1. IPR: Intellectual Property Rights
Dr. Manoharmayum Vishwanath Sharma
Associate Professor and Research Officer
Department of Environmental Sciences
Manipur International University, India
2. What is IPR?
• Intellectual property law is the area of law that deals with legal rights to creative works and
inventions. It controls who gets to use creations including new products, artistic works and
designs. The purpose of intellectual property law is to allow the people who create and invent
things to profit from their work.
• Intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. They
usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of
time.
• A right that is had by a person or by a company to have exclusive rights to use its own plans, ideas,
or other intangible assets without the worry of competition, at least for a specific period of time.
• These rights can include copyrights, patents, trademarks, design rights, trade secrets, etc.
IPR
Patents Copyrights Trademarks Trade Secrets
3. • Patents – IP protection for the features, devices and processes that make things
work. Patents are probably the most applicable type of IP protection for
manufacturers and are often filed by those who invent new technologies, processes
and products.
• Copyright – protects material that is recorded or written down. For small
manufacturers. This includes engineering drawings, technical documentation and
stored digital data.
• Trade Marks – distinctive words or logos that uniquely distinguish goods and
services
• Trade secret - defined as any information with commercial value, which is not
available in the public domain and the disclosure of which would cause significant
harm to the owner
• Design Rights – protection for a 3D shape or form. It can apply to the distinctive
look of a product. A design right protects the aesthetic features of an invention.
5. Patent Law
• The history of Patent law in India starts from 1911 when the Indian Patents and Designs Act, 1911
was enacted.
• The Patents Act, 1970 is the legislation that till date governs patents in India. It first came into force
in 1972. The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks or CGPDTM is
the body responsible for the Indian Patent Act. The Patent Office has its headquarters in Calcutta
and has branches in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. The office of the CGPDTM is based in
Mumbai. Nagpur hosts the office of the Patent Information System and also the National Institute
for Intellectual Property Management. The Controller General supervises the Act’s administration
and also offers advice to the government on related matters. The Patents Act has been repeatedly
amended in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006 respectively. These amendments were required to make the
Patents Act TRIPS compliant. TRIPS stands for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights.
• The major amendment in the Patent Act was in 2005, when product patents were extended to all
fields of technology like food, drugs, chemicals and microorganisms. The Rules under Patent Act
were also amended in 2012, 2013, 2014.
6. Patent Law Amendment Act 2005
Salient features of the Patents (Amendment) Act 2005 related to product patents:
• Extension of product patent protection to products in sectors of drugs, foods and chemical.
• Term for protection of product patent shall be for 20 years.
• Introduction of a provision for enabling grant of compulsory license for export of medicines to countries which have
insufficient or no manufacturing capacity; provided such importing country has either granted a compulsory license for
import or by notification or otherwise allowed importation of the patented pharmaceutical products from India (in
accordance with the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health)
• Section 3 (d) regarding patentability.
• “the mere discovery of a new form of a known substance which does not result in the enhancement of the known efficacy of that substance or the mere
discovery of any new property or new use for a known substance or of the mere use of a known process, machine or apparatus unless such
known process results in a new product or employs at least one new reactant. Explanation. -For the purposes of this clause,
salts, esters, ethers, polymorphs, metabolites, pure form, particle size, isomers, mixtures of isomers, complexes, combinations, and other derivatives
of known substance shall be considered to be the same substance, unless they differ significantly in properties with regard to
efficacy”
Effects of Patent Amendment Act 2005
• Due to the new patent regime, increased prices of products was considered to be a major hindrance during the time.
However, the government has taken proactive measures to ensure low prices for essential drugs, and has used
compulsory licensing as a tool to keep exorbitant prices under check.
• The amendment intended to make Indian drug and pharmaceutical industries competitive at par with multinational
companies.
• Despite initial reservations, Indian pharmaceutical companies manufacturing generic drugs have flourished in the last
decade.
• Also, MNCs have opened Research and Development Centres in India.
