RMI - Unit 4
RMI - Unit 4
Intellectual Property – The concept of IPR, Evolution and development of concept of IPR,
IPR development process, Trade secrets, utility Models, IPR & Bio diversity, Role of WIPO
and WTO in IPR establishments, Right of Property, Common rules of IPR practices, Types
The product / process / idea which is outcome of the brain of a person and can be
usedon commercial scale for benefit of human
h uman kind is called intellectual
intellectua l property.
OR
Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind; inventions, literary and artistic
works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used on commercial Scale.
The main features of intellectual property are given below:
• It is measured in terms of new ideas, processes, products, inventions and innovations
developed by a person.
• It requires lot of intellectual inputs in terms of thinking, planning and fine tuning of
Intellectual property, very broadly, means the legal property which results from intellectual
activity in the industrial, scientific and artistic
artist ic fields. Countries have laws to protect intellectual
property for two main reasons.
reas ons. One is to give statutory
sta tutory expression
express ion to the moral and economic
ec onomic
rights of creators in their creations and such rights of the public in access to those creations.
The second is to promote, as a deliberate act of government policy, creativity and the
dissemination and application of its results and to encourage fair trading which would
contribute to economic and social development.
Generally speaking, IP law aims at safeguarding creators and other producers of intellectual
goods and services by granting them certain time- limited rights to control the use made of
those productions. These rights do not apply to the physical object in which the creation may
be embodied but instead to the intellectual creation as such. IP is traditionally divided into two
branches: “industrial property and copyright”. The convention establishing the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), concluded in Stockholm on July 14, 1967 (Art.
2(viii) provides that
4) scientific discoveries;
5) industrial designs;
7) protection against unfair competition and all other rights resulting from intellectual activity
in industrial scientific, literary or artistic fields”.
The areas mentioned under (1) belong to the copyright branch of intellectual property. The
areas mentioned in (2) are usually called “neighboring rights”, that is, rights neighboring on
copyright. The areas mentioned under 3, 5 and 6 constitute the industrial property branch of
IP. The areas mentioned may also be considered as belonging to that branch.
Scope of Intellectual Property Rights
Patents
A patent is a type of intellectual property right which allows the holder of the right to
exclusively make use of and sale an invention when one develops an invention. Invention is a
new process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter. It is not an obvious derivation of
the prior art (It should involve an inventive step). A person who has got a patent right has an
exclusive right. The exclusive right is a true monopoly but its grant involves an administrative
process.
Copyright
It is an intellectual property which does not essentially grant an exclusive right over an idea
but the expressions of ideas which makes if different from patent law. PatentPaten t is related with
invention - technical solution to technical problems. Copyright is a field which has gone with
artistic, literary creativity- creativity in scientific works, audio-visual works, musical works,
software and others. There are neighboring rights. These are different from copyright but
related with it – performers in a theatre, dancers, actors, broadcasters, producers of sound
recorders, etc. It protects not ideas but expressions of ideas as opposed to patent.
Copyright protects original expression of ideas, the ways the works are done; the language
used, etc. It applies for all copyrightable works. Copyright lasts for a longer period of time.
The practice is life of author plus 50 years after his/her life. Administrative procedures are not
required, unlike patent laws, in most laws but in America depositing the work was necessary
and was certified thereon but now it is abolished.
Some call this design right (European) and some call it patentable design, industrial design
(WIPO and other international organization). A design is a kind of intellectual property which
gives an exclusive right to a person who has created a novel appearance of a product. It deals
with appearance: how they look like. Appearance is important because consumers are
interested in the outer appearance of a product. It is exclusively concerned with appearance,
not quality.
The principles which have been utilized in developing industrial design law are from
experiences of patent and copyright laws. It shares copyright laws because the design is artistic.
artistic .
It shares
upon patent law
registration because
and there are scientific
communication. It makesconsiderations. Designlaw
them close to patent lawsince
subsists
theyinare
a work
also
founded in patent law. Duration is most of the time 20 years like the patent law trademark
Rights law.
exceptions which serve what trademarks registered serve which are not registered. It means
they deserve protection even though they are not registered. They exist forever so long as the
good with which they are associated continue to be sold. But they require renewal.
Geographic Indication
It is indications on products of the geographic origin of the goods. It indicates the general
source. The indication relates to the quality or reputation or other characteristics of the good.
For example, “made in Ethiopia” is not influenced by the geographical Indication.
Geographical indications are sometimes called appellat ions of origin. For example, “Sheno
lega”, “Shampagne” (name of a region in France) are geographical indications.
