The Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) may consider starting a "copyright bank" to help its members register their ideas.

"We want to encourage our members to register their intellectual property (IP). If they have well thought out ideas, they should register them," 4As president Tony Savarimuthu tells StarBizweek.

Tony: 'We want to encourage members to register thei r IP. Our business is about creativity and ideas and we need to attach value to them.' 4As vice president Datuk Johnny Mun points out that the topic of IP is often deemed technical and hazy, adding that the area of advertising is no different.

"We want to raise awareness of owning ideas and IP rights in the advertising industry as many people are still fuzzy about these.

Today, there are so many branches of businesses and we want to make people aware of where IP comes in and how they can be compensated in matters

 related to it," he says.

The 4As recently organised a one-day workshop to bring its members up to speed on matters relating to IP, bringing in experts from Singapore who Tonybelieves is "way ahead in the area of IP" compared with Malaysia.

"We may use Singapore's example and introduce a copyright bank to help our members register their ideas. Singapore is fairly advanced in the area of IP," he says.

The workshop, titled Protect your creative idea, was led by Samuel Seow, managing director of Singapore-based Samuel Seow Law Corp. A lawyer by profession, Seow is a leading authority in the field of IP.

"We also want to learn from these experts and teach our members to understand while enabling them to grow," Tony adds.

Mun says that as creativity was a primary driver in today's global economy, it only made sense for 4As to bridge the gap between creativity and IP, adding that it is necessary to endow members with the knowledge to protect their ideas and innovations.

"IP right is complex with many unresolved issues. As we strive towards growth through creativity, it is essential that our members are well versed in legal security in relation to IP within our industry.

Mun: ‘As we strive towards growth through creativity, it is essential that members are well versed in legal security in relation to IP.’

"There's still a lot of room for knowledge. After a few slideshows (at the workshop) we had so many questions," Mun enthuses.

Tony asserts that realising the importance of their IP rights will help the 4As' members to add value to their work.

"Our business is about creativity and ideas and we need to attach value to them," he says.

Among the topics that were covered at the workshop included an introduction to IP rights, copyrights, the law of confidence, registered designs, trademarks and IP protection strategies.

Seow: 'As long as it is shown that the work emanates from the author, it is deemed original even if it is devoid of what critics term as creative.' Meanwhile,

Seow: ‘As long as it is shown that the work emanates from the author, it is deemed original even if it is devoid of what critics term as creative.’

 during a slideshow presentation at the workshop, Seow elaborates that for a piece of work to acquire a copyright, it must first have originality.

"No need for novelty in content. As long as it is shown that the work emanates from the author, is not copied and that an amount of skill, labour, effort and judgment went into its creation, then it is deemed original even if it is devoid of what critics term as creative.

"The fact that another, similar piece of work is in existence at the time a work is produced is no bar to copyright subsisting in both, provided that the second has been independently created," he says.

Seow says the person who creates the work is the one that generally owns the copyright.

"The creators of literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work own their works unless they have created their them under a contract of employment or as work for hire, or where works have been otherwise assigned to another party my agreement."

Seow adds that generally the person or entity who pays for the creation of a product, for works other than a film or a game, owns the product.

"He does not however own the product unless he has contracted to own it with the creators."

Source: The Star Online