Activities covered by the intellectual property

rights

Industrial Design

Scientific Discoveries

Protection against unfair competition

Literacy, artistic and scientific works

Trademarks, service marks and commercial names and designation

Copyright

offers exclusive rights for protecting the authorship of original & creative work like

dramatic, musical and literary in nature

Patent

the exclusionary rights given by the government to its inventor for a particular

duration of time, in respect of his invention

Trademark

a distinctive indicator used by a legal entity to identify the uniqueness of the source of

the products or services

Trade Secret

Is only patent but they rely on private measures rather than

state action to maintain exclusivity

Types of Intellectual Property Rights

objective

Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity - not a threat.

Intellectual Property Rights provide incentive to innovate. But at the sametime on many occasions, copyrights and patents restricts the scope.Therefore we need a society where scientists, artists, authors and poetsdo not feel deprived of the freedom to innovate.

The Big Fight

Arguments in favor

• Incentive to innovate

• Moral desert theory

• Personality theory

• Utilitarian theory

• Incentive to produce

Arguments against

• Poses serious roadblocks to innovation

• Leggett’s objection

• Palmer’s criticism

• Weak argument

• Creates artificial scarcity

Moral Desert Theory : The fruit ofman’s labor belongs to him.

But Leggett points out that you cannot ensure that the very same ideadid not at the very same moment enter some other mind.

Personality Theory : If one’s artistic expressions are synonymouswith one’s personality, then they are deserving of protection since ina sense they are a part of that physical person.

However Palmer counters this by saying that if a work of art be apart of one’s personality then they would cease to exist after theperson died.

Utilitarian Theories : The objective of any policy should be theattainment of the greatest good for the greatest number.

The utility gains from increased incentives for innovation mustbe weighed against the losses incurred from monopolizationand their diminished diffusion.

An Alternative Model : The

Libertarian Utopia

Why this model???

Drawbacks

Conclusions

• IPR is not an end in itself but a means to promote the public interest and innovation.There should be a proper balance between public interest and those of the rightsholder.

• new exceptions to the copyright law to make it more flexible for the digital age.

• exceptions for derivative works and caricature, parody or pastiche

• As technologies like computers and the internet make the exchange of informationeasier than ever—and inventions become more conceptual—huge stress is beingplaced on today's intellectual-property laws, which trace their foundations to the birthof the printing industry and mechanical industrialisation.

• Many modern-day creations like Napster in fact have a negative effect on copyrightsand patent holders by causing mass media sharing among general public.

• To curb this apparent explosion of copyright infringement that followed in the wakeof mass usage of internet, several steps must be taken. The question we should askourselves are

• Why do we protect intellectual property at all?

• Do we really have "property rights" in our intangible creations the same way wehave property rights to our homes and our land?

• Aren't there better ways to encourage artistic creation and scientific discovery thanthrough the use of copyright and patent laws that protect a limited monopoly?