7. Pharmaceutical & Biotech Patents
• Pharmaceutical and Biotech patents are registered in India after undergoing a stringent examination process.
• In Section 3, which specifies inventions that are not patentable, under clause (d) where new use of the existing substance,
process, the machine results in a new product or at best one new outcome, can be patented.
• Also, the provisions of the patent law allow patenting of products in chemicals, biotechnology, food processing, drugs and
pharmaceuticals, not just the process.
Rights granted by a Patent
• If the patent is for a process, then the patentee has the right to prevent others from using the process, using the product
directly obtained by the process, offering for sale, selling or importing the product in India directly obtained by the
process.
• If the grant of the patent is for a product, then the patentee has a right to prevent others from making, using, offering for
sale, selling or importing the patented product in India.
• Term of Patent
• The term of every patent in India is 20 years from the date of filing the patent application, irrespective of whether it is filed
with provisional or complete specification.
• However, in case of applications filed under the Patent Cooperative Treaty (PCT), the term of 20 years begins from the
international filing date.
8. Copyright Act, 1957
• The term “copyright” refers to a collection of exclusive rights that Section
14 of the Act grants to the owner of the copyright. Only the copyright
owner or another person who has permission to do so from the copyright
owner may exercise these rights. These rights include the ability to adapt,
reproduce, publish, translate, and communicate with the public, among
other things. Copyright registration just establishes an entry for the work
in the Copyright Register kept by the Registrar of Copyrights and does not
grant any rights.
• Scope of rights conferred to the author
• Literary works, musical works, theatrical works, creative works, sound recordings, and
cinematographic films are all protected by copyright under Section 13 of the Copyright
Act of 1957. Literary works, for instance, books, manuscripts, poetry, and theses are
safeguarded by the Act. Original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works as well as
cinematographic and sound recordings are shielded from illegal access under the
Copyright Act of 1957. In contrast to patents, copyright safeguards expressions rather than
ideas.
• Provisions to assert the ownership
• The original owner of the copyright is the creator of the work itself, as stated in Section 17
of the Copyrights Act of 1957. The one exception to this rule is when an employee creates
work while performing duties as part of their employment, in which case the employer
assumes ownership of the copyright.
9. • The term “copyright” refers to a collection of exclusive rights that Section 14 of the Act grants to the
owner of the copyright. Only the copyright owner or another person who has permission to do so
from The following are the important sections of the Copyright Act of 1957:
• Section 2 deals with various definitions of the work which can be covered under the definition of
copyright. For example, Section 2(o) deals with literary works, Section 2(h) includes all dramatic
works under the definition of copyright protection, and Section (p) deals with musical and
graphical works.
• Section 13 of the Copyright Act, 1957, is the most requisite Section as it deals with the subject matter
of copyright protection. According to Section 13(1), all of India is under the purview of the
Copyright, and the following classifications of works are protected by the Copyright:
• Original artistic, musical, dramatic, and literary works
• Sound recording
• Cinematograph films
• The published and unpublished works of architecture are discussed in Section 13(2). If the work is
published, it must be published in India. If the work is published outside of India, the author must
be an Indian citizen at the time of publication or at the time of his death. Except for works of
architecture, the authors of unpublished works must be Indian citizens or have a place of residence
in India. When it comes to architectural works, only the work itself must be from India and not the
architect, because architectural works can also be done in written form. The copyright in an
architectural work shall only apply to the creative character and design and shall not include the
construction process or processes.
10. • A few rights are protected under copyright legislation. These three types of rights are common or
economic, moral, and neighbouring. According to Section 14, moral rights are granted under
Section 57, economic rights are granted under Section 14 and neighbouring rights are granted
under Sections 37A and 378.the copyright owner may exercise these rights. These rights include the
ability to adapt, reproduce, publish, translate, and communicate with the public, among other
things. Copyright registration just establishes an entry for the work in the Copyright Register kept
by the Registrar of Copyrights and does not grant any rights.
