Importance of IP Law s

June 6, 2023

This article has been written by Ritika Goel, a 2nd year law student fromFaculty of Law- Delhi University.

Introduction-

In the modern world, intellectual property (IP) rights have a significant influence on international trade and the indigenous trade of every nation. Additionally, digitalization makes it easy to steal creative ideas by any third party, without any prior permission. IP Laws is a significant tool in today’s era. The risk of an innovation getting infringed without the knowledge of the inventor stands very high. With the increase in the importance of IP, instances of IP crimes have become the part and parcel of the digitized era sometimes even leading to failure of businesses. Companies rely on adequate protection of their patents, trademarks, and copyrights, while customers make use of IP to ensure that they purchase secure, assured goods. An IP asset is like any other physical property offering commercial benefits to businesses. In a web-based world, IP protection is much more relevant as it is comparatively simpler than ever to reproduce any specific template, logo, or functionality. Hence, strong IP laws give protection to IP and contribute to the economy of the respective state. IPR is one of the sources of security for intangible properties which are still open to the public and which can be quickly replicated by anyone.

What is Intellectual Property (IP)?

Intellectual Property is a general term used for a set of intangible assets owned by any individual person or company. Additionally, an IP asset aims to offer the same protective rights as any other physical property, because of its ability to provide companies with the same competitive advantages. It refers to creations of the mind: inventions; literary and artistic works; and symbols, names, and images used in commerce. However, Intellectual Property (IP) can be divided into various categories.

Patent– A patent is used to prohibit the use or selling by another party, for a defined period of time, of original production. In brief, a sovereign authority awards the inventor the IP right after an examination of its viability.
Copyright – It is the right that protects a tangible form of expression like book, painting etc. It protects the mannerism in which the idea is expressed.
Trademark – It refers to the protection of logo or design that an individual or company uses. The distinguished logo or design helps the customers to connect with the brand value and thereby ensure trust on the goods and services.

Benefits of intellectual property rights

The benefits of IP Rights in the modern era are as follows:

The Business Can Profit from its Innovative Ideas

Ideas on their own have little value or no value. Intellectual property (IP) has great untapped potential to turn your ideas into commercially successful goods and services. Registering your patients and copyright can result in a steady stream of royalty and extra revenue, which can improve the overall business bottom line.

Securing Unique Ideas and Creations

When any person has a unique idea or creation, there will always be people who will try to replicate that idea or creation for monetary gains. Hence, you must secure your IP assets before they are illegally infringed by any third party. All kinds and sizes of businesses can protect their unique ideas under Intellectual Property (IP) rights. So, after analysing the business need and circumstances, a person can decide which Intellectual Property Protection (trademark, copyright, or patent registration), can be used for covering different areas of Intellectual Properties.

The Entrepreneurs Get to Keep Their Ideas.

When you have a great idea for a product or service, there will always be people who will want to duplicate your success and sell your ideas as their own. Depending on individual circumstances, you can use patents, trademarks, or copyrights – all of which cover different areas of intellectual property. This way, you can prevent competitors from using your ideas for their own profit without your consent. Intellectual property (IP) protection applies to businesses of all sizes; even huge corporations have had their ideas infringed upon and have made multi-million dollar lawsuits.

Protection of Small Businesses

If you are a small business, it’s very important to protect any unique products or services that you own. Otherwise, competitors can use your success to take away market share, resulting in slow growth or loss of revenue. Losing market share early on in a business’s development can be devastating and time-consuming if trying to chase up the guilty party without any legal protection.

Export Opportunities for the Business Increases

Intellectual Property also increases the competitiveness of a business in the export market. An IP right holder can use these brands or designs for marketing the goods and services in foreign countries. Additionally, they can seek franchising agreement with the overseas firm, or export the patented goods.

Rewards and Encouragement for Entrepreneurs

Intellectual Property (IP) rights incentivize entrepreneurs to keep pushing for new advances in the face of adversity. It also facilitates the free flow of information by sharing the protected know-how critical to the original, patented invention. In turn, this process leads to new innovations and improvements to existing ones.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be said that Intellectual property (IP) protection is critical to fostering innovation. Without the protection of ideas, businesses and individuals would not reap the full benefits of their inventions and would focus less on research and development. Similarly, anyone can steal artists’ ideas hampering their valuation and cultural identification. IP laws help innovative technologies prosper and successfully reach masses by protecting their ownership. No doubt, intellectual property (IP) Rights are indispensable and all countries must have poignant laws for protecting them.

Reference-

Bajaj Electricals Limited vs. Gourav Bajaj & Anr. – The Court in this case pondered the question as to whether the present case came under the defense of use of personal name. They held that such defense was not valid as the Plaintiff had adequately proved the mala fide intention of the Defendant behind the adoption of the name ‘Bajaj’ in the course of trade. The Court passed an interim injunction against the use of the trademark in the store names as well as the domain name of the Defendant.

Marico Limited vs. Abhijeet Bhansali– The Court relied on the Trademarks Act, 1999 and in a clear interpretation of Section 29 of the Act, held that the Defendant was guilty of infringing the trademark of the Plaintiff by using it without prior authorization in his video. Hence, an interim injunction was passed against the Defendant along with an order for the removal of the impugned video.

Star India Pvt. Ltd. vs. Moviestrunk.com & Ors. – The Court recognized the right of the Plaintiff granted by the Copyright Act, 1957 over the exclusive exploitation and distribution of their copyrighted content. There was a clear case of infringement against the Defendants who had made the film available to the public without the knowledge and consent of the Plaintiff. Hence the Court granted an injunction and also awarded suitable damages.

International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) vs. Iskcon Apparel Pvt. Ltd & Ors. – The Court in this case declared that in the present scenario, a clear case of trademark infringement had been established, and hence ordered the Defendants to refrain using the Plaintiff’s mark. It was also concluded that the Plaintiff’s mark satisfied all the statutory requirements of a well-known trademark, and thus the Court declared it as such.

June 6, 2023