GLOSSARY (C)

CERTIFICATION MARK

A Certification Mark is a Trade Mark, which indicates that the goods and services for which it is applied are certified by the proprietor of the Mark in respect of its origin, material, mode of manufacture of goods or performance of services, quality, accuracy or other characteristics.

CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF TRADE MARK ATTORNEYS (CITMA)

The Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys is the professional body for Trade Mark Attorneys in the UK. All Trade Mark directors at Albright IP are CITMA registered and are regulated by the Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg).

CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF PATENT ATTORNEYS (CIPA)

The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys is the professional and examining body for Patent attorneys in the UK. All Patent directors at Albright IP are CIPA registered and are regulated by the Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg).

CITATIONS

Citations are documents found by the Examiner during the Search Report which are considered to be in the same technical field.

CLAIMS

Claims form the most important part of any patent specification. This numbered list of items defines the extent of the invention for which protection is sought or granted under the patent. Claims are usually to a device or apparatus, or to a process. Only the essential features of an invention should be included in Claim 1. Optional features should go into the dependent claims.

CO-OWNERSHIP

Co-ownership, otherwise known as ‘joint ownership’, is where two or more individuals or companies jointly own a patent or patent application. The default arrangement is that the parties hold an equal share in the ownership, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. Co-ownership entitles each party to work the invention without infringing the rights of the other parties, i.e. no permission need be sought from the other parties before the invention is put into practice. However, all parties must agree in order to amend the patent/application or to license or assign it.

COMMUNITY TRADE MARK (CTM)

Up until the 23 March 2016, Trade Mark registrations which have effect in all 28 States of the European Union were referred to as a Community Trade Marks (CTM). They are now referred to as European Union Trade Mark (EUTM)

COMPANIES HOUSE

Companies House is the official Registrar of Companies in the United Kingdom, based in Cardiff, South Wales. Companies House incorporates and dissolves Limited Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP). They store company information, which can be searched publicly.

COMPANY

A company is a legal entity, which owns the business that is carried on by the organisation concerned. A company is an artificial person, capable of owning property.

COMPANY NAME

A Company name is the name that is registered at Companies House. Company name registration is entirely differently from Trade Mark registration.

COMPENSATION

Compensation is the amount received to “make one whole” (or at least better) after for an injury or loss, particularly that paid by an insurance company either of the party causing the damage or by one’s own insurer.

COMPULSORY LICENCE

After three years from grant and only on limited grounds, anyone can apply to the UK IPO for a licence to a patent. Such grounds include the demand for a product not being met on reasonable terms or a refusal to reasonably licence is blocking a technical advance of economic importance.

CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT

A confidentiality agreement is a legal agreement which states that confidential information will not be shared with or passed to others.

CONTINUATION-IN-PART (CIP)

In the USA, a continuation-in-part patent application can be filed for an invention which has new matter, but repeats a substantial portion of an existing application. It is often used where additional improvements are made to inventions after filing. The original patent application is not taken to form part of the prior art for the purposes of assessing novelty and inventive step. There is no exact equivalent to a continuation-in-part in the UK or Europe. However, other means may be available to obtain a similar level of protection.

CONTRIBUTORY INFRINGEMENT

A person who supplies means relating to an essential element of a patented invention is himself guilty of infringement, if he knows (or it is obvious) that the means he is supplying are going to be used to put the patented invention into effect in the UK. See ‘infringement’.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright is a form of intellectual property, which is distinct from patents, trademarks and registered designs. It is an umbrella term for protection that extends to literary (e.g. books, website content), dramatic (e.g. stage productions), musical (e.g. radio plays, pop music) and artistic works (e.g. paintings, sketches, drawings). The requirements vary as do the corresponding terms of protection.