Intellectual Property rights

Intellectual Property

By: Exponent-Attorneys At LawFor Rachana Foundation

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Jay : Hey hi Tina! How are you? Why are you looking so upset??

Tina: Actually some one stole the song that I had composed, I had put in so much efforts on the lyrics of that song.

Jay : Oh! That’s sad! The song you composed using your intellect is your creation. It gives you an exclusive right over the composition of your song. This exclusive right is called as Copyright!

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Tina : What do you mean by Copyright?? I don’t understand what you are saying! Jay : Copyright is a form of

Intellectual property rights (IPR), these rights protect the creations of mind. Actually I know a person who can tell us about IPR better than me!

Rachana: Hello Jay!! What made you call me here??

Jay : Hello Rachana!!! Meet my friend Tina. Can you please tell us about intellectual property rights?

Rachana: Sure! Let me begin! We all own some or the other forms of property like a Car, house, building etc. These are all tangible properties; by tangible I mean they can be physically seen and felt.

Intellectual property on the hand is an intangible form of property which cannot be physically seen.

Your ownership rights in respect of a tangible property (real property) are protected through laws related to lands etc similarly your ownership rights in respect of Intellectual property (Intangible property) are protected by Intellectual property rights.

Let me tell you everything about Intellectual property rights.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Intellectual property Rights are the rights given to the creations of the mind, these creations such as : inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce. Your mind is your intellect which is constantly giving you new ideas, using which you develop new things. If you don’t want anyone to steal or copy them, then you need to protect your intellectual creations; they are your property. This is what intellectual property means and the rights associated with this are called as intellectual property Rights.

Intellectual property is classified into two types : Copyrights 

Industrial Property

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Industrial property includes : Trademarks Patents Designs Geographical

Indications

Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection given to creators over their literary and artistic works. Literary works include novels, poems, plays, reference works, newspapers and computer programs; databases; films, musical compositions, and choreography.Artistic works means paintings, drawings, photographs and sculpture; architecture; and advertisements, maps and technical drawings.

COPYRIGHT

OTHER RELATED RIGHTS covered within the scope of copyright include RecordingsBroadcastingsAudio visual worksComputer programsDigital databasesInternet/webCable and Satellite T.V.

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In India copyrights are protected under the Copyright Act of 1957

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Rachana : I guess by giving you a well known example of the same, it will become clearer to you what I mean by infringement!

A few lines of the famous song “ Apni Toh Jaise Taise” from the movie Lawaris (1981) were used in the movie “Housefull 2 (2012)” & it was alleged to be as a copyright infringement, because it was taken without any prior permission.Using a creation of work without the creators permission is called infringement.

Rachana : Now that you know what's copyright, I will tell you about copyright infringement.

Tina : what is infringement?

Tina: OH! Now I know what it means!

Moving on….

Industrial PropertyIndustrial property means the property which has an industrial application.

Trademarks

Patents

Industrial Design

Geographical Indications

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Rachana : Now my friends I will tell you about the next type of IPR which is industrial property

Types of Industrial property include:

Trademarks : Trademarks are basically the marks which are used to distinguish the goods or services of one undertaking from those of the other. These Marks include a device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter, number, shape of goods, packaging or combination of colours etc.

Trademarks are protected in India under The Trade Marks Act, 1999

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Types of Trademark  Trademark

Service mark

Collective mark

Certification Mark

Rachana: Hey Jay! The shoes you are wearing, those are Lee Cooper’s right? So what is that

Jay : I know what you are hinting at! Lee Cooper is the trademark! I have very well got the meaning of a trademark!

 Patents are the exclusive rights given to an inventor over his invention. These exclusive rights allow an inventor to make, use or sell or to deal with such invention as he/she wants for a limited period (i.e. for 20 years)

After the term of 20 years is over the invention will be available for the general public thereby contributing to the society at large.

In India patents are governed by the Indian Patent Act 1970 amended last in 2005 and Patent rules 2003 which are recently amended in 2014.

PATENTS

For obtaining a patent an invention must be:

Novel

Involve an Inventive Step

Have an Industrial application

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Why to patent?

Inventor’s work is protected

Action can be taken against the wrongdoer

Exclusive rights granted to the inventor for the invention

Motivates more inventors to create as their inventions are safe with patent

After the patent term gets over (i.e. 20 years period expires) the patent can be made available to the public at a much reduced and cheap price.

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Industrial designs An industrial or simply a Design - is the ornamental or attractive aspect of an article produced by the industry. It refers to the features of shape, configuration, pattern, or composition of lines or colours applied to any article, whether in two or three dimensional (or both) forms. An industrial design makes an article more appealing and enhances its quality. Industrial designs are applied to products of industry and handicraft, technical and medical instruments, watches, jewelry, house wares, electrical appliances, luxury items, vehicles, architectural structures, textile designs.

Designs in India are covered by The Designs Act, 2000 and the Designs Rules, 2001 and protection is granted for a period of 15 years.

Essential features of DesignA design should - Be new or original Not be disclosed to the public Must stand out from other known designs Not contain immoral matter Appeal to eye when applied to an article Not be contrary to public order or morality

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Geographical Indications (GI) : It is an indication that a particular product has originated from a particular country or place; and that product is having all the characteristics, which are attributed to that place of origin.

Geographical indications convey 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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Tina : Wow!! That was quite a piece of information. But still once I get my invention protected with intellectual property rights what next?? Am I also going to get benefited by this protection??

Rachana: Intellectual property rights (IPR) not only protect your invention but add value to your invention. You can sell, licence, or mortgage your invention and thereby make money. So its not just a protection, its valuation of your work.

Tina: Wow!!! That’s great!! So I have already got a way to buy a brand new scooty!!!

You know what guys!!! I have a great idea, Let us take Rachana to our annual gathering because then everyone would get an idea about Intellectual property. And this session would also turn out to be as an eyes opener for people like copycat Avantika!!!!

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Rachana : So without the consent of the owner or creator of the Intellectual Property no one can use it. If they do so, it amounts to infringement of the owner’s rights which attracts legal action

Infringement of GI: If any person uses a registered Geographical indication to represent his own goods as belonging to a particular region and thereby misleading the public to believe that what they are buying are the original goods it amounts to infringement of Geographical Indication and legal action can be taken against such person.

For Eg If I sell tea to the public representing to them that the tea I am selling is Darjeeling’ s tea, what I am doing is infringing Geographical indication. Why?? Because Darjeeling tea is very renowned for its flavour, smell and taste; which features are attributed to it because of the natural habitat of Darjeeling where the tea grows in those beautiful tea gardens. So even though I may be selling a good quality tea under the disguise of the name of Darjeeling tea but still it will amount to infringement of Geographical indication.

What amounts to Trademark Infringement

If any person tries to infringe your trademark; You can claim damages for the losses sustained by you because of that person’s wrongful activities.

Infringing means : selling,   offering,

Exposing

Importing or exporting

supplying goods or services under your registered trademark

Without obtaining permission from the lawful owner of the mark. punishments like imprisonment up to 3 years and fine up to Rupees Two Lakh granted for trademark infringement.

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Rachana: Ya sure!!! I would be glad to form a part of your annual gathering. It is my prime object to make people aware of Intellectual property.

You think ----- You create ----- You invent-----

& IPR protects.

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