What is Intellectual Property Rights?

Intellectual property rights is a legal concept that confers rights to owners and creators of the work, for their intellectual creativity. Such rights can be granted for areas related to literature, music, invention etc, which are used in the business practices.

 In general, the intellectual property law offers exclusionary rights to the creator or inventor against any misappropriation or use of work without his/her prior knowledge. Intellectual property law establishes equilibrium by granting rights for limited duration of time1.

 Every nation has framed their own intellectual property laws. But on international level it is governed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1883 and the 'Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works' in 1886 were first conventions which have recognized the importance of safeguarding intellectual property2. Both the treaties are under the direct administration of the WIPO..

 The WIPO convention lays down following list of the activities or work which are covered by the intellectual property rights.

Available : Industrial designs Scientific discoveries Protection against unfair competition Literary, artistic and scientific works Inventions in all fields of human endeavor Performances of performing artists, phonograms and broadcasts

Trademarks, service marks and commercial names and designations

All other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields

 Types of Intellectual Property Rights? Some people confuse patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Although there may be some similarities among these kinds of intellectual property protection, they are different and serve different purposes. .

 Patent A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. US patent grants are effective only within the US, US territories, and US possessions.

 The word patent originates from the Latin patere, which means "to lay open" (i.e., to make available for public inspection), and more directly as a shortened version of the term letters patent, which originally denoted an open for public reading royal decree granting exclusive rights to a person.

 A patent ( /ptnt/ or /petnt/) is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state (national government) to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention

 The procedure for granting patents, the requirements placed on the patentee, and the extent of the exclusive rights vary widely between countries according to national laws and international agreements.

 Typically, however, a patent application must include one or more claims defining the invention which must be new, non-obvious, and useful or industrially applicable. In many countries, certain subject areas are excluded from patents, such as business methods, treatment of the human body, and mental acts.

 The exclusive right granted to a patentee in most countries is the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or distributing the patented invention without permission. It is just a right to prevent others' use.

 The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the United States or importing the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention

 Trademark or Servicemark A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms "trademark" and "mark" are commonly used to refer to both trademarks and servicemarks.

 Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. Trademarks which are used in interstate or foreign commerce may be registered with the Patent and Trademark Office.

 Copyright Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. The 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, or to display the copyrighted work publicly.

 The copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing. For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description; it would not prevent others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the machine.

 Copyrights are registered by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.

 Trade Secrets Trade secret points towards a formula, pattern, any instrument, design which is kept confidential and through which any business or trade can edge over its rival and can enjoy economic gain.

 Trade secrets can be anything from a chemical compound, manufacturing process, design or preserving materials or even a list of consumers or clients. It is also known as "confidential information" or "classified information". To be safeguarded under trade secrets, the matter should be 'secret'.

 Geographical Indications Geographical Indication (GI) - There are certain products which are easily identified as typical of a geographical region either by tradition or practise. .

 Example- Basmati Rice, the product and its characteristics are identified as originating from India or Pakistan. Ratnagiri Hapus. Banarsi Sarees . Kolhapur Chappals. Solapur Bedsheets

 This gives the right to produce only from those regions to name the produce by these names. Produce from any other region cannot be named by these GI.

 Biopiracy Biopiracy is a term used to describe the largely legal practice by large multinational pharmaceutical companies of exploiting the medicine of traditional peoples. Biopiracy

 If promising results are obtained, nothing is being put back into the traditional community. Many people think this is wrong and that large companies should work with traditional healers and the governments and other organizations in the country of origin and that some of the profits should be given back to the people who discovered the treatment in the first place.

 Many active drugs have been derived from plants used throughout history by healers in different cultures. There is a lot to be learned from traditional medicine but some companies may be going too far. Instead of working with organizations in the country in which a traditional remedy is being investigate, some companies are adopting a hit and run tactic of taking away the plant or substances for investigation.

 According to Vandana Shiva Biopiracy deprives us in three ways: 1. It creates a false claim to novelty and invention, even though the knowledge has evolved since ancient times as part of the collective and intellectual heritage of India. 2. It divests scarce biological resources to monopoly control of corporations thus depriving local communities the benefits of its use. 3. It creates market monopolies and excludes the original innovators (farmers) from their rightful share to local, national and global markets.