Intellectual Property

Intellectual Rights (IP Rights) refers to creations of mind such as Inventions, Literary work, Designs and symbols, Artistic Work, names and images used in commerce.

For its protection different laws/Act has been instituted such as Patent Act, Trademark Act, Designs Act, Copyrights Act, which enables people to earn financial benefit from what they invent or create. IP rights aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish.

A Trademark is a sign that is able to distinguish one enterprise’s goods from those of other enterprises. It is granted for a period of 10 years and can be renewed for every 10 years.

Over time Trademark becomes synonymous with a company name, so that you don’t even need to see the name to recognize a particular business.

Once a Trademark is granted to the owner then he can claim over it if he finds some third person using his (same) name by suing him in court or can also claim compensation from him.

Copyright is a legal term that is used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic work. It is to be noted that Copyright is granted to only those persons who have originally adopted or created it.

Works that are covered under Copyright ranges from books, music, paintings, sculptures and films, computer programs, database, websites, advertisements, amps and technical drawings, Sound Recording and musical compositions, video games and computer softwares, dramatic works such as plays and musicals, cinematographic work, literary work, musical or dramatic work.

Copyright is governed by Copyrights Act, 1957.

Copyright Ownership gives the owner the prerogative to use the work with some exceptions. When an individual creates an ingenious work, fixed during a tangible medium, he or she automatically owns copyright to the work.

An Industrial Design constitutes the decorative or aesthetic aspect of a piece of writing . A Design may contain three dimensional features, like shape or surface of a piece of writing , or of two dimensional features like patterns, lines or colours.

But Industrial Designs are different from patents as in Patients only new inventions or novel inventions can be registered but it is not mandatory in the case of Industrial Designs. In Industrial Design only a new shape of the product is necessary.

Copyright is governed by Copyrights Act, 1957.

For eg. A mouse in the shape of Turtle comes under Industrial Design and not Patent as mouse is already invented in India and is already in public domain.

Geographical Indications and appellation of origin are signs used on goods that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities, a reputation or characteristics that are essentially attributable to that place of origin. Most commonly, Geographical Indication includes the name of the place of origin of goods.

For eg. Oranges are famous in Nagpur, Shikanji is famous in Modi Nagar.

Trade secrets are confidential information which may be sold or licensed. The unauthorized acquisition use or disclosure of such secret information during a manner contrary to honest commercial practices by others is considered an unfair practice and a violation of secret protection. However, it is not practiced strictly in India.