Intellectual property test

Use this test to determine what type of intellectual property your organization may have.

Does your company

provide a service (e.g. training, healthcare, construction and repair, travel arrangements, hairdressing, or medical service)?

engage in production (e.g. production of food, furniture, clothing, building materials)?

Select the appropriate statements (you can choose more than one)

Company uses confidential information when providing services or producing goods.

The company produces new texts, drawings, photographs, models, and designs as part of its operations.

The company’s website contains only unique texts written by them.

The company buys advertising from others, including website and social media content creation services.

The concept of providing services is unique, self-invented and gives a competitive advantage.

When providing the service, the location’s unique and distinctive design is crucial.

The service is made available to the consumer and/or information is shared with the consumer via website.

Services are provided and advertised under the company name.

Does your company offers products and/or services in foreign countries?

Yes

In order to protect your intellectual property, do you require advice or financial assistance?

Yes

We recommend registrating a trade mark

To promote business, we advise you to protect a trade mark. Protection is necessary if you want to distinguish your products and services from those of your competitors and create lasting customer relationships. The value of the trade mark increases over time, therefore early protection – even before the product itself is launched – is beneficial for the company. If you register your trade mark, your competitors will also be informed that such a trade mark belongs exclusively to you and allows you to stand up for your rights in case of problems. As the owner of a registered mark, you are able to sell the trade mark or grant use on the basis of a licence. A trade mark is also essential if a successful business model is to be franchised.

In order to obtain protection for a trade mark, an application for registration of the trade mark must be filed on the website of the Patent Office. For help and advice, contact the Patent Office by phone +372 627 7937 or email kaubamark@epa.ee. Consultations on the spot are also possible upon agreement.

We recommend registering an industrial design

If the place of service has a unique design that gives the company a significant competitive advantage, we recommend that you consider protecting the entire interior design or its important elements as an industrial design. A protected industrial design makes it simpler to defend the rights if issues occur and alerts competitors to which rights are protected. Also, functional design can be licensed or sold if it is registered as an industrial design. We provide consultations over the phone at 627 7921 and by email at disain@epa.ee. Upon agreement, on-site consultation is also possible.

We recommend registrating an industrial design

A protected industrial design also lets competitors know that such a design belongs exclusively to you and allows you to stand up for your rights in case of problems. Registration of an industrial design also provides an opportunity to license or sell a well-functioning design.

In order to obtain protection for a design, an application for registration of a design must be filed on the website of the Patent Office. For help and advice, contact the Patent Office by phone +372 627 7921 or email disain@epa.ee. Consultations on the spot are also possible upon agreement.

We recommend that the invention be patented or registered as a utility model

The results of the test indicate that your company may own an invention that is worth protecting as a patent or utility model. Protecting the invention can provide a significant competitive advantage and help to prevent competitors from using the same technical solution. In order to obtain protection, a patent application or application for registration of a utility model must be filed. To do this, you must fill out an application and prepare a description of the invention, a patent claim / utility model claim, a brief summary and, if necessary, drawings. For details on how to prepare an application, see the website of the Estonian Patent Office.

Before submitting an application

Make sure that the invention is novel on a global scale. You can do a patentability search here or order it from the Estonian Patent Office.
Avoid disclosing the idea because if you do, it will stop being original and your competitors might start using it.
Clarify what features of the invention are crucial, and include each of these details in the application. No additional features may be included in the application after it has been submitted.

We recommend contacting the Estonian Patent Office for a consultation by calling +372 627 7910 or writing an e-mail to leiutis@epa.ee.

The results of the test indicate that your company may own an intellectual property that is worth protecting as a trade secret. A trade secret is any information that gives a business a competitive edge and that has not been made public (for example, customer lists, production or service delivery techniques, product development processes, customer databases maintained by the business, know-how, and research findings). The company must specify what knowledge it deems to be a trade secret in order to protect it. Information can be protected via IT solutions and by written agreements governing the use and protection of trade secrets, made with employees, business partners, and other individuals who may come into touch with trade secrets.

The test results show that your business owns copyrighted content, i.e. works. In general, the copyright of a work belongs to the person who created the work, i.e. the author. Only when the author transfers (assigns) his economic rights, or when the author grants permission (a license), is another person allowed to use the work. By principle, the employer is the only owner of any copyright economic rights resulting from works produced while an employee (CA § 32 (1)). We advise signing contracts for the use of copyrighted works either directly with the authors or through getting in touch with organizations that represents the authors.

If you wish to expand your business outside of Estonia, we urge you to think about protecting your industrial design, trade mark, or invention globally. The European Union Intellectual Property Office offers trade mark and design protection. In order to obtain protection outside the European Union, it is possible to file an application based on the Madrid system (trade mark) or the Hague system (design). A European Patent may be used to protect the invention. The benefit of the mentioned approaches is that only one application can provide protection across multiple nations.

If you need help on the topic of intellectual property, you can get help from the Estonian Patent Office in matters related to trademark, industrial design and inventions, including advice on the protection of rights also from the Office and patent attorneys. The SME Fund, which provides more specific information on its website, will help to pay the expenditures related to trade mark, industrial design, and invention registration.

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