2. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Types/tools of IPR
• Case Studies
• Laws and Statistics
• Prevention and Strategies
• Law enforcement initiatives
• Indian govt initiatives to protect IPR
• Indian Copyright Act 1957
• Conclusion
3. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
• Intellectual property is the product or creation of the mind.
CATEGORIES OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
• Industrial Property describes physical matter that is the product of an
idea or concept for commercial purposes.
• Literary and artistic works : They are books, paintings, musical
compositions, plays, movies, radio/ TV programs, performances, & other
artistic works.
4. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
RIGHTS
• Intellectual Property Rights are legal rights, which result
from intellectual activity
• WIPO defines Intellectual Property as legal rights that
result from intellectual activity
• The Indian Intellectual properties typically fall into 4 major
buckets:
– Copy Right
– Patent
– Trademark
– Design Protection.
5. Types/ Tools of IPR
Patents
• Exclusive right granted for invention to the owner of
the patent
• Granted for a limited period, i.e.; 20 years
Trademarks
• Identifies certain goods or services as those produced or
provided by a specific person or enterprise
• It may be one or a combination of words, letters and
numerals
Copyrights and related rights
• Rights given to creators for their literary and artistic
works.
• novels, poems, plays, reference works, newspapers and
computer programs, databases; films
6. Industrial Designs
• Creative activity, which result in the ornamental or
formal appearance of a product.
• The purpose is to promote and protect the design
element of industrial production
Trade Secrets
• Confidential business information that provides an
enterprise a competitive edge may be considered a trade
secret.
• Protected without registration for an unlimited period
of time
8. Case Study 1
Bangalore Aug10, 2003 Ishoni Networks India Pvt
Ltd
• Director Antonio Mario Alvares had lodged a complaint
against three software engineers working in his
company
• The accused engineers had copied the code of the
company’s software and used it at their own start-up
named as Ample Wave Communication Network
• Police have seized four computers, four CPUs, four
keyboards, one server and one laptop from the accused
9. Case Study 2
New Delhi Aug28, 2002.
• Shekhar Verma, a former employee of Mumbai-based
Geometric Software Solutions Company and a computer
engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur was arrested by the CBI officials of New
Delhi
• Accused of stealing $60 million worth of source code of
a software product of a US-based client, SolidWorks,
and selling them to other companies for a fortune.
• The American firm has the exclusive rights over the
software.
10. Case Study 3
Data General Corp. v. Digital Computer Controls, Inc.
• Data General Corporation distributed design
documentation with its Nova 1200 minicomputer,
notifying owners of the confidentiality of these design
drawings
• Digital Computer Controls designed its own nearly
identical minicomputer and maintained that its use of
the documentation was proper because Data General
Corporation inadequately maintained the secrecy of the
design drawings
• The court found that Data General Corporation had
sufficiently protected the secrecy of the drawings and
that Digital Computer Controls was thus in violation of
trade secret law
12. LAWS
Patent protection and Restriction
A limited number of other countries, such as Japan permit the
patenting of software.
India does not award patents for software because under
Indian law, software tends to fall into established unpatentable
subject matter.
In Europe, there has been a debate, as to whether the US and
Japanese approach to software patents should also be adopted
in Europe.
13. Indian Patenting Activities
• Indian software firms have had less US patenting activity than
foreign firms operating in India. The distribution of patenting activity
has been very uneven.
• Indian software firms have fewer US software patents than foreign-
owned software firms that create software innovations in India.
• Only 4% of the biggest Indian software firms had any US software
patents awarded from 1996-2003 whereas 33% of the foreign-
owned software firms had patents awarded based on work done in
India.
14. Copyright Protection and Restriction
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 .
the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1999, this amendment was
signed by the President of India on December 30, 1999 and came
into force on January 15, 2000.
Today the Copyright registrations for software in India appear to
exceed those in the US.
The earlier 1994 amendment to the Copyright Act of 1957 had
provided protection to all original literary, dramatic, musical and
artistic works, cinematography, films and sound recordings.
15. • Some of the key aspects of the 1994 amendment to the Copyright Act
of 1957 are:
– According to section 14 of this Act, it is illegal to make or distribute
copies of copyrighted software without proper or specific
authorization.
– The violator can be tried under both civil and criminal law.
– A civil and criminal action may be instituted for injunction, actual
damages (including violator's profits) or statutory damages per
infringement etc.
– Heavy punishment and fines for infringement of software
copyright.
– Section 63 B stipulates a minimum jail term of 7 days, which can
be extended up to 3 years.
16. STATISTICS
Software patenting activity in the US has increased
substantially in the most recent three-year period
compared to the previous five-year period.
The increase was even more dramatic in India , patents
awarded to software firms increased from 10 per year
in the 1996-2000 period to 40 per year in the 2001-
03 period.
Among US patents awarded to software firms in India
in the 1996-2000 period, the average number of
citations per patent cumulated over the five years was
5.6. In comparison, US patents in advanced fields
averaged 29.3 citations per patent cumulated over a
five year.
17. Critical Issues
1. Affordability , use and accessibility of the competing
type software.
2. The relationship between various type of software.
These issues are examined under these :
• Software costs and licensing
• Hardware Software interface replacement/updating
• Software ,technology transfer, and Technological
Independence.
• Software patents and innovation.
• Software employment and training issues.
• Unauthorized software use(Software piracy).
19. Practices that help to minimize the risk of
losing Intellectual Property
• Understand the intellectual Property Rights
• Set up an Internal Intellectual Property protection
team
• Examine the work entities that can be
copyrighted/patented
• Define IP violation clauses
• Pay attention to use of unauthorized software/third
party products.
20. Thing you can do to stop an IPR
violation
Make sure that your IP is properly registered and recorded
each company’s anti-counterfeiting program must be specifically
tailored to its own particular requirements.
Brands and trademarks are among most valuable assets—a
formal plan should be developed.
The need for a plan is even more acute if there are safety risks
associated with the products you manufacture
21. LAW INFORCEMENT INITIATIVES
• Thorough Investigation
• Investigative steps
• Evidence Preservation
• Identification of stolen Intellectual Property
• Law Enforcement Education and Training
22. INDIAN GOVERNMENT
INITIATIVES TO PROTECT IPR
• The Government has brought out A Handbook of Copyright
Law to create awareness amongst the stakeholders,
enforcement agencies, professional users
• National Police Academy, Hyderabad and National Academy
of Customs, Excise and Narcotics conducted several training
programs on copyright laws for the police and customs
officers
• Special cells for copyright enforcement have so far been set up
in 23 States and Union Territories
23. • The Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource
Development, Government of India has initiated several
measures to strengthen the enforcement of copyrights
• The Government also initiates a number of seminars/workshops
on copyright issues.
24. CONCLUSION
• The importance of IPR and their protection is acknowledged
the world over as essential to business
• India too has recognized the value of IP and is now a
signatory to various IP treaties and conventions
• The Indian police has appointed specially trained police
officers to monitor IP infringement and cyber crimes
• Various Indian industries have also become more proactive in
protecting their IPRs
• One should understand the country’s IP Rights and follow the
practices to reduce the risk of loosing the intellectual
property.
