• Patents :

  A patent is an exclusive right granted by the government under Patents Act, 1970 over one’s invention for certain amount of time in exchange for full disclosure of the invention. It is granted to the owner of the invention that prevents others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without his authorization. A patentable invention may be a product or a process that provides a technical solution to a problem. The duration of the exclusive right is 20 years from the date of filing the patent. The owner can sell; license the patent to third- parties. For an invention to be patentable, it must satisfy three criteria:

  1. Novelty: Under Section 2(1) (l) of the Patents Act 1970, the invention should not be known publicly, in any manner, anywhere in the world.

  2. Inventive Step: Under Section 2(1) (ja) of the Patents Act 1970, the invention must be an enhanced technical contribution over the existing state-of-the-art. It must not be obvious to a person skilled in that particular field.

  3. Industrial Application: Under Section 2(1) (ac) of the Patents Act 1970, the invention must be useful and capable of industrial application.

• Copyrights :

  A copyright protection is accorded to original works of authorship, such as literature, music, artistic works, and computer software that are in tangible form. The copyright protection is governed by The Indian Copyright Act, 1957. It protects the expression of ideas, not the idea itself.

  The following may be protected under copyright law:

  1. Literary works (e.g., written works, source codes of computer programs)

  2. Dramatic works (e.g., scripts for films and dramas)

  3. Musical works (e.g., melodies)

  4. Artistic works (e.g., paintings, photographs)

  5. Published editions of the above works

  6. Sound recordings

  7. Films

  8. Television and radio broadcasts

  9. Cable programmes

  10. Performances

  As the holder of the copyright, one has the exclusive right to reproduce, adapt, and distribute the work. A copyright registration is voluntary in nature since it exists from the moment the work is created.

• Trademarks :

  Trademarks protect words, names, symbols, sounds, or colours that distinguish goods and services from those manufactured or sold by others. It also helps in indicating the source of goods. The trademarks are governed under The Trademarks Act, 1999. It can be graphically represented in the form of a logo or signature. A trademark, when registered is your property. By registering a trademark, the holder has the exclusive rights to use it, and no one else can infringe upon that right.

• Trade Secrets :

  Trade secrets are secret information used by a business that derives its value from being secret. There is no specific law in India on Protection of Trade Secrets. Trade secrets are protected in India under Indian Contract Act, 1872, under Section 27 which provides for remedies and also restrict any person from disclosing any information which he acquires at the time of employment or through contract. However, this provision describes only civil remedy and no criminal remedies. According to this section, any information must be highly confidential to be constituted as Trade Secret. Also, no registration procedures are involved for protection of a trade secret, and there is no specified time limit within which the secret may be protected. Information is considered as the trade secret by determining whether there has been a breach of confidence:

  1. The information was confidential to the business/company.

  2. The information has been revealed in breach of a promise of confidence.

  3. The information was used in an improper way that has resulted in financial damage to the business/company.

Basically, Intellectual Property (IP) is divided into two categories :

1) Industrial Property :

Industrial Property again can be divided into two areas

• • One area can be distinctive signs for Trademarks (TM) that distinguish the goods or services of one enterprise or undertaking from those of other enterprises or undertakings

Geographical Indications (GI) that identify a good originating in a place where a given characteristics of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin

• Other areas include Patents, Industrial Designs (IDs), Trade Secrets (TS) for innovation, design and the creation of technology

2) Copyrights and Rights related to Copyrights deals with :

• Authors’ Literary works (e.g. novels, poems, plays, writings and books), Artistic works (e.g. paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs), films, computer programs, musical compositions and architectural designs
• Neighboring Rights include rights of performers (e.g. actors, singers and musicians), broadcasting organizations in their radio and television programs, and producers of phonograms in their recordings

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Deals with the legal rights granted to protect the creation of the intellect. These rights are same as of other property right. Rights allow creator or owner to get benefits by exploiting their creation.

IPR provides an exclusive right for the limited period of time to the individuals, enterprises and other entities to exclude others from unauthorized use, copy, sell, distribution or license.

Further Intellectual Property Rights are outlined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which talk about the right to benefit from the protection of moral and material interests resulting from authorship of scientific, literary or artistic productions.

The Importance of Intellectual Property (IP) was first recognized in the Paris Convention for the protection of Industrial Property in year 1883 and the Berne Convention for the protection of Literary and Artistic Works in year 1886. Both treaties are administered by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Types of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are :

But it has to be remembered that an idea in itself cannot be copyrighted. It is the expression of that idea that can be copyrighted. Example – You may have a great plot for a love story in your mind. But you cannot claim copyright over that love story unless you reduce the plot to a written manuscript or a cinematographic film. Similarly, you may have a very good idea of developing a unique mobile application. But unless you write down the code for such a program, you cannot enjoy copyright protection on such program.

Who can own the copyright?

The creator of the work owns the copyright as soon as he/she creates the work. But it might not be possible for the creator to exploit the work all by himself. Therefore, the creator may assign such rights to persons who may commercially exploit the work. Example – The author of a novel may not want to get into the hassle of printing and distributing the books. So he assigns the copyright to the publishing house for such purpose. Similarly, a computer programmer may not have the resources to package, advertise and sell the software. So he may assign the copyright to a company which does the same for him.

What are the kinds of work in which copyright can be owned?

• Literary work which includes Books, pamphlets, lecture manuscripts, speeches, sermons and other writings, computer programs, electronic databases
• Dramatic and Choreographic work
• Musical Work with or without lyrics
• Artistic Work such as painting, drawing, lithography and engraving
• Cinematographic films
• Photographic works
• Sound Recordings
• Architectural Work
• Illustrations, Plans Maps
• 3-Dimensional works

What are the benefits of having copyright?

Copyright includes a bundle of rights. It can be classified into two major categories of rights :

• Economic Rights
• Moral Rights

Economic Rights

Economic Rights gives the creator to exploit their work for financial rewards commercially. Copyright law provides the following ways in which the creators may benefit financially from their work :

• Reproducing a literary work in various forms such as sound recording or publication in electronic format
• Public Performance of their works
• Translation of their work into other languages – This right is not limited to novels or writings. It is extended to technological works such as computer codes which can be written in a different programming language
• Adaptation of their work – Adaptation can be done by turning a novel into a screenplay. Similarly, adaptation may also include turning the plot of a novel into a computer game
• Distribution of copies of the work – Only the creator himself or the persons authorized by such creator may distribute the copies of such work
• Broadcasting Rights – Broadcasting rights include making the work available to the public at large through media such as radio, television, the internet as well as social media
• Derivative works – Toys, Model Figures etc. based on fictional characters

Moral Rights

The moral rights give the creator to take actions with regards to preserving the integrity of their work. Moral rights remain with the creator, even after he/she has transferred all economic rights. The moral rights include :

• Claim authorship of a work – Even after the author/creator has transferred all rights to a work, nobody can claim that he/she had originally created such work
• The right to object to any distortion or derogatory action which would hamper the creator’s reputation and honor – Example of this would be changing the plot of a novel when being adapted in a cinematographic work to introduce vulgarity

Why should we register a copyrighted work?

Though registration of copyright is optional, it is nevertheless highly recommended. This is because, in case of infringement or counterfeit selling of the work, a creator has to establish that he had created the work before the other person in the court.

Registration of copyright provides a prima facie evidence that the copyright existed with the creator on the date of creation. The court relies heavily on such registration and it becomes easy for the creator to claim damages from the opponent for violation of his/her rights.