Professional Documents
Culture Documents
human intellect as it is the product of human creation that has value and, as with all property it
needs to be protected by law. For example; patents, Trademarks and copyrights enable people to
earn recognition from what they invent or create. Intellectual property, very broadly, means the
legal rights which result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic
fields.
Countries have laws to protect intellectual property for two main reasons. One is to give statutory
expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations and the rights of the
public in access to those creations. The second is to promote, as a deliberate act of Government
policy, creativity and the dissemination and application of its results and to encourage fair
The importance of intellectual property was first recognized in the Paris Convention for the
Protection of Industrial Property (1883) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary
and Artistic Works (1886). Both treaties are administered by the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO).
The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania allows ownership of property and
guarantees its protection.2 To this end, laws have been enacted to promote and protect intellectual
property rights. Intellectual property rights are designed to promote and protect the creations and
inventions of the mind. Artistic and scientific innovations enjoy legal protection under the
1 WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook: Policy, Law and Use. Chapter 1. page 3
2 See article 24 of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1977 (as
amended from time to time).
Traditionally there are two branches of Intellectual Property (IP), usually divided into two,
namely industrial property and copyright. Industrial Property which includes patents for
inventions, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical indications. In some cases, aspects of
an intellectual creation, although present, are less clearly defined. What counts then is that the
regarding products and services offered on the market. Protection is directed against
unauthorized use of such signs that could mislead consumers, and against misleading practices in
general.
Copyright covers literary works, in general this is all information that is released or sold to the
public. Copyright deals with the rights of intellectual creators in their creation. (such as novels,
poems and plays), films, music, artistic works (drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures)
and architectural design. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their
performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and broadcasters in their radio and
television programs.3
In the case of Copyright: Feist v. Rural Telephone Service Co.4 Facts: Rural Telephone Service
Company, Inc. (Plaintiff) provides telephone service to several communities. Due to a state
white and yellow pages. The yellow pages have advertisements that generate revenue. Feist
Publications, Inc. (Defendant) is a publishing company whose directory covers a larger range
than a typical directory. Defendant distributes their telephone books free of charge, and they also
generate revenue through the advertising in the yellow pages. Plaintiff refused to give a license
Issue. Are the names, addresses, and phone numbers in a telephone directory able to be
copyrighted?
Rule: Rural claimed a collection copyright in its directory. The court clarified that the intent of
copyright law was not, as claimed by Rural and some lower courts, to reward the efforts of
persons collecting information the so called "sweat of the brow" or "industrious collection"
doctrine but rather "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" (U.S. Constitution.
Held: Facts cannot be copyrighted, however compilations of facts can generally be copyrighted.
To qualify for copyright protection, a work must be original to the author, A work may be
original even though it closely resembles other works so long as the similarity is fortuitous, not
the result of copying. The Court ruled that information contained in Rural's phone directory was
In Abercrombie & Fitch Company V. Hunting World, Incorporated5 (The trademark issues)
Facts: A complaint was filed in 1970 by Abercrombie & Fitch Company (A&F), owner of well-
known stores at Madison Avenue and 45th Street in New York City and seven places in other
states1 against Hunting World, Incorporated (HW), operator of a competing store on East 53rd
Street, is for infringement of some of A&F's registered trademarks using the word 'Safari'. It has
had a long and, for A&F, an unhappy history. On this appeal from a judgment which not only
were not in suit, we relieve A&F of some of its unhappiness but not of all.
Issue: (1) May the word "Safari" alone be validly registered as a trademark?
(2) If so, may summary judgment be granted as to any of the defendant's uses of the word
"Safari"?
Rule: The complaint alleges infringements under the Trade-Mark Act of 1946 (Lanham Act), and
Article 24 of the General Business Law of New York, McKinney's Consol Laws, c. 20.
In Biogen Plc V Medeva Plc6. The Court of Appeal handed down an important judgment
covering a class of products, but only one process for producing one of the products was
Issue: whether an invention was obvious should be treated with appropriate respect by an
appellate court.
Held: The claim for a DNA patent was too broad; no new principle was shown, and other means
were available of achieving the technical effect claimed. Where the application of a legal
matter of degree, an appellate court should be very cautious in differing from the judges
6 : Hl 31 Oct 1996.
evaluation. Disclosure must enable the invention to be performed to the full extent of the
monopoly claimed.