Intellectual property is a controversial topic.

It is a legal concept which protects the original

expression of ideas from being copied and used by others without permission. The law tries
to balance the interests of creators and the public by protecting intellectual property while
still allowing for its use. Intellectual property rights are granted to people who come up with
an idea, invention, design or other type of creation. It is a form of legal protection that
ensures that the creators and their heirs will have certain exclusive rights to their creations for
a specific amount of time. There are many types of intellectual property like patents,
trademarks, copyrights, Industrial design, geographical indication etc.

Evolution of Intellectual Property Rights in India

In 1485 the first system of protection of intellectual property came in the form on Venetian
Ordinance historically. In England in 1623 it was followed by Statue of Monopolies, which
extended rights of patents for Technology Inventions. In 1760, patent laws were introduced in
The United States. Between 1880 and 1889 patent laws of most European countries were
developed. In the year 1856 in India Patent Act was introduced which remained in force for
more than 50 years which was later modified and revised and was called “The Indian Patents
and Designs Act, 1911”. A complete bill on patent rights was enacted after Independence in
the year 1970 and was called “The Patents Act, 1970”.

Specific statues protected only specific type of intellectual output; till very recently only four
forms were protected. The protection was in the form of grant of designs, patents, trademarks
and copyrights. In India, copyrights were regulated under the Copyright Act, 1957;
trademarks under Trade and Merchandise Marks Act 1958; patents under Patents Act, 1970;
and designs under Designs Act, 1911.

The establishment of WTO and India also being signatory to the Agreement on Trade-
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), many new legislations were passed
for the protection of intellectual property rights to meet the obligations internationally. These
included the following:

➢ Designs Act, 1911 was changed by the Designs Act, 2000;

➢ Trade Marks, called the Trade Mark Act, 1999;
➢ The Copyright Act, 1957 was revised number of times, the latest is known as
Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012; and
➢ The recent amendments made to the Patents Act, 1970 in 2005.
➢ Other than this, plant varieties and geographical indications were also enacted in new
legislations. These are called Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and
Protection) Act, 1999, and Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act,
2001 respectively.
➢ National Intellectual Property Rights Policy was approved by the Indian cabinet on 12
May 2016 to ensure compliance to the Doha Development Round and TRIPS
Agreement. With its seven objectives, it aims at creating a "“Creative India;
Innovative India".
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights:

The law tries to balance the interests of creators and the public by protecting intellectual
property while still allowing for its use. This means that there are limitations on what can be
done with somebody else's work, but there are also exceptions to this rule, such as fair use or
news reporting.

The most common challenge with intellectual property is the lack of understanding about the
value of it. Companies often do not see enough value in their IP and fail to protect it. This
leads to an increase in competition and a loss of potential revenue for companies. For
example, many companies have been found guilty of stealing designs from competitors’
products, but they didn't see any consequences because they did not protect their IP rights in
the first place.

Another common challenge when it comes to intellectual property is what type of IP should
be protected? There are many different types, so which one should you focus on? The answer
is that you should focus on protecting all of them because you never know which one may
hold some value for your company down the road and when you need it most.

There are many challenges and conflicts when it comes to intellectual property rights. One
such challenge is how to generate revenue from intellectual properties without violating
copyright laws. Another challenge is how to protect intellectual property from being copied
by competitors.

There are a number of ways to protect intellectual property without violating copyright laws.
One option is to use a watermark on the work. Another option is to use a copyright notice
such as © and the year of publication. The third option is to register the work with the U.S
Copyright Office.

One way is to register the trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which will
give you exclusive rights to use that trademark in commerce. Another way is to register the
copyright with the U.S Copyright Office, which will give you exclusive rights over your
original work and prevent others from using it without your permission. You can also sign an
agreement with other parties that they will not infringe on your intellectual property in order
to maintain their right of ownership and not infringe on any of your intellectual property
rights in return.

