Overview of IPR

Patent system & Practice

 Intellectual property

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY + COPY RIGHT

PATENTS DESIGNS TRADEMARKS Geographical Indications

Patents Patent Information

&
Designs

Trade Marks
Copy Right
Geographical Indications
Jurisdiction of offices
 FOR MOST PRODUCTS EVERY FORM OF
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
CAN BE OBTAINED

LAPTOP

“PATENT”  For every individual improved mechanism

“DESIGN”  For outer shape & Configuration

“TRADE MARK” Brand name or Logo for goods denoted as ®

 For Instruction / manual booklet denoted as ©

“Copy right”
 FOR MOST PRODUCTS EVERY FORM OF
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
CAN BE OBTAINED

Car

“PATENT”  For every individual improved mechanism

“DESIGN”  For outer shape & Contour / Configuration
“TRADE MARK” Brand name or Logo for goods denoted as ®

“Copy right” For Instruction / manual booklet denoted as ©

 CD PLAYER
Music played on the
CD player is
protected by
Industrial design copyright
protection for 3D
shape

Various
technical parts
& mechanisms
are subject
Brand name-
mater of
registered under protection
trademark under Patents
 Legislative Measures

• Patents Act, 1970

• The Designs Act, 2000
• The GI Act, 1999
• The Copyrights Act, 1957
 Legislative Measures

• The Patents Act, 1970

• Product Patent
• Patent Term of 20 years

• The Trade Marks Act, 1999

• Service Marks and Collective Marks
• Term increased from 7 years to 10
years
• Patents (Amendment) ordinance was issued in 1994 and
became Patent (Amendment) Act,1999.
• Patents (Second Amendment) Bill ,1999, has now become
patent (Amendment) Act,2002.
• Some of the important features of the Patent
(Amendment)Act,2005 are:

a) Product / Process Patent – sec 5 provided – only process

patent in certain category- product patent in all fields of
technology, sec 5 – chemical process – includes biochemical,
biotechnological and microbiological process, Now omitted

a) Patent Term- 20 years for all process and product patents,

sec 53(1) – term of every patent – not expired, not cease to
have effect -20 years
 Protection Part
•Criteria for Patentability
–New & useful
–Non-obvious
–Capable of Industrial Applications
•Patents Act specifies
–What are not inventions?
–What are not patentable inventions?

•How to get that monopoly right?

 What Does Patent System Do ?

It encourages RESEARCH.
Induces an inventor to disclose his inventions
instead of keeping them as secret.
Provides inducement for capital investment
encouraging technological development.
It encourages establishment of new industries.
 INVENTION

Invention is a successful technical

solution to a technical problem.

To be granted a Patent,
An invention must be
new,
non-obvious and
capable of industrial application
 Different Ways Of Dealing With
An Invention
•Make it public for free use by public(like publishing in the
journal) Or
•Work the invention in SECRECY without
PATENTING it (like coco-cola composition)
Or
•Work the invention OPENLY without PATENTING
it (directly put it in the market)
Or
•EXPLOIT the invention on the basis of a PATENT (like
Rank Xerox )
A patent is a Monopoly Right granted

•For an invention
•By the government
•To the inventor or his assignee
•For a limited period
•It is valid within the country of grant
Patents
 PATENT: WHAT IS IT?

It is a limited right granted by the

state to an inventor in respect of an
invention to exclude any other person
from practicing the invention
i.e. manufacturing, using or selling the
patented product or from using the
patented process, without due
permission.
 WHAT CAN BE PATENTED?
Inventions in all fields of technology,
whether products or processes, if they
meet the criteria of
• Being patentable subject matter;
• Novelty;
• Non-obviousness (inventive step);
• Industrial application (utility).
 Patent Grant Procedure (In Brief)
Filing of PATENT APPLICATION

EXAMINATION & NOVELTY SEARCH

ACCEPTANCE OR REFUSAL

NOTIFICATION OF “ACCEPTANCE”
IN THE GAZETTE OF INDIA (part III section 2)

OPPOSITION (if any)

GRANT OF A PATENT
 Patent Grant Procedure
Filing of patent application

Early Publication Publication after 18 months

Pre Grant Opposition /

Representation by any person.

Request for examination

Examination: Grant or Refusal

Publication of Grant of patent

Post Grant Opposition to grant of patent

(Constitution of Opposition Board)

Decision By Controller
 Patent Applications Examined

16000 14813

14000
10709
12000 9538
10000

8000

6000

4000 2824

2000

0
1999-2000 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05
 Industrial Designs
• The protection you receive is only for
• Electrical JUG the appearance of the article and not
how it works.
• Design registration is intended to
protect designs which have an
industrial or commercial use.
• Duration of protection is initially for
10 years and extendable for another
term of 5 years.
• Designs of stamps, labels, tokens, cards,
cartoons, or parts of an article not sold
separately, cannot be registered.
Design Examples
 TRADEMARKS

4711 (Cologne)
 TRADEMARK, SERVICE MARK,
and TRADE NAME
Distinctive symbols, signs, logos that help
consumer to distinguish between
competing goods or services.
A trade name is the name of an enterprise
which individualizes the enterprise in
consumer’s mind.
Legally not linked to quality.
In fact, linked in consumer’s mind to quality
expectation.
 TYPES OF MARKS

• Well Known Trade Mark

• Collective Mark: Proprietor is an association
of persons, which is legally not a partnership
• Certification Mark: Does not indicate origin
of goods but certifies the goods as
conforming to certain characteristics (quality,
ingredients, geographical origin etc.) e.g.
ISI, AGMARK, Hallmark etc.
 SONY OLYMPUS

