Introduction :
Intellectual property is a legal term that refers to everything that the human mind produces of ideas, creations, and innovations that are translated into tangible things. It includes the rights arising from human intellectual activity in the artistic, literary, scientific, industrial, and commercial fields, and so on.
Organisation in Kuwaiti Law:
Due to the broadness of the term intellectual property, the Kuwaiti legislator has been keen to define the types of intellectual property rights and has allocated a special law for each type. This is in order to protect all those rights arising from the innovations of the human mind. The legislator has organized these rights into the following:
1. Commercial Rights:
The most prominent of these rights are trademark rights. The legislator has allocated a special law for them, Law No. (13) of 2015 concerning the approval of the Trademark Law of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Article (2) of this law defines a trademark as anything that takes a distinctive form of names, words, signatures, letters, symbols, numbers, titles, seals, drawings, pictures, engravings, packaging, graphic elements, shapes, colors, or combinations of colors, or a mixture of thereof, or any sign or group of signs, if used or intended to be used to distinguish the goods or services of one establishment from the goods or services of other establishments or to indicate the performance of a service, or to carry out the inspection or examination of goods or services.
A specific sound or smell can also be registered as a trademark.
2. Industrial Rights:
These are the rights of patents, designs, and industrial models. They are regulated by Law No. (71/2013) on the Issuance of the Patent Law of the Gulf Cooperation Council. An invention, as defined in this law, is any new innovation that can be exploited industrially, whether it relates to new industrial products or to new or improved industrial methods or means, or to a new application of known industrial methods or means, such as the invention of machines, devices, or the like.
As for industrial designs, they refer to any arrangement and coordination of lines in an innovative way that gives goods and merchandise a beautiful and attractive appearance that attracts the attention of the consumer.
3. Copyright:
This is regulated by Law No. (75/2019) on Copyright and Related Rights.
Article (3) of this law specifies who enjoys the protection of this law and mentions among them the authors of innovative works in literature, art, and science, whether written or delivered orally, such as lectures, speeches, religious sermons, and the like, theatrical and musical works that are performed with movements or steps, cinematographic and radio works, audible and visual works, works of drawing, sculpture, decorative arts, photography, etc.
Conclusion:
It is clear that the term intellectual property is the overarching and most comprehensive name used to refer to all the types of rights mentioned above. However, the Kuwaiti legislator has regulated each type of intellectual property by a special law as stated above.