There are different ways to protect intellectual property from being copied by competitors.
One way is to patent the invention or discovery that the company has created. Another way is
to copyright the original expression in an author's work.

In order to protect intellectual property, it is important to create a strategy. Some people use a
trademark or copyright while others use both. It is also important to have a plan in place
when you are creating your product so that you can later protect it from being copied by
competitors.
Challenges of Intellectual property rights

One of the main challenges with intellectual property rights is that they are often hard to
enforce because the infringement usually happens in one jurisdiction while the creator lives
in another. There are also many cases where it takes years for an infringement to be detected
and dealt with by law enforcement agencies.

The first challenge is the lack of resources to enforce intellectual property rights and manage
all the possible infringements of them. However, there are some things we can do to improve
this situation. For example, it's possible to bundle patents or trademarks together as a one
package license agreement that would allow companies to avoid ownership disputes as they
sell their products internationally.

The second challenge is that it costs too much money to enforce and manage intellectual
property, which can lead to failure. Intellectual property rights involve competition between
companies for their product ideas, the problem of how to balance advanced innovation and
maintaining a monopoly on technology that ensures financial success in the long-term.

Thirdly, time is needed in order to build up a brand or product in order for it to be eligible for
protection, which can slow down the process of building and securing an idea.

Lastly, even if you have a product that you can protect, protecting all countries that your
target market operates in can be challenging because what might not be protected in one
country might be protected somewhere else entirely.

Issues of Intellectual Property Rights

The issue of intellectual property rights has been a hot topic in recent years. The rapid
development of technology has increased the importance of intellectual property rights
protection to companies around the world. While the IPR system in India comprises of strong
Intellectual Property laws but it has many loopholes as it lacks effective implementation, for
which “least priority given to adjudication of IP matters” is often quoted as a reason. Major
challenge is to inform the enforcement officials and the Judiciary to take up issues of
Intellectual Property rights, at par with other economic offences, by bringing them under their
policy locator. There are also many issues in having an Intellectual Property fund, which can
be utilized for further developing the IP culture in the country. It is necessary to devise a
National IP Policy for India, which will help in working towards realizing the vision of India
in the area of Intellectual Property rights. This will enable the establishment of a strong socio-
economic foundation and deep international trust. The first thing that people think about
when it comes to intellectual property is how to protect their ideas from being stolen by other
people. But there are many other important issues that come with protecting your intellectual
property, such as who owns the rights and how to enforce them.

In recent years, the issue of intellectual property rights protections is debatable among public
policy approaches to issues in developing countries. The TRIPs agreement, implemented in
1993 among World Trade Organization member nations, sets minimum standards of
intellectual property rights protections and enforcement in many developing countries, with
the threat of negative repercussions if these guidelines are not followed.

Intellectual property rights protect an individual's right to use their own creation in their own
way. For example, if you create a new video game and sell it commercially, you may be able
to sue anyone who copies your game without permission. This is because copyright law
protects your work as long as it is being used commercially.

But Plagiarism is a major issue. It is the act of theft of another person's intellectual property
which comprises of ideas, inventions, and original works of authorship, words, slogans,
designs, proprietary information, and using them as own without giving credit to main author
or inventor.

Intellectual Property Rights Reform and Innovation

India’s rank in the Global Innovation Index has improved from the 81st rank in 2015 to 48th
rank in 2020. The Indian Patent Office has taken multiple and various measures for
betterment of Intellectual Property in the country. In order to match with the Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) and in other jurisdictions like United States, European Patent Office and Japan, the
Indian Patent Office has made remarkable changes in the Indian Patents Act, 1970. The law
has been amended from time to time in order to meet the expectations of the industry. Before
Reform there are many backlogs, lack of manpower, delay in the work by physical filling, but
now major number of backlogs got reduced and manpower also supplied in the interval basis,
the great and major change in IPR is digitalization of IPR filing forms. Nevertheless, there is
still a requirement to take more decisive steps to strengthen the IP rights by creating
awareness among the inventors, improving the administration of India's current framework
and authorities, more transparency related to recordal of documents, enforcement of civil
remedies and criminal penalties.

