11.2+3 - Costing/Intellectual Property Rights

Budgets are:

Accurate forecasts for income and expenditure
Tracks production levels and investment potential

Influences on Budgets:

Policies
Trends
Seasonality
Sales

Considerations required for an accurate budget:

Materials
Staff
Transport
Utilities
Property Rights
Softwares
Running Costs

Intellectual Property (IP)

Anything that did not exist before
Inlcuding:
Books
Films
NOT ideas

Patents

Granted by the Gov. patenting office for up to 20 years
Only apply to certain parts of a product
Must be completely new
Must have clearly labelled diagrams to stand up to scrutiny in a court

Copyright

Allows owners to license property for use
Protects item for up to 70 years post owners death

Unregistered Design Rights

Legal protection to stop copying for up to 10 years
Covers appearence not fuctions
Very difficult to prove ownership
Sketches can be used as evidence

Registered Design Rights

Protects appearence and mechanics
Register with sketches for up to 25 years

Trademarks

Legal protection for brand identity and marketing
Can be used for colours, logos, shapes
Fees are payed and reneiwed every 10 years
Can be covered by TM or R