1. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR):
Intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which
attach to certain types of information, ideas, or other intangibles in their expressed
form. The holder of this legal entitlement is generally entitled to exercise various
exclusive rights in relation to the subject matter of the IP. The term “intellectual
property” reflects the idea that this subject matter is the product of the mind or the
intellect, and that IP rights may be protected by law in the same way as any other
form of property. The subject matter of IP is very broad it includes patents, trade
marks, and copyright as literary and artistic works, films, computer programs,
inventions designs and different marks used by businessmen for their services or
goods. There are different kinds of rights which together form the Intellectual
property. Some of them are, Copyrights, rights in performances, patents, registered
designs, unregistered design rights, trade marks, passing off, these are the
prominent Intellectual property rights1
.
In this essay we will discuss these rights in term of their registration and which are
not require registration for protection, and we will discuss the concept of
compulsory registration system and role of IP treaties to overcome difficulties of
registration. In copyright context we will discuss the voluntary registration schemes
The Rights which are, or are not subject to registration:
Registration is not a universal feature for the protection. Patents, design rights and
trade marks should be registered in order to get protection. However, copyrights are
not subject to registration in order to get protection2
. Certain forms of IP rights do
not require registration in order to be enforced. In IP it is not always necessary to be
registered in order to get legal protection. There are two types of rights in IP,
registered rights and non-registered. In case of registered rights it is required some
positive action to get these type of rights. However, in non-registered one can get
these rights automatically after the creation of work. Patents, trade marks and
registered designs required registration for legal protection, whereas some other
1
Bainbridge D, Intellectual Property,(Seventh edition, Pearson Pblisher, 2009)
2
Macqueen H L, Contemporary Intellectual Property( OUP, 2008)

2. rights as copyrights, unregistered designs rights, unregistered trade marks, database
rights and confidential information may get protection without registration. In order
to see the rights which are, or are not subject to registration we will discuss these
IPR as following.
Under the Copyright Design and Patent Act (CDPA) 1988, the following subject
matter is protected by copyright, the original literary works (work is a term used in
British law related to many objects protected by copyright)3
, dramatic works and
musical or artistic works. It also includes sound recordings, films or broadcasts4
.
CDPA 1988 describes the duration of copyright. The rule of determining the duration
of copyright relates to the nature of the work, however basic rule is, copyright
provides protection for the life of the author plus seventy years after his/her death
for literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, and for fifty years for sound
recordings, fifty years for broadcasting and twenty five years for typographical
arrangements for published editions5
. The way in which copyright protection is
secured is frequently misunderstood. No publication or registration or other action
in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. In general, copyright
registration is a legal formality intended to make a public record of the basic facts of
a particular copyright. However, registration is not a condition of copyright
protection. Copyright itself does not depend on official procedures. A created work is
considered protected by copyright as soon as it exists. According to the Berne
Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, literary and artistic
works are protected without any formalities in the countries party to that
Convention6
. Thus, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) does not offer
any kind of copyright registration system. However, many countries have a national
copyright office and some national laws allow for registration of works for the
purposes of, for example, identifying and distinguishing titles of works. In certain
3
Bently L, Intellectual Property Law,(Oxford University press, 2009).
4
CDPA 1988 S-1.
5
CDPA, 1988 S.12
6
Berne Convention, Article. 5

3. countries, registration can also serve as evidence in a court of law with reference to
disputes relating to copyright7
.
Even though registration is not a requirement for protection, the copyright law
provides several advantages to encourage copyright owners to make registration.
Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim. Before an
infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U.S.
origin. If made before or within 5 years of publication, registration will establish
prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated
in the certificate. If registration is made within 3 months after publication of the
work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney's fees
will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of
actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner8
. Registration allows
the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U. S. Customs Service
for protection against the importation of infringing copies. Registration may be made
at any time within the life of the copyright. Unlike the law before 1978, when a work
has been registered in unpublished form, it is not necessary to make another
registration when the work becomes published, although the copyright owner may
register the published edition, if desired9
.
Patent is another important Intellectual Property Right, a patent is only granted for
an invention. In order to get patent following conditions must be fulfilled, the
invention must be new, it involves an inventive step, and invention must has
industrial application. Patent does not include following, a discovery, scientific
theory and mathematical methods. Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work,
presentation of information, playing game, doing business and a program of
computer is not include in the patent.10
Registration is a basic condition since a long
time for grant of patent in the United Kingdom. The decision to get patent protection
depends upon registration is the result of the fact that patent gives an absolute
7
WIPO
8
Copyright Act 1976 S. 412
9
Copyright Act 1976 S.408
10
Patent Act 1977 S.1

