INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS - AN INTRODUCTION

EVOLUTION OF IP

Property à Right

INTELLECT – PROPERTY – RIGHT

Idea à Expression à COPYRIGHT

Idea à Innovation à Invention à PATENT

Idea à Quality + Identity à TRADEMARK

Idea à Appearance à DESIGN

Idea à Keep Confidential à TRADE SECRETS
                No Disclosure

Area à Location of produce à GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS

WHAT IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY?

Definition by WIPO

Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

Creativity (Creativity of the Mind)

Creativity is the ability to 

•       Think / come up with new idea

•       Design new “inventions”

•       Produce “works of art”

•       Solve problems in new ways, or develop a new idea based on an “original” knowledge.

•       Novel or unconventional approach.

Development

•       Late 18^th  & early 19^th Century – we had the Industrial Revolution.

•       20^th  Century- could be called as the Electric & Electronics age.

•       Late 20^th  Century- we hit the IT & Biotech bandwagons which  still have an unimaginable potential for transforming human life.

•       21^st  Century-  leadership of the world  will  be in the hands of those who create and harness Knowledge.

Capitalising Intellectual Property

·      Glenmark spent $21 million and has generated over $105 million by out-licensing deals for prospective drug molecules.

·      GrandMet paid $990 million to Pillsbury brand name.

·      Rights to use Rolls Royce Trademark were subsequently purchased by rival BMW for $65million.

·      IBM licenses patents for more than $1billion per year.

·      Companies donate patents to Universities and Research Institutions. 

·      Venture Capitalists are playing major role today in further development and commercialization of inventions.

Importance of Protecting Intellectual Property

·      protection to an invention for the exclusive use of it by its inventor

·      leverage business

·      legal recognition to the invention 

·      enables its enforcement in the court of law

·      incentive for further development

·      public use

·      huge source of information

·      source for further developmental work by third party

·      encourage fair trading 

·      contribute to social and economic development

WIPO

§  WIPO ( World Intellectual Property Organization ) was established by the WIPO Convention in 1967 

§  The WIPO is a specialized agency of the United Nations.

§  It promotes the protection of  IP throughout the world.

§  Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland

TRIPS

The TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement came into being with the establishment of the WTO (World Trade Organization) effective from 1^st January, 1995. (It was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) treaty in 1994.)

 National Laws (INDIA)

•       The IPR regime in India is regulated through the following acts and laws: 

•       The Patents Act 1970 (as amended)

•       The Copyright Act 1957 (as amended)

•       The Trade Marks Act 1999

•       The Designs Act 2001

•       The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registrations and Protection) Act, 1999 

•       The Semiconductor Integrated circuit Layout-Design Act 2000

•       The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights  Act 2001

•       The Biological Diversity Act 2002

Need for Laws

•       Intellectual property laws give people the right to own and profit from their artistic, scientific and technological creations for a designated period of time. 

•       Those rights do not apply to the physical object in which the creation may be embodied but instead to the intellectual creation as such. 

•       Countries have enacted laws to protect intellectual property for two main reasons.  

1.     One is to give statutory expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations and the rights of the public in access to those creations.  

2.     The second is to promote, as a deliberate act of Government policy, creativity and the dissemination and application of its results and to encourage fair trading which would contribute to economic and social development.