Trade Secrets
The WIPO Programme in the year 1998-99 budget, were initiated to address the
growing concerns related to the Intellectual Property Rights, of the indigenous knowledge
holders. The Intellectual Property gave rise to duties, specifically for the owner of the IP that
are certain functions to be performed by them, in relation to their work or products. The various
laws that come under the ambit of Intellectual property umbrella did not emerge or evolve
together and they are as a fact, quite dissimilar in many aspects. Thus, the international treaties
and agreements promote the intellectual workers and labours and bring together all the related
laws of IP together.
The Intellectual Property Rights are distinguished from other rights because of the
nature of intangibility. It ensures the Right to Sue or take any legal action against the person,
who gains unauthorised access to his creation or innovation against the property. The scope of
the Intellectual Property Rights is a broad one. They help in balancing the nature of innovator’s
interest and the benefit of the public by, providing them an environment where, innovation,
invention and creativity can flourish to the highest and can benefit all. The Intellectual
Property systems have a common form of internal appeal procedure against the violators of
IPR.
Apart, from the initiatives of Government for training judicial officers in matters such as IPR
matters, the laws are also, updated and amended to provide the efficient speedy trials to the
citizens. Like in India, The Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM), which is a
government body works with WIPO and the National Judicial Academy (NJA), India, for
organising training sessions and sensitisation programmes on IPR’s for the High Court and
District Court judges. Thus, ensuring that the law system has a greater understanding on matters
like IPR and its assertion in the society . The National Intellectual
Intell ectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy,
2016 was a vision project of Indian government, to guide the future developments of the
Intellectual Property and its Rights in the country. It seemed to place an institutional
mechanism for implementation and monitoring of developments in global as well as national
IPR’s.
The main points about trade secret are briefly presented as follows:
For the protection of trade secret, conditions vary from country to country , some
general standards exist which are referred to in Art. 39 of the Agreement
Agre ement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement):
✓ The information must be secret (i.e. it is not generally known among, or readily
accessible to, circles that normally deal with the kind of information in question).
✓ It must have commercial value because it is a secret.
✓ It must have been subject to reasonable steps by the rightful holder of the
information to keep it secret (e.g., through confidentiality agreements).
A utility model is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which allows the right
holder to prevent others from commercially using the protected invention, without his
authorization for a limited period of time. In its basic definition, which may vary from one
country (where such protection is available) to another, a utility model is similar to a patent.
In fact, utility models are sometimes referred to as "petty patents" or "innovation patents."
Only a small but significant number of countries and regions provide the option of
utility model protection. At present, India does not have legislation on Utility models.
The main differences between utility models and patents are the following:
The requirements for acquiring a utility model are less stringent than for patents.
While the requirement of "novelty" is always to be met, that of "inventive step" or "non-
obviousness" may be much lower or absent altogether. In practice, protection for utility
models is often sought for innovations of a rather incremental character which may not meet
the patentability criteria.
The term of protection for utility models is shorter than for patents and varies from
country to country (usually between 7 and 10 years without the possibility of extension or
renewal).
In most countries where utility model protection is available, patent offices do not
examine applications as to substance prior to registration. This means that the registration
process is often significantly
sig nificantly simpler and fas
faster,
ter, taking on an average si
sixx months.
Utility models are much cheaper to obtain and to maintain. In some countries, utility
model protection can only be obtained for certain fields of technology, and only for products
but not for processes.
processes .
Utility models are considered suitable particularly for SMEs that make "minor"
improvements to, and adaptations of, existing products. Utility models are primarily used for
mechanical innovations.
The "Innovation patent," launched in Australia some time back was introduced as a
result of extensive research into the needs of small and medium-sized enteprises, with the aim
of providing a "low-cost entry point into the intellectual property system."
In simple terms, the diversity among various life forms within the Biosphere refers to
biodiversity. Biodiversity
Biodiver sity is the foundation of life
l ife on Earth. It is crucial for the ffunctioning
unctioning of
ecosystems which provide us with products and services without which we cannot live. By
changing biodiversity, we strongly affect human well-being and the well-being of every other
living creature.
ecosystem diversity, representing the principal bio geographic regions and habitats;
species diversity, representing variability at the level of families, genera and species; and
genetic diversity, representing the large amount of variability occurring within a species.
Diverse activities and actions have been taken by several stakeholders at local, state, national
and international level to conserve/protect the valuable resource such as biodiversity to draw
the benefits accrued in it for the society.
