IPRs are essentially territorial in nature so, where registration is necessary, for patents, registered designs and trade marks, these will not exist in other countries unless registration has been sought and obtained there. Even for automatic rights like copyright it is necessary to understand the law in other countries to know whether and what protection exists there. You should, however, be aware that for some registered rights there may be a mechanism for obtaining protection in more than one country without a separate application for registration/grant being made in each country:
Patents valid in a large number of European countries can be obtained from the European Patent Office (EPO)
Patent applications for a large number of countries can be commenced by making a single application under the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT), although the applications will eventually have to be pursued through to grant in each separate country
Registered trade marks applying throughout the EU can be sought from The Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM)

Even without using any of these routes, countries that are signatories of the Paris Convention, which is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and/or the World Trade Organisation (WTO), must accept applications for registered rights within a certain time from a first application in another country and accord that application the priority date of the first application.

If you wish to protect your rights in other countries, which will be particularly important for countries in which your goods embodying the IP are to be sold, you should carefully explore what might be the most appropriate way to do this and consider seeking advice at an early stage. Getting protection in other countries may also be important where there is a risk of your IP being copied without your permission. If you need a licence to use someone else's IP, you should consider very carefully whether you have a licence covering all countries in which use will occur. Getting the right advice early might avoid problems later.

Copyright

Usually your copyright work will be protected overseas automatically in the same way that it is protected in the UK. The UK is a member of several international conventions in this field, notably the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations (both of which are conventions administered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC), which is administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Copyright material created by UK nationals or residents and falling within the scope of one of these conventions is automatically protected in each member country of the convention by the national law of that country.
Most countries belong to at least the Berne Convention and/or the UCC, but in order to benefit from the automatic protection in other countries arising from the UCC it is essential to mark your work with the international © symbol, followed by the name of the copyright owner and year of publication.
A list of countries that belong to the different conventions can be obtained from WIPO or UNESCO as appropriate but all the Western European countries, the USA and Russia belong to the Berne Convention which does not even require your work to be marked in any way for automatic protection to apply. It is still advisable to mark your work in this way and take the other precautions suggested regarding copyright in the UK. Also, in the USA, there is an official register of copyright which you might want to use, although registration is not an essential condition for copyright to subsist in the USA.
Protection overseas can also arise from obligations in the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which forms part of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement. Once again this is automatic so you may also find your work is protected in WTO countries; a list of these countries and details of the TRIPS agreement can be obtained from the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Designs

At present there is no international system for the registration of designs. If you want protection for your design in the countries of the European Union you may apply to the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) in Alicante, Spain.
If you want protection outside the EU you generally have to make separate applications for registration in each country in which you want protection. Each national office will have their own fees.
You should remember though that there may be some automatic protection for your design in other countries under their copyright laws and this would be worth checking if you have failed to seek registered design protection. Note, though, that you will get stronger protection by registering your design rather than just relying on copyright.

Protecting your Rights Strategy

1. Determine what products are likely to be infringed.
- what is a big seller in the company
- what is easy to copy
- what has potential to be a big seller

2. Determine where the infringement is likely to take place (manufacture/retail)?
-Which are your biggest/potentially biggest markets,
-which countries do you know/believe have the capability to produce cheap copies

3. Fill in the legal and commercial gaps

Legal

Make sure you have adequate/appropriate protection in place in the right markets

Commercial

Look at your own supply. The copiers are opportunists. The classic opportunity so often overlooked by companies is to fill a gap in the market that the right owner should himself be filling with genuine products.

If retailers can't get genuine product to meet demand they will soon look elsewhere.
Make sure your rights are enforceable. For example, trade marks are cancellable in most countries if they are not used by their proprietor for a given period - usually 5 years.
You may need to protect a market where you have no sales because it is a prime production area (China, Korea and India are good examples). In such countries you should effect some sales to keep your rights valid so they can be used to attack problems at source. The alternative of chasing the retail manifestation of the problem in numerous territories is clearly not so cost effective.

4. Be on the lookout

All too often the copies appear on the market and then go unnoticed, sometimes for years. Usually it's not that nobody has seen the product concerned, it's simply that the people who have seen it do not appreciate that it is actionable or do not know who to report it to.

Educate the sales force, and perhaps various outside agencies such as distributors, and even retailers. Invest time and effort with these people in those markets where experience tells you actionable infringements of your intellectual property rights are likely to appear.

Educate them as to the broad range of activities which are actionable - the classic misconception is that if a trade mark, or design of a product, is not identical to yours then it's OK - and what to do if they come across something suspicious.

Consider things like:
- sighting report sheets to facilitate reporting
- in house seminars
- in house brochure
- even an in house video
- newsletter
- incentive scheme to reward vigilance

Consider in house or outsource product searches to see if your rights are being abused. This can be done for any IP rights

5. Prepare for action

It is no use identifying the markets where you're most likely to have problems, getting the appropriate protection in place, and setting up your early warning system, if you are not then ready to act quickly when a problem arises.
So, be prepared to invest time now in making sure that lines of communication are in place between you and local lawyers so that when the time comes you can move with the speed required to be really effective.
If, for example, Japan is a big market for you make sure that you or your legal advisors have got good contacts in Japan with the right lawyers - preferably ones who are not only good, but also provide all those other elements of service that fit your particular criteria.
This is all about networking for the future. Lawyers, particularly in this field because it's so international, are doing this all the time, and you will find that even if you do not yourselves know the right overseas lawyers, your domestic IP lawyers probably will. You should check that they do, and get your local management to meet them so that there is an easy line of communication in place should it be required.

6. Budget for the inevitable

If you have anticipated problems it is only sensible to budget for them. Hopefully, you will have stress free years where your budget goes untouched. But if your foresight is correct, life will be so much easier if money has already been set aside.