This article has been written by Mr. Aditya Raj Pandey, a 2nd Year BA LLB student from Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad

Introduction and Brief Definition

Intellectual Property, the term with which all of us are familiar with. In recent years or we can say that after modernization and proper urbanization, there is tremendous increase in Intellectual property and its applications and the same is chiefly due to growing technology and innovations worldwide. Today, there are many applications filed by different applicants in order to register their innovations and use of mind under intellectual property laws. At present, each and everything, under which there are some human minds used, can be registered under the intellectual property and we all are surrounded by intellectual properties right from the sunrise to the sunset. 

Intellectual Property in general can be referred to as the creation of minds which in further can include inventions, literary works, artistic works, designs, names, symbols or any similar things. So, in today’s world, we understood the importance of protecting these human minds and their innovations unlike few years decades ago and hence we came up with the sets of rules and regulations in order to protect these properties. Today, we have legislations worldwide which protects the intellectual property from various different aspects. In India as well, we have set of three to four laws and therefore, the level of protection is very robust and stout and hence almost unbreakable. 

Intellectual Property Rights are the set of rights and regulations which is used to protect the art works, literature works along with innovations, scientific inventions and the logo or particular mark of any corporation in commercial areas. Here, by protection of property means that without the permission of owner of the property or without his or her consent, no one can disturb the property in any manner like manufacturing, distributing, using or sale the same for the benefit. Thus, Intellectual Property rights is the set of rights that are granted to the owners or producers so that there property cannot be used, duplicated, manufactured or sold in the market without their permission or consent. These rights can be termed sometimes as monopoly rights but all in all we can say that it is necessary to prevent exploitation. 

Scope of the Intellectual Property

To create intellectual property we need lots of mind and the creators spend lots of brain to create one new property. In today’s era, we know that there are various techniques through which we can use the property of one person of any kind even without taking the consent of the person or the owner. Thus, in order to protect these malpractices intellectual property rights have utmost importance. Apart from protecting the rights of the owner personally, it also helps in promotion of economic growth and development of the country along with generating or creating new job opportunities in many different sectors and hence it improves the lives of the person in one way or the other. 

Overall, we can state that, the chief purpose of IP rights is to maintain the perfect balance in between the interest of the owner and public and thus provide suitable forum where the innovations can flourish and all the person gets benefited out of it. 

Types of Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property is very wide-ranging as well as extensive in nature. Initially the IP is mainly classified into two core categories namely Industrial Property and Intellectual Property. Later on, when the government or the authorities started drafting laws, then they classify the same into four classes namely: 

1. Patent – It is the set of rights and liberties which is granted by the government to the person who invents any new or original device for the benefit of the public. The rights protects the person interest and hence prohibits the use, duplication and selling of the same invention with the motive to earn profit. 
2. Copyright – Copyright is the set of rights and liberties which is granted to the creator of the work in order to prevent their work from any kind of malpractice. It is generally awarded in case of books, articles, paintings, or any other creative works. Also, if in depth we go then we can observe that, the sole purpose of copyright is to protect the idea in which anything is expressed or written. In India, at the very first place, we have laws to protect artistic works and i.e. the Copyright Acts. 
3. Trademark – It can be termed as the logo or particular design of any company or firm which is used to identify the company. The purpose of trademark is to protect the logo or the name of the company from getting duplicated and used for the benefit of several other persons. The benefit herein mentioned can be of any type either economical or higher consumer index. Also, an important point to penned down here is that, the trademark act not only protects the interest of the company but it also protects the consumer form becoming fool. Hence the laws is for the benefit of all. 

Importance of Intellectual Property Laws

Today, in the developing and modernizing era, we already saw and observe that the level of malpractices increases along with the level of technological development and advancements. Now, in order to prevent these practices, the government of different countries of the world comes up with the acts and legislations. In addition to these, there are several more benefits of the laws which are listed and explained as follows: 

• Protecting the exclusive ideas and creation – Today, as soon as people got to know about new things or devices, then they start making the duplicate of the same in order to gain the profit. Now, the IP laws has been drafted and enacted so that, these infringement in the form of duplication or any other manner can be prevented and the accused can be punished severely. 
• Increases the growth of the business of any particular sector – IP laws protects the very idea of the owner and hence guard & shields the idea from copying by other people. In this way through indirect manner, the laws related to IP provides aids to growth and development of the business to the next extent. 
• Intellectual Property laws contribute to enhance the market value of the particular product. Intellectual Laws protects the property from getting copied or duplicated and hence indirectly increases the value in the market, as the piece is only limited and the demand is very high of that particular product. Along with this, the goodwill in the market will also increase which in turn contributes to the growth and upliftment of businesses. 
• Intellectual Property laws ensures that the idea or the creation can be protected from malpractices and hence the persons with the creative mind made so many products out of his innovation without any fear and this all in turn helps the person to earn money and helps his family and support his personal life. Apart from all these, if the particular product is big and requires more people to operate the, the job opportunities are also created and thus it is helpful for the society and economy of the country as well. 
• Last but not the least, Intellectual Property laws helps to protect the innovation or creation of the person and hence those people who have innovative ideas in their mind also starts working on it because of the fact that their products can be protected properly by the IP laws. Thus, it motivates the person to manufacture new unique products. 

Conclusion

Intellectual property is increasing in number around the world from very fast rate and the rate started increasing rapidly after modernization and huge development in technologies of the world. Now, as the IP is increasing therefore the laws should be there in order to protect and prevent the ideas or the products from getting copied, duplicated or sold without the permission. Therefore, the set of legislation were drafted by different countries and enacted the same in their respective countries. Apart from all these, there are many International organization which works towards the protection of Intellectual property and they also drafted some rules and regulations which have to be enacted by the member countries. Thus, we can say that there are ample laws which are enacted to protect the innovative idea but towards the end I want to conclude by saying that the enactment should be made more stronger than it is in present scenario.  

REFERENCES 

1. What is Intellectual Property?, WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) 
2. All you want to know about Intellectual Property, Shubhangi Sharma, iPleaders. 
3. The benefits of intellectual property rights in the modern era, Niharika Chavan, iPleaders
4. Why are intellectual Property Rights Important?, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Centre
5. Importance of IPR in Today’s world, Aayush Sharma, Mondaq 

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