It is a well-established fact that developing countries are rich in the world’s flora and
fauna and 80 percent of the earth’s terrestrial biodiversity is confined to these countries,
which is the “raw material” for biotechnology, i.e., genes, folk varieties, land races to develop
new varieties by biotechnology. Until the advent of molecular biology and genetic
engineering, the success of plant breeding depended on access to genetic variability within a
species. Genetic engineering has, however, rendered the transfer of genes across sexual
barriers possible and
an d has thus enhanced the economic value of biodiversity.
biodi versity.
The developed countries are not rich in biogenetic resources but are better equipped in
research and development. They use the biogenetic resources accessed from the developing
countries. As a result, there is a beginning in the unprotected flow of genetic information
from the developing countries to the capital-rich west, and a protected flow in the reverse
direction mainly through patents and Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR). It has both visible and
invisible impacts. Genetic erosion is one of the most important invisible impacts that is in the
long run manifested visibly with the loss of biodiversity.
Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entering into
force in December 1993, the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty for
the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the
equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. The interface
between biodiversity
biodiversit y and intellectual property
prop erty is shaped at the international
intern ational level by several
sever al
treaties and process, including at the WIPO, and the TRIPS Council of the WTO. With 193
Parties, the Convention has near universal participation among countries. The Convention
seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from
climate change, through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and
The treaty defines biodiversity as "the variability among living organisms from all
sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the
ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between
species and of ecosystems."
The Convention reaffirms the principle of state sovereignty, which grants states
sovereign rights to exploit their resources pursuant to their own environmental policies
together with the responsibility to ensure that activities within their own jurisdiction or
control do not cause damage to the environment of other states. The Biodiversity Convention
also provides a general legal framework regulating access to biological resources and the
sharing of benefits arising from their use. India is a party to the Convention on Biological
Diversity (1992).
g. WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) deals with the rights of
two kinds of beneficiaries, particularly in the digital environment: (i) performers
(actors, singers, musicians, etc.); and (ii) producers of phonograms (persons or
legal entities that take the initiative and have the responsibility for the fixation of
sounds).
h. WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic
Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore is, in accordance with its
mandate, undertaking text-based negotiations with the objective of reaching
agreement on a text(s) of an international legal instrument(s), which will ensure
the effective protection of traditional knowledge (TK), traditional cultural
expressions (TCEs) and genetic resources (GRs).
i. The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) was set up in
the 1998-1999 biennium to examine matters of substantive law or harmonization
in the field of copyright and related rights.
j. Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs provides a
practical business solution
s olution for registerin
registeringg up to 100 designs in 74 contracting
parties covering 91 countries, through the filing
fi ling of one single international
inter national
application
k. Lisbon System for the International Registration of Appellations of Origin and
Geographical indications offers a means of obtaining protection for
an appellation of origin or a geographical indication in the contracting
parties through a single
sin gle registration procedure
proc edure and one set of fees.
fee s.
Mention should be made that today WIPO, administers 24 treaties (three of those
jointly with other international
intern ational organizations)
organizatio ns) and carries out a rich aand
nd varied program of
work, through its member States and secretariat, that seeks to:
• harmonize national intellectual property legislation and procedures,
• provide services for international applications for industrial property rights,
• exchange intellectual property information,
• provide legal and technical assi stance to developing and other countries,
• facilitate the resolution of private intellectual property disputes, and
• marshal information technology as a tool for storing, accessing, and using valuable
intellectual property information.
minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her
creation for a certain period of time.
OR
Intellectual property rights are like any other property right. They allow creators, or
owners, of patents, trademarks or copyrighted works to benefit from their own work or
investment in a creation.
On September
September 2, De Penning, submitted the Specifications for is invention
along
with drawings to illustrate it's working. These were accepted and the invention
inventio n wasgranted
the first ever Intellectual Property protection in India.
Patents
1. Patents granted in different contracting States for the same invention are independent of
each other.
2. The granting of a patent in one contracting State does not oblige the other contracting
States to grant a patent.
3. A patent cannot be refused, annulled or terminated in any contracting State on the ground
that it has been refused or annulled or has terminated in any other contracting State.
5. The grant of a patent may not be refused, and a patent may not be invalidated, on the
ground that the sale of the patented product, or of a product obtained by means of the
patented process, is subject
su bject to restrictions or limitations
li mitations resulting from
fro m the domestic law.
6. Each contracting State that takes legislative measures providing for the grant of
compulsory licenses to prevent the abuses which might result from the exclusive rights
conferred by a patent may do so only with certain limitations. Thus, a compulsory license
based on failure to work the
th e patented invention
inventio n may only be granted pursuant
purs uant to a request
filed after three or four years of failure to work or insufficient working of the patented
invention and it must be refused if the patentee gives legitimate reasons to justify his inaction.