4. monopoly to the patentee to prevent others from unauthorised use of the
invention11
. According to Patent Act certain interests may be registered12
.
There are diffrent reasons why a patent should be registered. Firstly, registration
gives a right of priority to the registrant against the person who has unregistered
right, if registrant has no notice of the earlier unregistered right13
. Another reason
why one should registered his invention is that, non registration may affect a party’s
right to cost14
. It is argued that registration provides protection against third parties.
Until registration of patent, it is possible for third parties who do not know of
applicant patentee’s rights to acquire conflicting interests in the patent, without
being bound by the earlier, unregistered rights. In other words, even though you
have taken, say, an exclusive licence of a patent, if you have not registered that
licence, the patent owner could assign the patent to someone else and that person
would not be bound by your licence, unless they knew of its existence. One should
therefore register their patent as a matter of course, because it gives notice of your
rights to others. Anyone else who later acquires any rights in the patent will
therefore acquire them subject to the registered interest. For the purpose of giving
such notice to others, the application for registration is sufficient. Therefore, the
rights are protected from the date on which applied to the Patent Office to register
them and any delay on the part of the Patent Office in processing the application will
not prejudice. To ensure one can obtain full financial relief for any infringement
either the patentee or an exclusive licensee can sue for infringement of the patent
and claim damages for any loss they have suffered as a result.
Trade mark is defined in Trade Mark Act as the mark must meet following three
conditions, the mark must be a sign, and the mark must be represent able as
graphically and the mark must be capable of distinguishing goods or services of one
undertaking from those of another15
. Registration of trade mark grants the
proprietor certain exclusive rights to use a particular sign in relation to specified
11
Bently L, Intellectual Property Law, (Oxford University press, 2009)
12
Patent Act ss.32-3
13
Bently, Intellectual Property Law, (Oxford University press, 2009)
14
Patent Act s.68
15
Trade Mark Act 1994 s.1

5. commercial activities. Registration provides protection to traders in term of the mark
before introducing in the market. There are certain benefits of registration of trade
mark as following,
• To claim it as yours
• Helps raise brand awareness
• Enables brand extension into other products or markets
• Symbolise your quality
• To distinguish your business from competitors
• Prevent other businesses from copying your branding
• Becomes a valuable asset, sometimes priceless e.g. Virgin, MacDonald. The
Intellectual Property Rights of a business, in the form of its brand names, can
be as valuable and important an asset of the business as its bricks and
mortar. Indeed in many cases it can be more valuable and critical to the
survival of the business.
Design right is another types of Intellectual Property rights. Design right is defined in
CDPA 1988 as, a property right which lies in an original design. For this purpose,
design is expressed to be any aspect of the shape or configuration of whole or part
of an article16
. There are many similarities between design right and copyright, like
copyright design right is automatic and does not require any registration but needs
some tangible expression17
. Design right is also known is unregistered design right. It
was introduced by CDPA as a mean of providing protection for merely functional
design as toys, furniture and cutlery which would not qualify for protection under
the Registered Designs Act 1949. Registered design right gives the stronger rights as
compare to unregistered design right. Registered design right differs in many ways
from an unregistered design right as following, an unregistered come into effect
automatically, it does not need any formality or registration for protection. While a
registered design right requires action by the proprietor. An unregistered design
right gives a short term protection which is ten years as compare to registered
design right which gives longer protection18
.
16
CDPA 1988 s.213
17
Bainbridge D, Intellectual Property,(Seventh edition,Pearson Publisher, 2009)
18
Flint M, A user guide to copyright, ( Sixth edition, 2005)

