Various Dimensions of IPR

Navaneet kumar ABSTRACT

There is a well-established statutory, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard intellectual property rights in India, whether they relate to patents, trademarks, copyright or industrial designs. Intellectual property rights (IPR) have become important in the face of changing trade environment which is characterized by the following features namely global competition, high innovation risks, short product cycle, need for rapid changes in technology, high investments in research and development (R&D), production and marketing and need for highly skilled human resources. IPR are largely territorial rights except copyright, which is global in nature in the sense that it is immediately available. These rights are awarded by the State and are monopoly rights implying that no one can use these rights without the consent of the right holder. IPR has various dimensions which have their own importance. A patent is an exclusive right granted by a country to the owner of an invention to make, use, manufacture and market the invention, provided the invention satisfies certain conditions stipulated in the law. It is available for only a limited period of time. The first Indian patent laws were first promulgated in 1856. These were modified from time to time. New patent laws were made after the independence in the form of the Indian Patent Act 1970. Term of the patent will be 20 years from the date of filing for all types of inventions. A clear definition has now been provided for an invention, which makes it at par with definitions followed by most countries. Invention means a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application. Inventive step means a feature of an invention that involves technical advance as compared to existing knowledge or having economic significance or both and that makes the invention not obvious to a person skilled in the art. An invention will be considered novel if it does not form a part of the global state of the art. Information appearing in magazines, technical journals, books, newspapers etc. constitutes the state of the art. Copyright is a right, which is available for creating an original literary or dramatic or musical or artistic work. Cinematographic films including sound track and video films and recordings on discs, tapes, perforated roll or other devices are covered by copyrights. Computer programs and software are covered under literary works and are protected in India under copyrights. Copyright gives protection for the expression of an idea and not for the idea itself. For example, many authors write textbooks on physics covering various aspects like mechanics, heat, optics etc. India has one of the most modern copyright protection laws in the world. Major development in the area of copyright during 1999 was the amendment to the Copyright Act of 1957 to make it fully compatible with the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement.

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