The Intellectual Property Forum

So if you're planning to set up a patent committee at your company, and you want to bring in external members, is there a standard (or average) payment that one would expect to get? These people would not be patent experts, just like business people, scientists etc

There was a student who was part of the early stages of the invention but then continued their studies overseas. What's the protocol on that if we're thinking of patenting now?

If a lecturer joint supervision with a lecturer from another university on a PhD research work, who would be the rightful owner of the IP?
How would this be sorted (e.g. types of agreements needed)?

So what if you have an invention which might not be patentable for something like it not being completely novel. It's still a great invention though and has a lot of commercial potential.

What kind of legal protection can you still get for it?

So, let's take a popular tv show.. like how i met you mother.

Say, a fan makes these little things like, dolls of the characters.

Is that already a copyright violation? Since the likeness is really of the actor itself, and not of the artistic work..

But then I'm thinking if the doll is, say, 'dressed' as the character, then it might be?

So at what point does it constitute copyright violation?

How about, making them and giving them away and not making any profit off it?

Hi..
So let's say there is this basket. What we want to patent is the design on this basket, which doesn't have any functionality. However, the design might not necessarily be novel - it can be considered as a traditional pattern, perhaps, therefore it can be found in numerous places in the country of origin - but it is considered new in the country in which the basket is going to be sold.
Can the design be patented in this case? If I'm not wrong, I think I remember reading somewhere that national designs/patterns can be patented if being sold in another country.. but I'm not sure..
Thanks for your time..

The university I'm working at is trying to set up it's own patent unit, which I've been tasked to handle. It will cater to university researchers at first, most likely, but will expand to deal with anyone who'd like to file a patent.

Now the next step I'm to take at this moment is to figure out what type of forms are required during the whole process. What I've come up with are Non-disclosure agreements, transfer of rights to the university (for university researchers), and a confidential cover(?) form which gives initial details of invention, inventor, funding etc..

Anything else I might need?

Thank you for your time.