Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) : Need for Legal Protection

Intellectual property rights (IPR) are the legal rights provided to an individual for his or her creation. This is an exclusive right that is being provided to the creator for a certain period. The IPR applies to all kinds of exclusive creations, inventions, artistic works, logos or names used in commerce, etc. Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides benefits to a creator, author, or inventor by safeguarding their artistic, literary, or scientific creation. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) first recognized the major importance of IPR during the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886) and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883).

Geeky Takeaways:

• Copyrights protect the original work of authorship, like literacy, art, music, etc.
• Patents grant exclusive rights for new inventions, typically for a limited period.
• A trademark protects signs, logos, and symbols that are associated with goods or services.
• Design protection covers the visual aspect of a product.

What are Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)?

Intellectual Property Rights are the rights given to each and every person for the creation of new things according to their minds. IPR usually gives the creator a complete right over the use of his or her creation for a certain period of time.

Intellectual Property Rights are the legal rights that cover the benefits given to individuals who are the owners and inventors of work and have created something unique with their intellectual creativity or capability. Every person related to areas such as literature, music, invention, etc., can be granted such rights, which can then be used in their business practices. The creator or inventor gets complete rights against any misuse or use of work without his or her prior information. However, the rights are issued for a limited period of time to maintain equilibrium.

All the rights linked to intangible assets possessed by an individual or business to safeguard such assets against unlawful use or exploitation are called Intellectual Property Rights. Such rights are granted to the creators of intellectual property so that their creations cannot be used by others without their permission. These include Right to reproduce such work, Right to sell such work, Right to create other forms of such work, etc.

Intellectual Property Rights are used to convey the monopoly of the holder over the usage of the specified property or items for a definite time period. Any violation of these rights attracts severe penalties.

Need for Legal Protection of IPR

1. Safeguarding Unique Ideas: Many a time, people try to copy the creations of others for their own commercial profit. It becomes essential to protect such ideas and creations from rival parties to ensure exclusivity and uniqueness in one’s own creation.

2. Creating Barriers to Copying or Plagiarism: A author or inventor carves out a unique idea based on his or her years of hard work, and it is important to protect the idea from being commoditized by other players and make sure the author or inventor gets due credit for his or her work.

3. Easing the Marketing Process: Intellectual property is an essential tool for creating an identity for a business. It helps a firm distinguish its own products and services in the market from those of others, thus encouraging easier reach to the target customers, thereby making the whole marketing process very seamless.

4. Economic Growth: Giving a statutory expression to the creator’s idea can help secure economic rights and foster fair trade in the market. Intellectual Property Rights can help support economic growth by fostering economic development. IPRs can help generate income not only through the direct marketing of the idea or invention but also by licensing them to third-party vendors.

Components of Intellectual Property Rights

1. Patent: It is a right conferred upon the inventors of a certain device or entity. Patents are conferred only upon inventions and not upon the discovery of a phenomenon. Invention here refers to coming up with a device or an idea with your own mind, whereas discovery means simply getting to know and find out something that already exists in the universe. The distinction between discovery and invention can be understood with the following example: Isaac Newton discovered gravity when he saw an apple falling from a tree, while Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. In this case, the telephone can be patented for being an innovation, but not the gravitational laws.

2. Copyright: Copyright refers to the right to “not copy.” It is a right pertaining to intellectual property such as literature, art, music, sound recording, and cinematography. Copyright prohibits the unauthorized use of the content, including acts such as the reproduction and distribution of copies of the subject matter. Copyright enables the protection of work automatically as soon as the work comes into existence. The registration of the copyright, though not mandatory, is essential to exercising the right in case of an infringement.

3. Trademark: A Trademark is any word, name, and symbol, or a combination of words, names, and symbols that lets us identify the goods made by an individual, company, or organization and also differentiates such goods from those of other parties. Examples of Trademarks include the Apple logo, the LG logo, the Dell logo, the Audi logo, etc. There are many kinds of trademarks available to a goods or service provider in India, such as product marks, service marks, collective marks, certification marks, shape marks, pattern marks, and sound marks. The registration of a trademark, though not mandatory, is essential to establishing exclusive rights over such marks.

5. Industrial Designs: Nowadays, customers face an enormous choice of products, including many that offer the same basic functionality. So they will mostly go for the design they find the most attractive within their price range. Industrial products and handmade goods are the primary entities that use design laws. These include cars, telephones, kitchen utensils, electrical appliances, etc. Such rights entitle the right holder to control the commercial production, import, and sale of products with the protected design.

5. Geographical Indications: A geographical indication is used to identify and distinguish agricultural, natural, or manufactured products from one geographical location to another. Manufactured products further entail handicrafts, industrial goods, foodstuffs, etc. Such indications play a very important role in highlighting the various components of our heritage and the collective goodwill of a certain geographical region that has been created over a period of time. For example, many food items, such as fruits and other things like wool, yarn, etc., come with labels on their packages that specify the state or region they have been cultivated or manufactured so as to reap the benefits of their goodwill, like Darjeeling, which is a very famous spot for its tea, Nagpur, which is famous for its oranges, Kashmir, which is famous for its Pashmina wool, etc.

Conclusion

The phrase intellectual property, sometimes known as IP, refers to the creations of the human mind, exclusive to a single person. Intellectual property includes inventions, literature and artistic masterpieces, designs, emblems, titles, and pictures utilised in commerce and business. Such creations are prone to plagiarism or copying. To protect them from plagiarism, the creators or owners of such property are vested with several rights called Intellectual Property Rights. These rights are protected and promoted through means such as Patents (usually for things such as technical inventions), Trademarks (for goods and services), Copyright (music, art and literature) and Designs (products and logos). There is a need for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) due to many reasons and some of them are discussed below. It provides, the creator an exclusive right over his/her creation so that no one else can make misuse his/her creation. Such legal protection promotes innovation among youth and leads to many new useful inventions.

Intellectual Property Rights: Need for Legal Protection- FAQs

What is Intellectual Property Rights?

Intellectual property rights are the rights given to each and every person for the creation of new things according to their minds. IPR usually gives the creator a complete right over the use of his or her creation for a certain period of time.

What are the components of IPR?

Components of IPR are as follows:

• Patent
• Copyright
• Trademark
• Industrial Designs
• Geographical indications

Why there is a need to protect IPR?

• Safeguarding Unique Ideas
• Creating barriers to copying or plagiarism
• Easing the Marketing Process

What is a Patent?

It is a right conferred upon the inventors of a certain device or entity. Patents are conferred only upon inventions and not upon the discovery of a phenomenon. Invention here refers to coming up with a device or an idea with your own mind, whereas discovery means simply getting to know and find out something that already exists in the universe.

What is a Trademark?

A Trademark is any word, name, and symbol, or a combination of words, names, and symbols that lets us identify the goods made by an individual, company, or organization and also differentiates such goods from those of other parties.