INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Submitted by: Anushka Bansal 11/210Komal Sahu 11/226Megha Agarwal 11/233

CONTENTS • Introduction

• Types/tools of IPR

• Case Studies

• Laws and Statistics

• Prevention and Strategies

• Law enforcement initiatives

• Indian govt initiatives to protect IPR

• Indian Copyright Act 1957

• Conclusion

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY• Intellectual property is the product or creation of the mind.

CATEGORIES OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY• Industrial Property describes physical matter that is the

product of an idea or concept for commercial purposes.

• Literary and artistic works : They are books, paintings,

musical compositions, plays, movies, radio/ TV programs,

performances, & other artistic works.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS• Intellectual Property Rights are legal rights,

which result from intellectual activity • WIPO defines Intellectual Property as legal

rights that result from intellectual activity• The Indian Intellectual properties typically fall

into 4 major buckets:– Copy Right– Patent– Trademark– Design Protection.

Types/ Tools of IPRPatents • Exclusive right granted for invention to the

owner of the patent• Granted for a limited period, i.e.; 20 years

Trademarks• Identifies certain goods or services as those

produced or provided by a specific person or enterprise

• It may be one or a combination of words, letters and numerals

Copyrights and related rights• Rights given to creators for their literary and

artistic works.• novels, poems, plays, reference works,

newspapers and computer programs, databases; films

Industrial Designs • Creative activity, which result in the

ornamental or formal appearance of a product.

• The purpose is to promote and protect the design element of industrial production

Trade Secrets • Confidential business information that

provides an enterprise a competitive edge may be considered a trade secret.

• Protected without registration for an unlimited period of time

Case Studies

Case Study 1

Bangalore Aug10, 2003 Ishoni Networks India Pvt Ltd• Director Antonio Mario Alvares had lodged a

complaint against three software engineers working in his company

• The accused engineers had copied the code of the company’s software and used it at their own start-up named as Ample Wave Communication Network

• Police have seized four computers, four CPUs, four keyboards, one server and one laptop from the accused

Case Study 2

New Delhi Aug28, 2002. • Shekhar Verma, a former employee of

Mumbai-based Geometric Software Solutions Company and a computer engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur was arrested by the CBI officials of New Delhi

• Accused of stealing $60 million worth of source code of a software product of a US-based client, SolidWorks, and selling them to other companies for a fortune.

• The American firm has the exclusive rights over the software.

Case Study 3

Data General Corp. v. Digital Computer Controls, Inc.  • Data General Corporation distributed design

documentation with its Nova 1200 minicomputer, notifying owners of the confidentiality of these design drawings

• Digital Computer Controls designed its own nearly identical minicomputer and maintained that its use of the documentation was proper because Data General Corporation inadequately maintained the secrecy of the design drawings

• The court found that Data General Corporation had sufficiently protected the secrecy of the drawings and that Digital Computer Controls was thus in violation of trade secret law

LAWS AND STATISTICS

LAWS Patent protection and Restriction A limited number of other countries, such as Japan

permit the patenting of software.

India does not award patents for software because

under Indian law, software tends to fall into

established unpatentable subject matter.

In Europe, there has been a debate, as to whether

the US and Japanese approach to software patents

should also be adopted in Europe.

Indian Patenting Activities

• Indian software firms have had less US patenting

activity than foreign firms operating in India. The

distribution of patenting activity has been very uneven.

• Indian software firms have fewer US software patents

than foreign-owned software firms that create software

innovations in India.

• Only 4% of the biggest Indian software firms had any

US software patents awarded from 1996-2003 whereas

33% of the foreign-owned software firms had patents

awarded based on work done in India.

Copyright Protection and Restriction India has one of the most modern copyright

protection laws in the world. Major development in

the area of copyright during 1999 was the

amendment to the Copyright Act of 1957 .

the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1999, this

amendment was signed by the President of India on

December 30, 1999 and came into force on January

15, 2000. 

Today the Copyright registrations for software in India

appear to exceed those in the US.

The earlier 1994 amendment to the Copyright Act of

1957 had provided protection to all original literary,

dramatic, musical and artistic works,

cinematography, films and sound recordings.

• Some of the key aspects of the 1994 amendment to the

Copyright Act of 1957 are: – According to section 14 of this Act, it is illegal to make

or distribute copies of copyrighted software without proper or specific authorization.

– The violator can be tried under both civil and criminal

law. – A civil and criminal action may be instituted for

injunction, actual damages (including violator's profits) or statutory damages per infringement etc.

– Heavy punishment and fines for infringement of software copyright.

– Section 63 B stipulates a minimum jail term of 7 days, which can be extended up to 3 years.

STATISTICS Software patenting activity in the US has

increased substantially in the most recent three-year period compared to the previous five-year period.

The increase was even more dramatic in India , patents awarded to software firms increased from 10 per year in the 1996-2000 period to 40 per year in the 2001-03 period.

Among US patents awarded to software firms in India in the 1996-2000 period, the average number of citations per patent cumulated over the five years was 5.6. In comparison, US patents in advanced fields averaged 29.3 citations per patent cumulated over a five year.

Critical Issues1. Affordability , use and accessibility of the

competing type software.2. The relationship between various type of

software.

These issues are examined under these :• Software costs and licensing• Hardware Software interface

replacement/updating• Software ,technology transfer, and

Technological Independence.• Software patents and innovation.• Software employment and training issues.• Unauthorized software use(Software piracy).

PREVENTION STRATEGIES

Practices that help to minimize the

risk of losing Intellectual Property

• Understand the intellectual Property Rights

• Set up an Internal Intellectual Property

protection team

• Examine the work entities that can be

copyrighted/patented

• Define IP violation clauses

• Pay attention to use of unauthorized

software/third party products.

Thing you can do to stop an IPR violation 

Make sure that your IP is properly registered and

recorded

each company’s anti-counterfeiting program must

be specifically tailored to its own particular

requirements.

Brands and trademarks are among most valuable

assets—a formal plan should be developed.

The need for a plan is even more acute if there are

safety risks associated with the products you

manufacture

LAW INFORCEMENT INITIATIVES• Thorough Investigation

• Investigative steps

• Evidence Preservation

• Identification of stolen Intellectual

Property

• Law Enforcement Education and Training

INDIAN GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES TO PROTECT IPR• The Government has brought out A Handbook of

Copyright Law to create awareness amongst the

stakeholders, enforcement agencies, professional

users

• National Police Academy, Hyderabad and National

Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics

conducted several training programs on copyright

laws for the police and customs officers

• Special cells for copyright enforcement have so

far been set up in 23 States and Union Territories

• The Department of Education, Ministry of Human

Resource Development, Government of India has

initiated several measures to strengthen the

enforcement of copyrights

• The Government also initiates a number of

seminars/workshops on copyright issues.

CONCLUSION• The importance of IPR and their protection is

acknowledged the world over as essential to

business

• India too has recognized the value of IP and is

now a signatory to various IP treaties and

conventions

• The Indian police has appointed specially trained

police officers to monitor IP infringement and

cyber crimes

• Various Indian industries have also become more

proactive in protecting their IPRs

• One should understand the country’s IP Rights

and follow the practices to reduce the risk of

loosing the intellectual property.

THANK YOU