Understanding Patents and Intellectual Property Rights

An Intellectual property right is the right of a person or company to use their inventions, or ideas through patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets without the worry of competition at least for a specified period. The invention may be the inventor’s creativity, concepts, architectural designs, industrial models, songs, literature, symbols, names, brands, etc. The intellectual property rights allow its holder to exercise a monopoly on the use of the item and others are not allowed to use such intellectual properties.

Intellectual Property (IP) is a form of legally recognized intangible property. Copyright is the body of law developed to define and protect one aspect of IP, namely works of authorship. Proprietary is an adjective that describes something that is privately owned by an individual or entity.

The social purpose assignment of property right to the inventor is to secure intellectual property protection before the inventor market these inventions just like property rights so that others are prevented from using, dealing or tampering with the product without prior permission of him/her and to provide protection for the results of investment in the development of new technology. The intellectual property right holder can legally sue the unauthorised users of their property rights and force them to stop and compensate for any damages. Thus, the intellectual property right gives incentive and means to finance the research and development activities of companies.

Copyrights: The ideas including literary and artistic works which include music, cartoons, paintings, photographs, statues, films, and the rights of broadcasting organizations the programs they air, etc. are protected by copyrights.

Patent rights: A patent is a type of intellectual property right (IPR) that gives the owner the right to control how and by whom their invention is used. A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention. Patents benefit inventors by providing them with legal protection for their inventions. However, patents also benefit society by providing public access to technical information about these inventions, thus accelerating innovation. An invention relating to a product or a new process, involving inventive steps and capable of industrial application can be patented in India. The invention under patent rights cannot be commercially made, used, distributed, imported, or sold by others without the patent owner’s consent.

Trademark: The signs used to distinguish goods or services of an enterprise are protected by trademark rights. However, a trademark must be distinctive, and not deceptive, illegal or immoral.

Trade secret:  A trade secret is business information like a formula, process, design, instrument, pattern, etc., which must be unknown to the public and provide economic advantage for the business. A trade secret is usually protected by the IP act, if it is the product of internal research and development.

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