Intellectual property (IP) states intellectual creations of the mind. Examples are literary and artistic works, industrial designs, symbols, patents, trade secrets etc. IP is protected in law which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create. For example, Pharma companies spend 25% of their yearly revenue on R&D for bringing out newer molecules.
Intellectual property rights are like any other property right; they allow the creators to benefit from their own work or investment in a creation. These rights are outlined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides for the right to benefit from the protection of moral and material interests resulting from the inventions; and, in case of copyrights from authorship of scientific, literary or artistic productions. The importance of intellectual property was first recognized in the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886). Both agreements are administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The main purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods. It has importance in increasing economic complexity of a nation; which means the emphasis on technical knowledge and its application in goods and services produced by a country. It also means the intense application of technical knowledge in product diversification to encompass it in the domestic consumer markets on one hand and foreign markets on the other.
The IP is protected by the law. It gives people and businesses property rights to the information and intellectual goods they create, usually for a limited period of time. This gives economic incentive for their creation, because it allows people to benefit from the information and intellectual goods they create, and allows them to protect their ideas and prevent copying. The economic incentives are expected to stimulate innovation and contribute to the technological progress of countries, which depends on the extent of protection granted to innovators.
The advantages of an IP are intangible in nature. They cannot be compared to other tangible properties like a house, a farm, jewellery etc. Unlike traditional property, intellectual property is undividable. But, unlimited number of people can consume an intellectual good without it being depleted. Inventors, designers, developers and authors can protect the ideas they have developed, for instance by means of copyright or patents. The aim is to prevent others from wrongly profiting from their creations or inventions. It also gives them an opportunity to earn back the money they invested in developing a product. Following are types of Intellectual Properties:
Patents
They protect an invention or a technical product or process. It is criminal for others to make, use, resell, rent out, or supply the patented object or process. The patent holder may however give others permission to do so by granting a patent licence. The electric light bulb is perhaps one of the most famous patented inventions known to humankind. It was awarded to Thomas Alva Edison in the year 1878. However, an English inventor called Joseph Swan had received a patent for a similar product in England at the same time. Later, the two joined hands to form Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company. Edison had 1,093 patents, including the phonograph, the precursor of the gramophone and the record player and the Dictaphone. He was associated with General Electric through his patents and consulting duties.
Copyrights
They include works of literature, scholarship, science and art. These includebooks, films, paintings, music, games, photographs and software. Copyright is regulated by the Copyright Act. Copyright exists automatically, so there is no need to register or apply for it. Anyone who makes a drawing at their desk at home automatically owns the copyright to it. A closely related field is “related rights” or rights related to copyright that encompass rights similar or identical to those of copyright, although sometimes more limited and of shorter duration. The beneficiaries of related rights are performers such as actors and musicians, singers for their performances; producers of phonograms (for example, compact discs) in their sound recordings and broadcasting organizations in their radio and television programs. Copyright includes novels, poems, plays, reference works, newspapers, advertisements, computer programs, databases, films, musical compositions, choreography, paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture, architecture, maps and technical drawings.
In addition to copyright, there are neighbouring rights also known as ‘related rights’. These rights protect the work of performers, music and film producers, and broadcasting companies. This protection is closely related to that offered by copyright, which explains why they are called ‘neighbouring’ or ‘related’ rights.
One case for example is Hawkins cooker ltd, the famous Indian brand, sued Magicook Appliances for illicitly using their label used on their renowned pressure cooker line registered under the Copyright Act, 1957.
Trademarks
A trademark is a unique sign that identifies certain goods or services produced or provided by an individual or a company. Its origin dates back to ancient times when craftsmen reproduced their signatures, or “marks”, on their artistic works or products of a functional or practical nature. Over the years, these marks have evolved into today’s system of trademark registration and protection. The system helps consumers to identify and purchase a product or service based on its specific characteristics and quality as indicated by its unique trademark.
A good trademark is instantly recognized; it should be inimitable, and exclusive to be remembered by people. Usually people recall a name, a design, a shape if they see it twice, whereas their eyes could pass right over written matter. So people don’t register written statements compared to a shape or design. The more often a potential customer sees and associates a reference to a company the more familiar he/she will begin to feel to the company. And their association with the logo makes their buying process easier.
Organizations can use a trademark to distinguish their products or services from other products and services. Trademark rights protect the names of products or services. They also protect a product’s logo and the design of its packaging. Organizations register their trademark if they want to protect it. Some famous trademarks are McDonalds, Apple, Nike, Amazon, Google, Coca-Cola etc.
Trademark protection ensures that the owners of marks have the exclusive right to use them to identify goods or services, or to authorize others to use them in return for payment. The period of protection varies, but a trademark can be renewed indefinitely upon payment of the corresponding fees. Trademark protection is legally enforced by courts that, in most systems, have the authority to stop trademark infringement.
In 2009 Gucci sued Guess for infringing on five Gucci trademarks, including the use of similar logos. In fact, Guess was been subject to 12 copyright complaints from 2000 to 2010. But the organization had successfully managed to resolve all previous situations almost immediately until they messed with Gucci. Guess used many of Gucci’s distinctive marks, including a green and red stripe used on handbags, the repeating, inverted GG pattern, and the company’s use of brown and beige colours, mostly used in conjunction with diamond shape patterns. Of course Gucci won the case but with a limited damage fees.