7. Forfeiturelicense
compulsory of a patent
wouldmay
notnot be been
have provided for, except
sufficient in cases
to prevent the where
abuse. the grant
In the of acase,
latter
Marks
(1) The Paris Convention does not regulate the conditions for the filing and registration of
marks which are therefore determined in each contracting State by the domestic law.
Consequently, no application for the registration of a mark filed by a national of a contracting
State may be refused, nor may a registration be invalidated, on the ground that filing,
registration or renewal has not been affected in the country of origin. Once the registration of
a mark is obtained in a contracting State, it is independent of its possible registration in any
other country, including the country of origin; consequently.
(2) The lapse or annulment of the registration of a mark in one contracting State does not
affect the validity of registration in other contracting States.
(3) Where a mark has been duly registered in the country of origin, it must, on request, be
accepted for filing and protected in its original form in the other contracting States.
(4) The registration may be refused in well-defined cases, such as when the mark would
infringe acquired rights of third parties, when it is devoid of distinctive character, when it is
contrary to morality or public order, or when it is of such a nature as to be liable to deceive
the public.
(5) If, in any contracting State, the use of a registered mark is compulsory, the registration
cannot be canceled until after a reasonable period, and only if the owner cannot justify his
inaction.
(6) Each contracting State must refuse registration and prohibit the use of marks which
constitute a reproduction, imitation or translation, liable to create confusion, of a mark
considered by the competent authority of that State to be well known in that State as being
already the mark of a person entitled to the benefits of the Convention and used for identical
or similar goods.
(7) Each contracting State must likewise refuse registration and prohibit the use of marks
which consist of or contain without authorization, armorial bearings, State emblems and
official signs and hallmarks of contracting states, provided they have been communicated
through the International Bureau of WIPO.
(8) The same provisions apply to armorial bearings, flags, other emblems, abbreviations and
names of certain inter-governmental organizations.
The Berne Union has an Assembly and an Executive Committee. Every country
member of the Union which has adhered to at least the administrative and final provisions of
the Stockholm Act is a member of the Assembly. The members of the Executive
Committee are elected from among the members of the Union, except for Switzerland, which
is a member ex officio.
The Berne Convention, concluded in 1886, was revised at Paris in 1896 and at Berlin in
1908, completed at Berne in 1914, revised at Rome in 1928, at Brussels in 1948, at
Stockholm in 1967 and at Paris in 1971, and was amended in 1979.
The Convention rests on three basic principles and contains a series of provisions
determining the minimum protection to be granted, as well as special provisions available to
developing countries.
Basic Principles
1. Works originating in one of the contracting States must be given the same protection in
each of the other contracting States as the latter grants to the works of its own nationals.
2. Such protection must not be conditional upon compliance with any formality.
3. Such protection is independent of the existence of protection in the country of origin of the
work.
If, however, a contracting State provides for a longer term than the minimum prescribed by
the Convention and the work ceases to be protected in the country of origin, protection may
be denied once protection
prote ction in the country of origin
o rigin ceases.
The minimum standards of protection relate to the works and rights to be protected, and the
duration of the protection:
1. As to works, the protection must include every production in the literary, scientific and
artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression.
• the right to perform in public dramatic, dramatico -musical and musical works,
• the right to broadcast (with the possibility of a contracting State to provide for a
mere right to equitable remuneration instead of a right of authorization),
•the right to use the work as a basis for an audiovisual work, and the right to
reproduce, distribute, perform in public or communicate to the public that
audiovisual work.
The Convention also provides for “moral rights,” that is, the right to claim authorship
of the work and the right to object to any mutilation or deformation or other modification of,
or other derogatory action in relation to, the work which would be prejudicial to the author’s
honor or reputation.
Agreement With the establishment of the world trade Organization (WTO), the
importance and role of the intellectual property protection has been Crystallized in the Trade-
Related Intellectual Property Systems (TRIPS) Agreement. It was negotiated at the end of the
Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) treaty in 1994.
The general goals of the TRIPS Agreement are contained in the Preamble to the
Agreement, which reproduces the basic Uruguay Round negotiating objectives established in
the TRIPS area by the 1986 Punta del Este Declaration and the 1988-89 Mid-Term Review.
The TRIPS Agreement, which came into effect on 1 January 1995, is to date the most
comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property. The areas of intellectual
property that it covers
cove rs are:
(i) Copyright and related rights (i.e. the rights of performers, producers of sound
recordings and broadcasting organisations);
(ii) (ii) Trade marks including service marks;
(iii) (iii) Geographical indications including appellations of origin;
(iv) (iv) Industrial designs;
(v) (v) Patents including protection of new varieties of plants;
Standards: The TRIPS Agreement sets out the minimum standards of protection to be
provided by each Member.
