Critical Analysis on Intellectual Property Rights and its components.

Introduction

Intellectual Property Rights is a right which is connected with the person or the company’s intangible property. Like, goodwill. When that right is used without consent or used for causing loss to an individual or the company. For Example, Person A used the trademark of Nike to defraud the public and to cause the loss to original Nike by selling duplicate products.  So, this is an infringement of trademark and Nike can sue Person A for using its trademark without consent and causing loss to its goodwill.

What are the rights in Intellectual Property?

This right can be related to music, a book, a logo, any art work, work related to science, designs of the industries. Work related to art or any rights which is related to literary, artistic, or scientific related matters.

Why there is a need to protect Intellectual Property.

For setting up the business or for creating something like some inventions it takes a lot of efforts and research to create something new. So, to protect that creativity, inventions, and an idea it is required to protect Intellectual Property. Proper recognition must be given to the original creator. There are many cases where the creator is different and the person who is taking advantage of is different. For Example, Suppose the logo of Nike is used by other company to sell the duplicate products and defraud with the customers. This will automatically affect the Nike goodwill. So, if the logo of Nike that is the right sign is protected (registered) then Nike can sue the person or the company who tried to use its logo without consent. So, to protect the goodwill of the company it is really important to protect the Intellectual Property.

Advantages of Intellectual Property Rights

• Having protected intellectual property will help a business to survive in this competitive environment. The uniqueness of the product is really important to actually differentiate from other products. For example, noodles people prefer Maggie over other companies noodles because of the uniqueness in the packaging, taste and also the advertisement which creates an impact on customers to buy the product.
• It protects the goodwill of the company because no one can use the trademark of the company and take advantage of the same.
• It creates an impact in the market, like at the time of collaboration or merger with foreign companies. Foreign Companies will prefer those companies whose trademark is protected to avoid any kind of loss of goodwill in the future. Also, there is an image in the public as well whose trademark is protected. The brand image is created of the company.

These are some of the advantages which is there when intellectual property rights are protected. Also, unauthorized access is not there with the hackers because many a times hackers take advantage when the trademark is not protected for causing the loss to the company. Also, it is really important to renew the registration because there is a limit to registration. After every ten years trademarks needs to be renewed before expiry. If the trademarks are not renewed on time hackers can take advantage of the goodwill and it can create a serious problem so this one thing which needs to be taken care of when the trademark is registered.

Components of Intellectual Property Rights and Case Laws.

• Copyright: – So, it is a right which is given to original creator of the work for the fixed period of time. It is basically giving a right to the original creator, so that no one uses that work. It also encourages inventions because people know that they will be recognized, and their rights will be protected. This is basically for literary and artistic work.

There is a Copyright Act, 1957 which deals with copyright in India.

Case Law on Copyright in India.

It was decided by the Supreme Court in the case that the cinematographic films do have the copy right it was on of the issue in the case of Yash Raj Films vs Sri Sri Ganesh Productions.[1] The film which was a copy of the film Band Baajaa Baaraat the test of originality took place, and it was decided that the film producer has exactly copied the script of the original film.

Patents: – It is a right which is granted to protect the interest of an invention, to protect the interest of the inventors for their new inventions. It is different from copyrights as patents is granted for industrial and commercial purpose and copyrights is given for artistic and literary work.

Infringement related to patents are usually seen in the pharmaceutical industry, as most of the inventions takes place in that sector. There is a law in India, which protects patent infringement that is Patent Act, 1970.

Case Law on Patent Infringement

Novartis vs Cipla[2], in this case there was a drug which was used by Cipla, the patent of that drug was infringed by Cipla. This drug (Onbrex) was used by Cipla and sold locally. In this case, it was held by the court that Cipla cannot sell this drug locally as it clearly infringes the patent of Novartis. The argument presented by Cipla that there was a shortage locally was weak as they failed to give the proof and data which shows the shortage. This is one of the famous case laws on patent infringement.

Trademark

It is basically a symbol or a logo of a product or a company which differentiate them from other companies, products, and their competitive products. The protection of trademark is really important because there are many cases where trademark is infringed because it is easy to make a similar logo and defraud with the customer. Also, infringement of trademark is comparatively easy to take advantage of company’s goodwill.

There is a law which regulates the infringement of trademark that is the Trademark Act, 1974.

Case Law on Infringement of Trademark

In the case of Starbucks Corporation vs. Sardar Buksh Coffee & Co.[3] it was held by the court that the logo used by Sardar Buksh Coffee & Co. was very similar to the logo of Starbucks. Even if the name was different the logo can easily manipulate the customers.Starbucks filed a case against Sardar Buksh for infringement of trademark as the logo of these companies were similar. It was held that this is a clear infringement of trademark as customers can easily be manipulated.

These three are the main components of Intellectual Property Rights. Protection of these components are really important for the goodwill of both individuals and companies. As if these components get infringed it can cause a serious threat to goodwill.

Conclusion.

The protection of Intellectual Property Rights is really important to protect the image in the public. Also, proper, and strict laws needs to be there regarding the components mentioned above to protect goodwill. There is a need to amend the laws as these laws are out dated when compared with today’s time because AI has been introduced which can create a serious threat to society.

Author: Yashika Malik, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email to [email protected] or at IIPRD. 

[1] Yash Raj Films v. Sri Sri Ganesh Productions, AIRONLINE 2019 DEL 1017.

[2] Novartis v. Cipla, I.A. No.24863/2014.

[3] Starbucks Corporation v. Sardar Buksh Coffee & Co CS (COMM) 1007/2018