Industrial Design
Industrial Design are applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product’s form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufacture or production of the product. Design rights protect the appearance of two- or three-dimensional products. These include wallpaper patterns, textiles and the design of household items such as alarm clocks, toys and chairs. To obtain this form of protection, a design must first be registered. It must also be new.
An industrial design consists of three dimensional features, such as the shape of an article, or two dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or color. Industrial design is a to a great extent 20th-century phenomenon. The first industrial designer is often considered to be German architect Peter Behrens, who was heavily influenced by the 19th-century English designer and poet William Morris and by the arts and crafts movement, with which Morris was closely associated. Industrial designs are an important means of protecting the interests of the business entity, since appearance is often a determining factor when a consumer choosing a particular product. Given that the technical data of similar-purpose products manufactured by different manufacturers may coincide, the differences in their appearance can be of decisive importance. In this regard, the acquisition of a patent monopoly on an industrial design is a strategic task of the manufacturer.
An industrial design can be created in any sphere of human activity especially while producing products that can have an appearance practically, these are any objects.
Solutions protected as an industrial design can relate to the most diverse aspects of human activity – from clothes to complex design solutions, cars, boats, aeroplanes etc.
Some famous examples of industrial designs are Instantly recognisable, the Coca-Cola contour bottle is a masterpiece suppliers to design a new bottle that would be distinctive and instantly recognisable even in the dark, the in industrial design that dates back to 1915 when the Coca-Cola Company asked its bottle classic Vespa scooter design is associated heavily with the Italian design aesthetic, rocking wheelchair by German industrial designer and concept artist’s Mathias Koehler’s fresh, bold take on the staple favourite of knitting grandmothers the world over curls round into a sleek, circular shape, enabling a fluid rocking motion that also powers a reading light at the top.
Geographical indication
Geographical Indication is a name or indication associated with a place is sometimes used to identify a product. This “geographical indication” does not only say where the product comes from. More importantly, it identifies the product’s special characteristics, which are the result of the product’s origins. It is defined in the TRIPS Agreement as an indication which identifies a good as originating in the territory of a member, or a regional locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.
Famous examples of GI are Basmati Rice, Alphanso Mango, Nagpur Orange, Kolhapuri Chappal, Bikaneri Bhujia, Agra Petha, Paithani and Banaras Saree, Feni (Liquor from Goa), Lonavala Chikki, Tirunelveli Halwa, Mysore Rasam, etc. The GI Registry is situated at Chennai. As of September 2019, there exists 370 Geographical Indications of India.
The GI tag for Basmati rice variety is grown in 7 states in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) on the foothills of the Himalayas. These states are Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, parts of Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
In India Karnataka has the highest number of GI tags for approximately 47 products followed by Tamil Nadu (39).
Integrated circuit
Integrated Circuit is an electronic device that incorporates individual electronic components within a single ‘integrated’ platform configured to perform an electronic function. Examples of integrated circuits are MOS, CMOS, and TTL etc. CMOS ICs are fault tolerant; reduce risk of chip failure, use of anti-static foam for storage and transport of ICs. TTL technology requires regulated power supply of 5 volts.
On April 25, 1961, the patent office awarded the first patent for an integrated circuit to Robert Noyce while Kilby’s application which was still being analysed. Today, both men are acknowledged as having independently conceived of the idea of copyright 1999, Scien- Central, Inc, and the American Institute of Physics.
The integrated circuit (IC) has millions of electronic components, like transistors, resistors, and capacitors, constructed into a single unit. Today almost every electronic device such as computers, cell phones, cars, televisions, digital watches use ICs due to its small size and high reliability and efficiency.
Undisclosed information
Undisclosed Information includes trade secrets and test data. Trade secrets must be protected against unauthorized use, including a breach of contract or assurance or other acts contrary to authentic marketable practices. Such protection is conditional upon the information being secret, having commercial value and reasonable steps having been taken by its owner to keep the information secret. UI refers to information which is secret and has commercial value because it is secret. It is protected in the TRIPs Agreement under the framework or discipline of unfair competition.
Coca-Cola made a choice to brand the recipe a trade secret instead of patenting it, which would have led to the disclosure of the ingredients. Since one of those ingredients may have been cocaine, Coca-Cola decided to keep the recipe as confidential information.
The New York Times has the most influential book list in the country, and it will not divulge its definition of a best seller. It apparently is not merely the number of books sold since a book that has sold fewer copies than another can make the list while the better selling book does not. It is known that the Times gets information from chain stores, independent book bookstores, and wholesalers about sales figures, but that is the extent of the knowledge. The Times refuses to release its system because it fears publishers would then use the information to manipulate sales data to their advantage.
Listerine mouthwash is one of the popular examples of a trade secret. The inventor licensed the secret formula to Lambert Pharmaceuticals. Lambert was taken over by Pfizer in the year 2000; Lambert had made royalty payments to the inventor’s family for over 70 years, even though the formula was revealed during that time. Pfizer tried to stop payments after paying over $22 million for a formula that was no longer secret. It went to court saying it was no longer responsible for licensing fees. The court ruled that the contract did not stipulate that payments could be stopped if the trade secret was legitimately discovered by others, especially since Pfizer had acquired the formula by its takeover of Warner-Lambert when it was still secret and derived competitive advantage from it.