• Scope of rights conferred to the author
• Literary works, musical works, theatrical works, creative works, sound recordings, and
cinematographic films are all protected by copyright under Section 13 of the Copyright Act of 1957.
Literary works, for instance, books, manuscripts, poetry, and theses are safeguarded by the Act.
Original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works as well as cinematographic and sound
recordings are shielded from illegal access under the Copyright Act of 1957. In contrast to patents,
copyright safeguards expressions rather than ideas.
• Provisions to assert the ownership
• The original owner of the copyright is the creator of the work itself, as stated in Section 17 of the
Copyrights Act of 1957. The one exception to this rule is when an employee creates work while
performing duties as part of their employment, in which case the employer assumes ownership of
the copyright.
11. Trade mark Act, 1999
• Trademark gives protection to the owner of the mark by assuring the exclusive rights to use in to
distinguish the goods or services or authorize another to utilize in return of payment. It works like a
weapon in the hand of enlisted owner or registered proprietor of the mark to prevent different traders
from unlawful utilization of the mark of the registered owner. Under section 28 of the Act, the
registration of a trade mark will provide to the registered owner of the trademark, the exclusive right to
the utilization of the mark according to the goods in regard of which the mark is registered and to get
help in regard of the trademark as provided under the Act.
• The owner of an trade mark has a privilege to file a suit for infringement of his right and obtain:
• Injunction,
• Damages,
• Account of profits
• Registration of Trademark:
• According to section 18 (1) of the Trade mark Act, 1999, any individual claiming to be the owner of a trademark utilized or
proposed to be utilized by him may apply writing in hard copy in endorsed way for registration. The application must contain
name of the mark, goods and services, class in which goods and services fall, name and address of the applicant, period of use of
the mark.
• Any Person means a Partnership firm, association of persons, an organization, regardless of incorporated or not, a Trust, Central or
State government.
12. • According to Trademark Act, a mark will be regarded to be infringed mark if:
• it is discovered duplicate of entire registered mark with a few additions and alterations,
• the infringed mark is utilized over the course of trade,
• the utilization of the infringed mark is printed or usual representation of the mark in
advertisement. Any oral utilization of the trademark isn't infringement.
• the mark utilized by the other individual which almost looks like the characteristic of the
registered owner as is probably going to deceive or cause confusion and in relation to goods in
respect of which it is registered.
• Protection Against Infringement of Trade Mark:
• Under section 29 of the Trade mark Act, 1999, the utilization of a trade mark by an individual
who not being registered owner of the trade mark or an registered client thereof which is
indistinguishable with, or misleadingly like an registered trademark amounts to the
infringement of trademark and the registered owner can make a move or acquire relief in
respect of infringement of trademark.
• In a case Supreme Court has held that in an action for infringement if the two marks are
indistinguishable, at that point the infringement made out, otherwise in the case the Court
needs to look at the two marks, the degree of resemblance by phonetic, visual or in the basic
ides as presented to the registered owner, regardless of whether the essential features of the
mark of the registered proprietor is found to be used by other person the Court may conclude
the matter.
13. In an action for infringement of trademark:
• the offended party must be the registered proprietor of a trademark
• the respondent must utilize a mark misleadingly similar with the offended party's mark.
• the utilization must be corresponding to the goods in regard of which the offended party's
marks is registered,
• the utilization by the defendant must not be accidental however over the course of trade.
14. • In the year 1999, the government passed an important legislation based on international practices to safeguard the intellectual
property rights. The same are described below−
• The Patents (Amendment) Act, 1999, facilitates the establishment of the mailbox system for filing patents. It offers exclusive marketing rights
for a time of five years.
• The Trademarks Bill, 1999.
• The Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1999.
• Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Bill, 1999.
• The Industrial Designs Bill, 1999, replaced the Designs Act, 1911.
• The Patents (Second Amendment) Bill, 1999, for further amending the Patents Act of 1970 in compliance with the TRIPS.
