The term
“property” means anything that is associated with some Rights i.e., Right to
enjoy, Right to Use, Right to alienate etc.; Examples: Land, Building, Car,
etc., some of them movable properties and some immovable; however they are
tangible in nature.
There is another type of property called “Intellectual
Property” which is intangible in nature however the same has greater importance
in the business world. Intellectual property means the idea that its subject matter is the
product of the mind or the intellect.
The rights granted on the Intellectual property are called “Intellectual Property Rights”.
There
are various types of Intellectual Property Rights as follows:-
- Copyrights
- Patents
- Trademarks
- Industrial Designs
- Trade Secrets
- Geographical indications
- Semi-conductor Integrated Circuit Designs
- Plant Varieties and Farmer Rights
- Traditional Knowledge and
- Biodiversity
In this knowledge based economy it is important
for us to know about all these rights and ensure that we don’t infringe on the rights of others and protect our rights comprehensively. Like we don’t allow others to
trespass/enter into our property without our permission, the intellectual
property rights owner does not allow others to exercise rights granted to him/her without his/her permission.
The Central Government (Govt. of India) grants
these intellectual property Rights to its citizen on their creative ideas.
These rights are granted only when one applies to
the Government.
So it is important for Business owners to
understand various intellectual property rights and their implications to the
business. Let us examine some of these rights.
Let’s start with Copyrights; Copyrights are granted
to Literary, Dramatic, Artistic, Musical, Cinematographic, Photographic and
Sound Recording works. Copyrights are also granted to Computer programs
(Software), Databases etc. Copyright is given to an expression
of ideas and not ideas per se, which means an idea expressed in one form is open to others to create several other forms of expression of the same idea. Example: The Epic
story of Ramanayana is expressed by several authors right from Valmiki to
Ramanand Sagar, each of their expressions is different and is eligible for
getting copyright protection separately for their work. It is an infringement if substantial portion
of the work is copied from the original work.
To claim Copyright ownership one must create the work originally and
there should be minimum of creativity (Originality and Modicum of creativity).
The term of copyright is life time of the author plus sixty years for his/her
legal heirs. The commercial exploitation (Reproduction and Distribution Rights)
of the works is provided to Copyright owners.
Patents are another
form of powerful Intellectual Property
rights that are granted to inventions and innovations which are new, useful and
non-oblivious. Patents are not granted to abstract ideas, physical Phenomenon
and laws of nature. Once a patent is granted, the
inventor/applicant will vest with the Right to make, use, sell, offer for sale
and import the product/process invented for a period of 20 years from the date
of application. As against popular belief it
does not require rocket science or a great invention
for a patent to be granted. Any small invention that qualifies new,
useful and non-obviousness requirement will be granted a patent. Clips, Post
Stick etc, are awarded patent rights. It is important to protect our inventions
by filing patent applications, securing our rights and it is equally important
to respects others rights by not copying their technology. So to ensure the
product released in the market is not
infringing patents owned by third parties, it is advised to conduct a thorough analysis of your product before you
release it in the market.
Trademarks or Brand Names are the
protection given to names or signs adopted for products or services to which
they associate to the owners of such Trademarks or Brand names.
Trademarks rights provide the owner an exclusive right to use the mark
in relation to the product/services for which it is registered. The rights are
provided for a period ten years with an option to renew the same for every ten
years thereafter; however the condition is that the mark should be used in the
market continuously.
Industrial Designs are provided to aesthetic
and ornamental appearances of the products with a term of ten (10) years
initially and five (5) Years thereafter on renewal.
Hence its paramount for every
entrepreneur to know which intellectual property right is applicable to their
product/service and then accordingly take steps in protecting it.
Vijay
Kumar M
Article as published in January edition Vizag Industrial Scan (VIS), an industrial fortnightly
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