This article has been written by Ms. Aarsha Prem, a 5th year LL.B. student from CLS GIBS college.
Introduction
Intellectual Property Rights are a crucial instrument in the modern day. There is an extremely high chance that an innovation will be copied without the creator’s knowledge. Because to the growing importance of intellectual property, incidents of IP crime are now a common occurrence in the digital age and can occasionally even cause organisations to collapse. Like any other physical asset, an IP asset provides firms with financial advantages. Strong IP laws safeguard IP while boosting the economy of the relevant state. IPR is one of the means of securing intangible assets that are still accessible to the general public and easily replicable by anyone.
Intellectual Property Rights
A person’s imagination and creativity have allowed them to come up with a variety of concepts, inventions, and goods. A collection of intangible assets that are owned by a single person or an organisation collectively constitute intellectual property.
Intellectual property rights are described as “creations of the mind; inventions; literary and artistic works and symbols, names, and pictures used in business” by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Intellectual property rights (IPR) laws were enacted to safeguard, protect, and increase the intrinsic worth of such intangible properties.
Types of Intellectual Property
The types of intellectual property rights that are under the purview of legal protection include:
Trade Marks – A trademark is a design, phrase, or combination of words that can be used to differentiate one company’s goods or services from those of other companies and that has been legally registered or established by use. The advantages of registering a trademark include making the owner the sole and exclusive owner of the trademark, fostering customer confidence and goodwill for the business, assisting customers in differentiating and recognising the quality of the product, preventing trademark infringement, and ultimately assisting the owner in generating revenue. The trademark may be commercially exploited to generate income through assignment, licence, franchising, or merchandise sales. The Trademarks Act, 1999 is the primary law that governs trademark protection in India. A trademark’s period of protection is 10 years from the date of application, renewed every 10 years upon payment of the required fee. The Indian Intellectual Property Office is the main office for trademarks in that country (IPO).
Copyright property- that safeguards the tangible results of your creative work, including written and visual works, website content, promotional items, and software code.
As soon as a work is created, it instantly gains copyright protection. Unless a work was made by an employee while they were employed, the copyright belongs to the person who created it. Copyright protects a variety of works, including technical drawings, computer programmes, databases, music, movies, novels, and paintings and sculptures. According to the Copyright Act of 1957, creative literary, theatrical, musical, and artistic works in India are protected for as long as the author is alive and an additional 60 years after his or her passing.
Registered Designs – property that safeguards the appearance and texture of your items. Unregistered and registered design rights are both options for protecting a product’s appearance and feel under design right laws. Unregistered design rights are protected for 15 years from the date of creation or 10 years from the date of first commercialization, whichever comes first. Design rights are owned by the person who created the work, just like copyright, unless they were made by an employee while they were employed. As with copyright, being able to prove ownership and authorship is crucial.
Patents – A patent is an exclusive right given to an inventor for their invention, which could be a service or a method that offers a fresh approach to an old problem or a new technical way of accomplishing something. A few advantages of filing a patent are that the patent holder has a monopoly right over his patent, it prevents others from producing, selling, or utilising the patented innovation for a predetermined amount of time, and it helps keep competitors at bay. In India, a patent has a 20-year term of protection beginning on the application filing date and is principally governed by the Patent Act of 1970. The Indian Intellectual Property Office is the country’s main patent office (IPO).
Industrial designs – The decorative or aesthetic component of an object is represented by its industrial design. A design can include two-dimensional elements like patterns, lines, or colours, as well as three-dimensional elements like the shape or surface of an object. Like trademarks or patents, industrial designs can be leased or assigned, however in the case of a design licence, the licence is not required to possess the design’s copyright.
The Designs Act, 2000 governs the duration of a design’s protection in India, which is 10 years from the date of the application and can be extended for an additional 5 years by paying an extension fee. The principal office for designs in India is the Indian Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
Geographical indications – Signs used on products with a specific geographical origin and traits, a reputation, or features that are fundamentally related to that location of origin are known as geographical indications and appellations of origin. A geographical indicator often includes the name of the country where the goods were made. It is a term or sign that is applied to specific products and corresponds to the product’s origin or place in the world. The usage of geography could serve as a certification that the product, when compared to the conventional technique, has specific attributes. Common examples of geographical indications include Darjeeling tea, Bikaneri Bhujia, and Mysore Pak.
Trade secrets – A corporation’s procedure or practise that benefits the company or the person holding the trade secret financially is referred to as a trade secret because it is not generally known. Trade secrets are usually the outcome of research and development and must be carefully protected by the company.
Benefits of Intellectual Property Rights
Innovative ideas are a way to make money. Copyright and patent registration will generate a steady stream of fees and higher income, which will improve overall market performance.
Possibilities for Export – An owner of an IP property may use these trademarks or designs to market goods and services abroad, as well as to export their own products or to enter into a franchise agreement with an international company.
Promote the ideas by protecting them – It’s important to safeguard the intellectual property rights from unauthorised third-party infringement. IP security can be established for businesses of all shapes and sizes. So, a person should decide which Intellectual Property Rights (trademark, copyright, or patent registration) should be utilised to cover various sections of its IP after examining the market needs and scenarios.
Business Growth – Protecting exclusive products or services from competitors who can steal their market share is crucial for organisations, especially small-scale businesses, in order to ensure growth and profit. Long-term risks to an enterprise’s health might result from losing market share during the early stages of the business cycle.
Protecting intellectual property
The creator of something novel and inventive has the right to defend it. Inventors can register their works as intellectual properties by requesting an IP that gives them the exclusive right to sell their works.
The preservation of IPRs is crucial. First, inventors are granted exclusive rights to exploit their intellectual property (IP) for their own financial and practical gain. The pricing of the innovation, the marketing and distribution methods, and a myriad of other ways to make money and get a good return on investment are all completely up to the creator.
Second, registering IP enables the innovator to stop others from profiting financially.
Thirdly, the creator has the option to initiate a lawsuit against the party trying to profit from the invention if a rival violates the IP laws protecting them. If the defendant is found guilty, the court may grant the inventor a monetary compensation, which will be paid by the person or organisation that is attempting to profit financially from the IP owner’s claimed ownership of the innovation.
IP registration and a protracted procedure of confirming the creation’s legitimacy come first in the difficult process of protecting IP.
The individual or organisation granted the IP does extensive research before beginning the process of registering IP and awarding the patent, trademark, copyright, or utility design. The organisation providing the IP must guarantee that the invention is unique, authentic, and not a copy of another invention. It entails posting the new inventions in IP journals to verify any assertions made by another person or organisation asserting IP rights over the same or related inventions.
The entire procedure, which includes multiple rounds of revisions on the part of the inventor, can take anything from a few months to many years, from filing to gaining IP rights.
Conclusion
Since Intellectual Property is becoming more and more important worldwide, registering it can both increase income and prevent others from stealing one’s creativity. The problem, though, is that most IP systems are still regional or national in scope. This highlights the necessity for all nations to have strong laws protecting intellectual property.
For both individuals and businesses, the government must create appropriate intellectual property (IP) rules that are neither overly severe nor overly lax. The government must also strengthen the entire framework if it wants to ensure the long-term social and economic progress of a nation. So, it follows that IP protection is crucial in the present day.
Reference:
https://www.sonderandclay.com/ip-advice/the-importance-of-intellectual-property-protection/
https://www.mondaq.com/india/trademark/1107184/importance-of-ipr-in-todays-world
https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/importance-protecting-intellectual-property
https://blog.ipleaders.in/benefits-intellectual-property-rights-modern-era/