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Legal Concept IPRs

Intellectual Property Rights

Creators can be given the right to prevent others from using their inventions, designs or other
creations - and to use that right to negotiate payment in return for others using them. These are
'intellectual property rights”. Intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over the
creations of their minds. They take a number of forms. For example books, paintings and films come
under copyright; inventions can be patented; brand names and product logos can be registered as
trademarks; and so on. Governments and parliaments have given creators these rights as incentive to
produce ideas that will benefit society as a whole. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over
the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.

= Copyright

Copyright law protects creative expression, not fact, idea system or method of process or
operation. Expression may be found in product design, written expression, traditional artistic works, and
other original works such as literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works such as poetry, novels,
movies, songs, computer software and architecture. Copyrights protect works of authorship, such
as writings, music, and works of art that have been tangibly expressed. Gone with the Wind (the book
and film), Back Street Boys' recordings, and video games are all works that are copyrighted. Only the
copyrighted holder can reproduce or profit from his/her works or transfer those rights.

NOTE Copyright is a right given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and
................ producers of cinematograph films and sound recordings.

It is a bundle of rights including, inter alia, rights of reproduction, communication to the public,
adaptation and translation of the work. There could be slight variations in the composition of the rights
depending on the work.

= Patent

A Patent is an exclusive right granted by a country to the inventor to make, use, manufacture
and market the invention that satisfies the conditions of novely, innovativeness and
usefulness. A patent gives an inventor the right to exclude all others from making, using, importing,

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 selling or offering to sell his/her invention for up to 20 years without the One thing to remember is even
if you are issued a patent if someone else has had a patent issued for the same invention before you
your patent rights could be contested or you could contest a patent issued after yours that infringes on
your invention. That is called patent infringement and inventors sometimes have to go to court to settle
disputes and damages. One way to avoid this is to do a very complete prior art search.

Prior Art Search means finding out through research that whether the innovation to be patented is
already existing or not.

= Trademark

A trademark is a distinctive sign which identifies certain goods or services as those produced
or provided by a specific person or enterprise. Its origin dates back to ancient times, when
craftsmen reproduced their signatures, or “marks” on their artistic or utilitarian products. Over the years
these marks evolved into today's system of trademark registration and protection. The system helps
consumers identify and purchase a product or service because its nature and quality, indicated by its
unique trademark, meets their needs.

Trademarks protect words, names, symbols, sounds, or colors that distinguish goods and
services. Trademarks, unlike patents, can be renewed forever as long as they are being used
in business.

One can register a trademark or claim common law use (no official registration/ Passing off remedy).
Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to
prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly
different mark.

= Geographical indication- GI

A place name is sometimes used to identify a product. This “geographical indication” does not only say
where the product was made. More importantly, it identifies the product's special characteristics,
which are the result of the product's origins.

Well-known examples include “Swiss” watches, “Roquefort” cheese, Darjling tea, Banarasi Sari. Wine and
spirits makers are particularly concerned about the use of place-names to identify products, and the
TRIPS Agreement contains special provisions for these products. But the issue is also important for other
types of goods.

Using the place name when the product was made elsewhere or when it does not have the usual
characteristics can mislead consumers, and it can lead to unfair competition. Geographical Indications
of Goods are defined as that aspect of intellectual property which refers to the geographical
indication referring to a country or to a place situated therein as being the country or place of
origin of that product.

NOTE Typically, GI conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness which is essentially attributable to the
................
fact of its origin in that defined geographical locality, region or country.

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 = Berne Convention

The Convention rests on three basic principles and contains a series of provisions determining the
minimum protection to be granted, as well as special provisions available to developing countries which
want to make use of them.

1) The three basic principles are the following:

a) Works originating in one of the contracting States must be given the same protection in each of the
other contracting States as the latter grants to the works of its own national (principle of “national
treatment”).

b) Such protection must not be conditional upon compliance with any formality (principle of “automatic”
protection).

c) Such protection is independent of the existence of protection in the country of origin of the work
(principle of the “independence” of protection).

The Berne Convention, concluded in 1886, was revised at Paris in 1896 and at Berlin in 1908,
completed at Berne in 1914, revised at Rome in 1928, at Brussels in 1948, at Stockholm in 1967 and
at Paris in 1971, and was amended in 1979.

Universal Copyright Convention

This Convention adopted at Geneva by an International conference convened under the auspices of
UNESCO, which for several years had been consulting with copyright experts from various countries. The
convention came into face in 1955. The convention details the following points:

Contracting states provide the same cover to foreign published works as they do to their own citizens.

States that require formal registration should treat works from foreign states that are signatories of the
NOTE
................ convention as though they had been registered in the state, provided that they carry a notice which
includes the © symbol and states the name of the owner.

= It sets a minimum duration for copyright protection as 25 years from the date of publication, and
typically not less that 25 years from the authors deaths. With a notable exception of
photographic and applied arts work which has a minimum protection of 10 years.
= It recognizes the economic rights of the author, (the right to authorize reproduction, public
performance, broadcasting etc.)
= It recognizes the authors right to make translations of the work.

As with the Berne Convention, the UCC provides flexibility on how nation states implement details of the
convention, and in order to understand specific aspects, it should be read in conjunction with national
copyright laws.

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 = TRIPs (Trade related intellectual property rights)

The Uruguay Round resulted in the WTO's TRIPS Agreement as an attempt to narrow the gaps
in the way different IPR rights are protected around the world, and to bring them under common
international rules. It establishes minimum levels of protection that each government has to give to the
intellectual property of fellow WTO members. In doing so, it strikes a balance between the long term
benefits and possible short term costs to society. Society benefits in the long term when intellectual
property protection encourages creation and invention, especially when the period of protection expires
and the creations and inventions enter the public domain. Governments are allowed to reduce any short
term costs through various exceptions, for example to tackle public health problems. And, when there
are trade disputes over intellectual property rights, the WTO's dispute settlement system is now
available. The agreement covers five broad issues:

= How basic princples of the trading system and other international intellectual property
agreements should be applied.
= How to give adequate protection to intellectual property rights
= How countries should enforce those rights adequately in their own territories
= How to settle disputes on intellectual property between members of the WTO
= Special transitional arrangements during the period when the new system is being introduced.

WIPO

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was established by a convention of 14

July 1967, which entered into force in 1970. It has been a specialized agency of the United
Nations since 1974, and administers a number of international unions or treaties in area of
intellectual property, such as the Paris and Berne Conventions.

WIPO's objectives are to promote intellectual property protection throughout the world through
cooperation among states and, where appropriate, in collaboration with any other international
organization.

WIPO also aims to ensure administration cooperation among the intellectual property unions created by
the Paris and Berne Conventions and sub-treaties concluded by the members of the Paris Union.

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 The administration of the unions created under the various conventions is centralized through WIPO's
secretariat, the “International Bureau”. The International Bureau also maintains international registration
services in the field of patents, trademarks, industrial designs and appellations of origin. WPO also
undertakes development cooperation for developing countries through advice, training and furnishing of
documents.

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