Methods of Knowledge Protection

The ways of protecting knowledge can, in general, be divided into three categories according to their formality: formal protection methods often called intellectual property rights (IPR), contractual (semi-formal) protection methods, and informal protection methods (PRO INNO Europe, 2007). Formal protection methods arise from IP legislation and include patents, trademarks, utility models, rights to commercial names, and copyrights. Contractual/semi-formal protection methods include different types of contracts, such as confidentiality agreements, prohibition of competition clauses in agreements, and proprietary and access rights clauses in agreements. Brief descriptions of the formal and contractual methods of knowledge protection are given in the Glossary in this book. An easy access to the intellectual property laws is AIPPI,which is a non-government organization for the law relating to the protection of intellectual property…