April 26th is World IP Day (IP standing for Intellectual Property) and so I thought this would be a nice opportunity to see how I could highlight intellectual property rights and at the same time still keep a focus on family history. For those of you who might not be very familiarized with intellectual property rights (IPRs), let me start by explaining briefly what they are...
Intellectual property relates to creations of the mind, like inventions and works of art, all of which can be protected under the law by means of patents, copyright and related rights, but also trademarks, domain names, design rights and many other types of rights such as database rights and integrated circuit layout design protection all belong to the big family of IP rights.
When I called on family members for help to see if they would be willing to share some of their "creations of the mind" that I could share on this blog, I must say I received an overwhelming response and the result is shown hereafter. I have tried to group all pictures by type of IP right.
KINDLY NOTE THAT I HAVE OBTAINED AUTHORIZATION OF ALL AUTHORS AND CREATORS OR OF THEIR HEIRS TO POST THESE PICTURES - ALL OF THE WORKS SHOWN ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT OR RELATED RIGHTS AND POTENTIALLY PORTRAIT RIGHTS AND MAY NOT BE COPIED WITHOUT OBTAINING PERMISSION FROM THE IP RIGHTS OWNERS AND/OR THE PORTRAIT RIGHTS OWNER. SUCH APPROVAL CAN BE REQUESTED THROUGH THE CONTACT FORM OF THIS BLOG.
1. COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS
Let's immediately dive into the extremely broad field of copyright... Copyright relates to literary and artistic creations such as books and poems, paintings, photographs, sculptures and songs. When we talk about related rights, we mean rights which are not necessarily granted to the author, but for example to parties involved in bringing the creation to life, such as a singer or musician who creates or recreates an expression of a song written by a composer. Similarly broadcasters and producers also enjoy related rights for their contribution in the value creation process.
If we now take all this and turn to the family archives, we can easily say that there have been and still are quite a lot of artists, creators and performers in the family, let's get through each category!
A. PAINTERS AND SKETCH ARTISTS
It seems particularly painting has been for a long time a favorite pastime for many family members! A selection of works is shown below, each time including the name of the artist and the year of creation (or estimate).
©️ Henri Brusten |
Regrettably I don't have a date for the middle (B) and right hand (C) painting. The painting on the right (C) is an interpretation of "The Man with the Golden Helmet" by Rembrandt. I know that grandfather Henri also started working on a reproduction of the Night Watch by Rembrandt, however, I'm not sure he ever finished that one.
©️ Hilda J. Sterckx |
Painting D : "Mountain landscape 1" - May 1988
Painting E : "Vase with flowers" - Date unknown
Painting F : "Clown" - oil on canvas - May 1993
Painting G : "Mountain landscape 2" - oil on canvas - 1991
Painting H : "Lake with canoe at sunset" - oil on canvas - approximately 1985
Painting I : "White flowers" - oil on canvas - Date unknown
Painting J : "Tree after sunset" - Date unknown
Painting K : "River" - oil on canvas - 1991
Painting L : "Landscape with tree" - 1985
Painting M : "Flowers" - Date unknown
©️ Willem Brusten |
The above six works of art were created by Willem Brusten, son of Henri Brusten and Hilda J. Sterckx:
Pen drawing N : "Bottles" - 1972 or 1973
Painting O : Reproduction of "Four Studies of a Male Head" by Rubens
Painting P : "Horse head" - oil paint on canvas - 1974
Painting Q : "Portrait" - oil paint on panel with only use of white and blue - 1977
Painting R : "Girl in mirror" - oil paint on canvas, after a picture by David Hamilton - 1978
Pen Drawing S : "Man looking up" - 1972 or 1973
©️ Greet Brusten |
Also Greet Brusten, daughter of Henri Brusten and Hilda J. Sterckx, is an artist and created the above three paintings in acrylic paint in 2020 as a way of expression during the global COVID-19 crisis. The first painting depicts fear and uncertainty, while the second painting shows how artists from across the globe started to perform to inspire people to face the health crisis and keep going. The two performers shown in this painting are Raf and Mich Walschaerts, better known as the artist duo "Kommilfoo" and both grandsons of Hilda Sterckx, the older sister and godmother of grandma Hilda J. Sterckx (and yes, both sisters shared the same first name). The last painting is dedicated to healthcare workers across the globe fighting against the virus. This series of paintings was exhibited in the Sint-Augustinus hospital in Antwerp in 2021.
©️ Mark Burgess |
©️ Tim Van Minnebruggen |
Painting V : "Eagle Mountain’s" - acrylic paint on canvas - 2019
Painting W : "Bricks and stones" - acrylic paint on canvas - 2021
Marc Brusten with his first wife Mariella |
Henri Brusten and Hilda J. Sterkcx used to do ballroom dancing - I remember seeing them dance when I was maybe five years old or so. So this picture definitely gives me a flashback!
Hilda J. Sterckx and Henri Brusten |
And finally a picture of my parents, Patricia Brusten and René Van Minnebruggen, also taking part in a dance competition. They actually met each other for the first time in dance class...
©️ Egwin Van Minnebruggen |
©️ Ewan Van Minnebruggen |
In other documents is specifically mentioned that in fact "Fleur dè Bruyère" was a trademark used by the margarine company in the Belgian village of Bree.
3. PATENTS
When it comes to inventions, I can refer to the patent that was filed in 1996 by the Belgian pharmaceutical company UCB, initially in the United States and subsequently extended to quite a large number of different jurisdictions such as Australia and many countries in South America such as Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Peru.
The invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition for treating rhinitis and the first listed inventor is Herman Van de Venne, grandson of Marieke Brusten and her first husband by the same name. A fragment of the cover page of the U.S. patent is shown below.