INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR)

Intellectual Property

The 21st century will be a century of knowledge, indeed a century of the mind.
Innovation is a key to the production as well as processing of knowledge. A nation’s
ability to convert knowledge into wealth and social good through the process of
innovation will determine its future. In this context, issues of generation, valuation,
protection and exploitation of intellectual property (IP) are going to become critically
important all around the world. Exponential growth of scientific knowledge, increasing
demands for new forms of intellectual property protection as well as access to IP related
information, increasing dominance of the new knowledge economy over the old ‘brick
and mortar’ economy, complexities linked to IP in traditional knowledge, community
knowledge and animate objects, will pose a challenge in setting a new 21st century IP
agenda.

Intellectual property will no longer be seen as a distinct or self-contained domain,

but rather as an important and effective policy instrument relevant to a wide range of
socio-economic, technological and political concerns. The development of skills and
competence to manage IPR and leverage its influence will need increasing focus,
particularly in countries such as India.

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) can be broadly defined as legal rights established
over creative or inventive ideas. Such legal rights generally allow right holders to exclude
the unauthorized commercial use of their creations/inventions by third persons. The
rationale for the establishment of a legal framework on IPRs is that it is a signal to
society that creative and inventive ideas will be rewarded. This does not mean that there
is no other way of rewarding such ideas or that this system is absolutely necessary, even
less sufficient, to reward inventiveness or creativity. Nevertheless, it would be difficult
to deny that IPRs do have a role to play in setting up of any such reward system.

The importance of IPR in the Indian economy will have to be understood properly.
Tomorrow’s wars will be fought not by conventional weapons, guns, missiles and so on,
but in the knowledge markets with new thermonuclear weapons called information and
knowledge. The war on patent rights which took place between Eastman Kodak and
Polaroid was settled for about one billion dollars recently. So these wars in the
knowledge market will be expensive. As India plays its new role in a globalized world
and changes its IP laws, it will have to gear up to fight these wars in both India and
abroad.

Albert Einstein had once said that ‘imagination is more important than knowledge.’
Abraham Lincoln had said, ‘the patent system added the fuel of interest to the fire of
genius.’

Intellectual property (IP) is the term that describes the ideas, inventions,
technologies, artworks, music and literature, that are intangible when first created, but
become valuable in tangible form as products. Intellectual properties are the creations of
the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and the symbols, names, and designs
used in commerce. The rationale for the establishment of a legal framework on IPRs is
that it is a signal to society that creative and inventive ideas will be rewarded.

IP system is being integrated into the knowledge economy, and posing interesting
challenges to industry, government policy-makers, scholars, and researchers in both
developed and developing countries.

Character of IPR

Intellectual property rights as a collective term includes the following independent

IP rights which can be collectively used for protecting different aspects of an inventive
work for multiple protection: Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks Registered ( industrial)
design, Protection of IC layout design, Geographical indications, and Protection of
undisclosed information design, Protection of IC layout design, Geographical indications,
and Protection of undisclosed information.

IPR are largely territorial rights except copyright, which is global in nature in the
sense that it is immediately available in all the members of the Berne Convention. These
rights are awarded by the State and are monopoly rights implying that no one can use
these rights without the consent of the right holder. It is important to know that these
rights have to be renewed from time to time for keeping them in force except in case of
copyright and trademarks.

Economic development and Intellectual Property

IP is considered a barrier to access to life-saving medicine and critical

technologies. Introduction of patents could place pronounced upward pressure on
patented drug prices. In most developing economies there are significant amounts of
labor employed in copying unauthorized goods. As these nations upgrade their laws and
enforcement activities, these workers must find alternative employment. This
displacement problem should pose the initial challenge for policymakers in introducing
stronger IPRS.

John Hillery has stated that intellectual property protection drags down
developing economies by resulting in a loss of jobs, driving up prices on goods due to a
monopoly created by IP, reducing access to technology needed for
development ,requiring developing countries to administer and enforce IP rights and
compelling companies to pay licenses or royalties on the products that they produce.

The other side remains contradictory. Human creativity is a vast national resource
for any country. Like gold in the hills, it will remain buried without encouragement for
extraction. Intellectual property protection is the tool which releases that resource. A
strong intellectual property regime reassures potential investors that their capital and their
technologies will not fall prey to piracy and counterfeiting. IP would encourage
participation in the growing global technology networks by release powerful internal
resources. It could stimulate acquisition and dissemination of new information. Patent
claims are published, allowing rival firms to use the information in them to develop
further inventions.

Rita Hayes has observed that developed and developing nations alike are
modernizing their intellectual property systems, providing more support to research and
development institutions, and creating more incentives for the private sector to encourage
the development of intellectual property assets. Simon Anholt has noticed that intellectual
capital plays vital role in the modern economy by adding value to the product.

Success in Developing countries

IP positive environment created a thriving industry and much-needed new jobs in

India, and has helped attract significant foreign direct investment as well. The same is
true in countries such as Brazil, China, Korea, and Singapore, which have adopted
proactive intellectual property policies to stimulate local industries from biotechnology to
telecommunications to electronics. Intellectual property rights have, despite their many
development stages and difficulties, a great impact on businesses and their
competitiveness, success, development, and also employment.

Indian patent Law

Implications of the new patent law for industrial development and public health
are still unclear. The threat of depriving Indians of new research products seems hollow.
If they do not register their patents in India, the domestic industry has the proven
capability to “reverse-engineer” the same and provides them at much lower prices. If they
register the patent and do not work it, India's patent law has adequate mechanism to deal
with such situations and ensure that the product is available to the needy.

Concerns

In the post-Doha period, the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR)

set up by the Department for International Development (DFID), UK with John Barton as
chair in its Report Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy in
2002 observed that poverty reduction in developing countries will be hindered if
intellectual property (IP) rights are expanded without taking into account the individual
circumstances of poor nations. The Commission warned that by serving the interests of
companies based primarily in the developed world, the IP system increases the cost of
access to many products and technologies that developing countries need in areas such as
health, agriculture, education and information technologies. The Commission urged the
developed countries to pay more attention to reconciling their commercial self-interest
with the need to reduce poverty in developing countries.
Conclusion

Knowledge and information, economically exploited as intellectual property are

replacing the more traditional, material elements of production as the primary engine of
economic growth. It is influenced by the ingenuity, creativity, and innovative ability of a
nation. Converting these resources into tangible economic assets requires an effective and
efficient intellectual property system.

References:

1.Kamil Idris, Intellectual Property : A Power Tool for Economic Growth , “The Process
of Economic Growth”, sourced from www.wipo.int/about-
wipo/en/dgo/wipo_pub_888/pdf/wipo_pub_888_chapter
3. JayashreeWatal, “Intellectaul Property in Indian Agriculture”, sourced from
www.icrier.org/pdf/jayashreeW
5. R Saha, Management of Intellectual Property Rights in India, sourced from
pfc.org.in/workshop/workshop.pdf
7. www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=5001976550
8. Kari Sipila, “The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in the Promotion of
Competitiveness and Development of Enterprises”, sourced from
http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/ipr/ipr4competitiveness_bycipila.h
tm
9.Reiko Aoki, Kensuke Kubo& Hiroko Yamane , Indian Patent Policy and Public Health:
Implications from the Japanese Experience, Institute of Developing Economies, JETRO,
March (2006).
10. D G Shah, Does Indian patent law stifle innovation, sourced from
http://us.rediff.com/money/2007/aug/24deb.

11. R.A. Mashelkar, Protecting intellectual property.mht