TRADEMARKS
• A trade mark is any sign which can distinguish the goods
of one trader from those of another. Sign includes, words,
logos, pictures, or a combination of these.
•A trade mark is used as a marketing tool so that customers
can recognize the product of a particular trader.
•To register a trade mark , the mark must be:-
•distinctive, and, not deceptive, or contrary to law or
morality, and, not identical or similar to any earlier marks for
the same or similar goods.
 TRADEMARKS
How to select a Trade Mark ?
1. A word, letter or any combination thereof and simple in design.
2. If it is a word it should be easy to speak, spell and remember.
3. The ideal word for a trade mark is an invented or coined word
4. Words which are laudatory or which directly describes the
character or quality of the goods should not be adopted.
5. Geographical names connected with the reputation or quality of
the goods for which registration is sought should not be adopted.
Are all Trade Marks registrable ?
Not possible to register a mark which is confusing with a trade
mark of another trader or a trade mark which describes the
character or quality of the goods. The mark should not conflict with
a trade mark already registered or pending registration in respect of
similar goods.
 Forms of TM
• Visual: Words, letters, numerals,
devices including drawings and
symbols or 2-D representations of
object or a combination of two or more
of these, colour combinations or colour
per se, 3-D sign as shape of goods or
packaging.
• Audio: Sounds, Musical Notes
 CRITERIA OF TM PROTECTABILITY

• Distinctive (basic function):

- inherent (e.g.RIN), or
- acquired by usage (e.g. TATA)
• Non-deceptive ( to avoid misleading)
• Not contrary to public order, morality
Special Requirements
A mark is registered for specified classes of
goods or services.
 What is protected and
what’s not?
• Right to use TM in relation to goods/
services as registered are protected (If TM
consists of several parts, protection is
for TM as a whole)
• State Emblems, Official Hallmarks,
Emblems of Intergovernmental
Organizations cannot be used as TM.
 GEOGRAPHICAL
INDICATIONS

Paithani weaving
 What is GI?

• Many goods possess their peculiar properties

due to their geographical origin.
• GI is the best method to indicate the
geographical origin of goods and services.
• Many agricultural products (tea, rice); dairy
products (cheese), wines and spirits
(Champagne) owe their special quality and
reputation to their geographical place of
growth or processing.
 Protection of GI
• GI is not owned by a single owner
• Any producer in the region can use the GI on
the product provided it is prepared by the
norms set out for the use of that GI.
• GI is registered in the national register and is
similar to the certification mark identifying the
origin of the good.
• Govt. can register GI in the international
register maintained by WIPO for world wide
protection.
• It is an offence to use false GI on goods.
Industrial Designs
What are Industrial Designs?
The ornamental or aesthetic aspect of
an article that enhances visual appeal
and differentiates product.
e.g. 3-D features of shape or surface as
of a perfume bottle, 2-D patterns of
lines, shapes and colours as on a bed
sheet.
Criteria for Protection as ID

New and Original

Capable of mass production or
application on an article of utility
Not contrary to public order or
morality
The shape should not be determined
merely by the functionality of the
good.
Comparison of ID against TM

ID TM
• Has to be integral • Is applied on the
part of product product but need
not be embodied
in it.
• Should be • Should be
original and new distinctive
but need not be
distinctive
 ID, Copyright, Patent

If the article is not mass produced or

the design can not be applied on a
useful article, the design would be an
aesthetic work, protectable under
copyright.
Some engineering designs may be
sufficiently innovative, protectable as
a patent.
 ID Protection
Protects commercial exploitation of the
design idea through products/articles
that embody it or reproduce it and
not the articles themselves.
Integrated Circuit
Layout Designs
 What is Layout Design?
Layout of transistors and other circuit
elements, including lead wires
connecting such elements and
expressed in any manner in a
semiconductor integrated circuit (IC).
 Why to protect?
• IC Layouts are creations of human
mind;
• There is lot of investment of time and
money in the creation but copying is
very cheap;
• Fertile area with new circuit designs
made every day to cater for
miniaturization and novel applications.
 Why special protection?
• There may not be novelty so cannot be
patented;
• Copyright protection does not return
the investments since commercial life
of a design is limited.
 Protection is against…
• Act of reproducing a layout design fully
or in parts;
• Importing, selling or distributing
commercially a protected layout design
or IC incorporating it.

But identical design created

independently by third party is
not prohibited.
Copyright
 Copyright
• Copyright protects literary and artistic
works
e.g. Books, lectures, dramatic and musical
works, choreography, cinematography,
drawings, paintings, architecture, sculpture,
photographs, illustrations, maps, plans
sketches etc.
This is automatic right created with the
creation of work and no registration is
required
 Rights covered under CR
Moral Rights : Author’s right of
paternity. Non-alienable.
Economic Rights : Rights to exploit the

work.
e.g. Rights of translation, rights of
performance, rights of reproduction etc.
These rights can be transferred,
assigned, licensed for economic
benefits.
 Who are the Authors?
• Writer/writers of the book;
• Painter;
• Music composer;
• Translator;
• Cinematographer;
• Photographer etc.
 Duration of Protection
• For books and other works of arts it is 50
to 70 years after the death of the author
(the laws of different countries vary);
• For photographic work 25 years from
making the work;
• For cinematic works 50 years after
making the work available to public.
Exceptions to Protection
(Free Use or Fair Deal)
• Quotations for commentary;
• Illustration for Teaching;
• Current News Reporting etc.

Free Use is decided by amount of work

used and its economic implications to
the right holder. The mention of
original author/source is must.