6. Advantages and disadvantages of compulsory registration
system and role of IP treaties to overcome the difficulties of
registration
It has been an established view that, for copyright, a scheme of compulsory
registration before publication, same as exists in patent systems, is more trouble
than it is worth; and under the current Berne system there is no registration of title
at all19
. But the English copyright registration system started by the Statute of
Anne/Copyright Act 1709 and which survived in one form or another until 1912 was
more flexible20
. Under the Copyright Act 1842 registration at Stationers’ Hall was
merely evidence of title, not proof; and there was no obligation to register unless
one wanted to bring an action for infringement, in which case it was held to be
sufficient to register before issuing the writ21
.
Since the Copyright Act 1709 almost three hundred years ago, countries like the
United States have adopted the fundamental principles of English copyright law into
their own copyright system. One very prominent feature of US copyright law, which
is absent and desperately needed in English law is the concept of copyright
registration. In the United States, copyright registration is a legal formality intended
to make a public record of the basic facts of a particular copyright. Although
registration is not a requirement for protection, U.S. copyright law provides several
advantages to encourage copyright owners to register their works· Registration of
copyright provides a public record of the copyright claim. If registration made before
or within five years of publication, it will establish evidence in court of the validity of
the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate. If registration is made within
three months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work,
statutory damages and attorney's fees will be available to the copyright owner in
court actions. Otherwise, only an award of and profits is available to the copyright
owner22
. A compulsory registration system of copyright has not been established in
19
Berne Convention Art.5
20
Macqueen, Contemporary Intellectual Property( OUP, 2008)
21
Warne v Lawrence (1886) 54 LT 371.
22
Copyright Act 1976 s.411,412

7. any of the countries concerned23
. The United States is not the only country which
offers copyright registration as a method of protection. Many other countries, for
example Canada, India, Spain, the Philippines, and Denmark, acknowledge the
copyright problems in today’s world, and offer some process of registration as a
formality intended to make a public record of the basic fact of a particular copyright
which may serve to prove the existence of the work and its ownership24
.
Voluntary Registration Schemes in copyright
According to Berne Convention the protection of copyright should not be subject to
any formality25
. Formalities are the conditions which must be fulfilled in order to
enjoy the copyright protection. It shows that protection may not be conditional on
the basis of any formality. However, some member countries to the Berne Union
provide facilities to author of the work to register their work under the national copy
right law through a voluntary registration system26
. This is one of the basic principal
of the convention.
In recent times a number of issues have been raised regarding registration of
copyright and related rights in the growing digital environment. Some experts have
highlighted the important role that registration could play beyond its traditional
functions in facilitating the exercise of rights, such as a means to prove the existence
of the work and or its ownership. In this context the focus has been placed on the
potential for registration to address some of the problems related to use of creative
content. One concern relates to whether copyright imposes inappropriate burdens
on users, including subsequent creators, in regard to works in respect of which the
copyright owner can not be located “orphan works”. A very common example is
where a creator wants to integrate an older work into a new one but despite her
best efforts is unable to locate the copyright owner. In addressing the issue of
orphan works, several alternatives have been proposed which confer a more or less
central role on registration. Specific legislation has been enacted in at least one
23
WIPO Standing committee on Copyright and related right SCCR/13/2(09 Nov 2005
24
www.wipo.int
25
Berne Convention Article 5(2)
26
WIPO Standing committee on Copyright and related right SCCR/13/2(09 Nov 2005)

8. country Canada while others, like the United States of America, are in the process of
assessing whether specific measures are needed.
There are certain merits of voluntary registration, the legal effect of registration of
copyright or related rights is to establish the presumption that the facts and acts
recorded are true, unless proven otherwise, the legal effect of registration is to
establish solid proof of authorship. The registration of copyright, as detailed in the
corresponding response, has a number of legal consequences. It has to be noted
that a certificate of registration is evidence that copyright subsists in the work and
that the person registered is the owner of the copyright unless evidence to the
contrary is furnished. Moreover, where copyright is registered at the time of
infringement, the defendant is deemed to have had reasonable grounds for
suspecting that copyright subsisted27
.
Conclusion
Would J.K. Rowling even try to write another Harry Potter novel if other publishers
could print their own edition of the book, perhaps in paperback, and sell it for a lot
less money, in part because they wouldn’t pay the author any royalties? How many
movie studios would be willing to spend millions of dollars on a blockbuster film if
other studios could copy it upon release and send it to the video rental stores under
their own label? Intellectual property--something that is a creative work, created in
the mind of someone or a group of people--is still property. People, whose homes
have been broken into, their possessions stolen, feel violated; people whose
intellectual property has been stolen feel no less violated. The technologies of today
make it increasingly easier to transfer intellectual property from one person to
another. Registration of IPR is much needed in recent times. It can be argued that
registration and non registration of IPR is the most important distinction, because it
is registration of IPR which can confer a sense of protection of your hard work and
property.
27
WIPO Standing committee on Copyright and related right SCCR/13/2(09 Nov 2005