzling qualities, with a story that would instantly capture the market’s imagination; but it would also have a name to match, so that everyone would recognize it as your own creation. And it goes without saying, that the financial rewards for that creation would also be significant.
So prior to the event, you invest time, effort, and money, but as with any investment, you are absolutely certain that there will be significant returns. And of course, not to be caught possibly infringing on your competitors’ IP rights, you’ve done design and trademark clearance searches, and you’re pretty sure that no one will be able to sue you for infringement.
The big day comes, and you arrive early to make sure that your booth is set up properly. During a break, you wander around the exhibition hall at a leisurely pace, quietly confident that you will be the sensation of the show. Then, you stop in your tracks.
There, in front of you, is the poster size representation of your new creation. But it doesn’t look right. The colors are wrong and the lighting in the booth is totally different. The billboards announcing it are…one second, they’ve spelled the name wrong! As you spin around to look at where you have just come from, you realize that there’s nothing wrong with your booth – except that the one next to you belongs to a competitor who has come out with a stone that is almost identical. The slight differences in the stones would only be noticed by you. Then you realize …they’ve essentially stolen your design and your name!
You’re upset and ready to boil over. Of all the dirty tricks! How could they do this to you? Didn’t they realize how important it is? It’s not even the money. This was going to be your path to immortality, your gift to your spouse after 25-years of a wonderful marriage, or your gift to your baby daughter! And now this!
As the shock begins to sink in, you realize that they did nothing wrong. Your design was such a closely guarded secret, there’s no way that they could have copied it. You realize that however brilliant you were to have thought of such a design, there are others just as smart as you are. You could call your lawyer, but for what purpose? Your competitor has just as much right to be here as you, and just as much right to this stone and trademark.
And you become angry with yourself as you realize that it’s your fault that you are so helpless in this situation. You checked whether someone else had prior rights to the design and to the name, but why didn’t you go one step further? Why didn’t you make sure to secure the rights for yourself? All it would have taken is a phone call, a fax, an e-mail to your Patent Attorney. So why didn’t you?
We all know the excuses we make for not taking precautions, even though we think, “it can never happen to me.” Your creation was truly brilliant, a real masterpiece and your dream was inspired. Possibly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But as soon as you allowed others to copy your new design and your name by not protecting them properly, that opportunity disappeared, together with your vision. It’s good to have a dream. But without properly protecting your IP rights, your dream can so easily become a mirage. And that’s a mistake that you can ill afford.
This is the third in a series of articles about intellectual property. Click Related Articles below for the first two articles.
Jeremy Ben-David, originally from the UK, has been involved in IP since 1985, and since 1995 has been managing partner of JMB & Co, a full service Intellectual Property firm. He can be reached by email at: jmbendavid at israel-patents.co.il