Enforcement: The second main set of provisions deals with domestic procedures and
remedies for 21 the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
The Agreement lays down certain general principles applicable to all IPR
enforcement procedures.
Dispute settlement: The Agreement makes disputes between WTO Members about
the respect of the TRIPS obligations subject to the WTO's dispute settlement procedures.
In addition the Agreement provides for certain basic principles, such as national and
most-favoured-nation treatment (non-discrimination), and some general rules to ensure that
procedural difficulties
diffic ulties in acquiring or maintaining
main taining IPRs do not nullify tthe
he substantive benefits
benefi ts
that should flow from the Agreement.
The starting point is the obligations of the main international agreement of the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that already existed before the WTO was created;
namely, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (patents, industrial
designs, etc.) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
(copyright). However, some areas were not covered by these conventions while in some
cases, the standards of protection prescribed were thought inadequate. So the TRIPS
agreement adds a significant number of new or higher standards for the protection of
intellectual property rights. Part II of the Agreement addresses, in its various sections, the
different kinds of IPR and establishes standards for each category
4.12 Trademark,
What Is a Trademark?
The term trademark refers to a recognizable insignia, phrase, word, or symbol that denotes a
specific product and legally differentiates it from all other products of its kind. A trademark
exclusively identifies a product as belonging to a specific company and recognizes the
company's ownership of the brand. Trademarks are generally considered a form
of intellectual property and may or may not be registered.
KEY
systemsTrademarks a snot
—but just as onlycantly
signifi help distinguish
significantly productsThey
—with consumers. within
arethe legal
used and business
to identify and protect
words and design elements that identify the source, owner, or developer of a product or
service. They can be corporate logos
logos,, slogans, bands, or the brand name of a product.
Similar to a trademark, a service mark identifies and distinguishes the source of a service
rather than a product, and the term trademark is often used to refer to both trademarks and
service marks.
A trademark does not need to be registered for the owner to prevent others from using it or a
confusingly similar mark.
Trademarks in the United States are registered through the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO
(USPTO)) and are identified with the ® symbol. But trademarks don't
don 't have
to be registered in order to give the company or individual protection rights. Unregistered
Unregistered
trademarks can be recognized with the ™ symbol. By using this symbol, the trademark user
indicates they are using common law to protect their interests.
The laws governing trademarks never expire. This means the holder has the right to
the trademark for the life of the product or service. But there are certain exceptions. The user
is required to make continuous, lawful use of the trademark in order to take advantage of
Special Considerations
Trademarks can be bought and sold. For instance, Nike ( NKE
NKE)) purchased the
instantly recognizable Swoosh logo in 1971 from a graphic arts student for a one -time price
of $35. Trademarks also can be licensed to other companies for an agreed-upon time or
under certain conditions, which can result in crossover brands. Take the relationship LEGO
has with certain movie franchises, for example. The private company licenses many famous
sub-brands such as Star Wars and DC Comics to produce LEGO versions of popular
products..
products
As mentioned above, trademarks are also used as an effective way to market brand
names. In fact, the power of branding
bra nding in business is critical and can fill volumes, and the use
of brands in marketing is legendary. Some brands, like Kleenex, are so prominent and have
such
wordsuccessful brand
for the item identities
or service, likethat theyfor
asking have almost replaced
a Kleenex thea noun
instead of tissue.that was theClark
Kimberly original
(KMB
KMB)) owns the Kleenex trademark and launched the brand in 1924 as a disposable tissue
for removing cosmetics. In 1930, the company launched the brand again —this time as a
substitute for handkerchiefs. Since then, Kleenex has been the number-one selling facial
tissue in the world.
Copyright a traditional tool for encouraging creativity nowadays, has even greater
potential to encourage creativity in the beginning of the 21st century. Committed to promoting
copyright protection since its early days (the Universal Copyright Convention was adopted
under UNESCO’s aegis in 1952), UNESCO has over time grown concerned with ensuring
general respect for copyright in all fields of creation and cultural industries. It conducts, in the
framework of the Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity, awareness-raising and capacity-
building projects, in addition to information, training and research in the field of copyright law.
It is particularly involved in developing new initiatives to fight against piracy. The digital
revolution has not left copyright protection unaffected. UNESCO endeavours to make a
contribution to the international debate on this issue, taking into account the development
perspective and paying particular
particul ar attention to the need of maintaining the fair balance between
the interests of authors and the interest of the general public of access to knowledge and
information.
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