Overlapping IP rights pose tough challenges

It can be challenging to manoeuvre through Intellectual Property (IP) rights when two or more rights overlap. While this is a factual and legal reality, it is a phenomenon that is not yet fully analysed. Due to development of new hybrid technologies that defy the established structure of the IP system, the issue of overlapping IP rights has increasingly become significant.

As a result of new technological developments and other factors some intellectual property rights very rarely occur independently. It is possible, for example, for one creative output to be protected by multiple intellectual property rights such as trademark or industrial design and copyright at the same time. Trademark law seeks to govern the use of a device (such as a word, phrase, symbol, product shape, or logo) to identify goods and to distinguish those goods from those made or sold by another. Industrial design law seeks to protect the visual design of objects and consists of the shape, configuration or composition of pattern or colour, or combination of pattern and colour in three-dimensional form containing aesthetic value. Copyright law, on the other hand, seeks to preserve the rights of artistic creators, and protects the expression of ideas. All these IP rights are intended to protect different aspects of creativity. It may occasion a legal and practical challenge when these rights overlap.