Reforms and initiatives for IP training and awareness: IPR help-desks and online guidance
system through e-mail are available at each IPO location. The IP office organized different
types of welfare to know about the changes in IPR and how to make efficient use of them on
day to day basis. Several orientation programmes have been conducted to train examiners.
Some programmes have been launched by the government for strengthening the IPR
protection from Cyber frauds and hackers. And also introduced IPR wing in each state to
bring awareness and protection about IPR rights and policies. The establishment of new
incubation centres which would be helpful to innovative start-up businesses in their pursuit to
become scalable and sustainable enterprises. Cell for IPR Promotion and Management
(CIPAM) is a professional body under the aegis of the Department of Industrial Policy &
Promotion (DIPP) Ministry of Commerce & Industry. Its mandate is to effectively implement
National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy adopted in May 2016 with slogan–
"Creative India; Innovative India". It has undertaken several measures to strengthen IP
ecosystem in the country.

Reforms for the dissemination of information: IPO website has been redesigned to improve
contents and which should be available to users in ease of access. IP data on a real-time basis
is available in respect of filing and processing of Patents, Designs, Trade Marks and
Geographical Indications. A comprehensive online search system with full-text-search
capability, which was already in practice, has been updated.

Reforms for automation and digitalisation: Provision for auto-allocation of requests for
examination and automation of process for registration and renewal has been made. First
Examination Reports and Registration certificates are sent through e-mail. The provision of
SMS Alert service to stakeholders regarding examination reports has been made.
Comprehensive e-filing facility is available with payment gateway facility and it has been
made mandatory for patent agents to file their applications online.

Reforms to simplify the process of registration: Amendments has been updated, reduced the
number of forms and provided for the filing of single application form for all types of
trademark applications. Provision for filing extensions for submission of Affidavit and
Evidences have been removed so as to speed up the disposal. Simplification of Form-27, One
Form-30 in Patents, where no other Form is applicable. Simplification of Trademark Forms,
reduced from 74 to 8 Forms.

Promotion of Intellectual Property Rights

▪ Progress of humanity and the moral good benefit of them, remains in the ability to
create and invent new works in the field of technology and culture.
▪ It encourages distribution, publication, and disclosure of the creation to the public for
their benefit, rather than keeping it a secret and a personal establishment.
▪ The promotion and protection of intellectual Property can promote economic
development and it may also, generate new jobs and industries. It could improve the
quality of life, with the latest new innovations, inventions and creativity.
▪ They increase the market value of the creators or innovator’s business. It generates
huge incomes through the licensing, selling or the commercializing of their products.
So, improving the stock market and increasing the profits.
▪ The creative and intellectual ideas are converted into profitable assets. The
products/services can be commercially successful and may benefit a lot of individuals
in the societies, across the globe as it increases the export opportunities for the
business.

Human Rights and Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property Rights and human Rights have evolved independently. On one hand,
human rights are the rights which are fundamental for human existence and are recognized by
states but are inherent rights to human existence. On the other hand, the intellectual property
rights consist of statutorily recognized rights of the creators and inventors and provides
incentives for participation and contribute to technological development.

The relationship between the two have been ignored for long and has now been recognised by
governments, judges, and scholars. In the last decade, international activities have begun to
map the unchartered intersections between human rights and intellectual property rights. The
relationship between the two has also been recognised also in various international venues
like World Trade Organization, world Intellectual Property Organization, the committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Human Rights Council.

It is asserted that the relationship between the human rights and Intellectual Property Rights
have been recognised by various human rights instruments of the United Nations. First
among the international instruments is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.

Further the paper also talks about the relationship of IPR between human right of Right to
Education. It also talks about relationship between Medical Patents and Right to Health.
Relationship of Human Rights and IPR have to be re-examined because of various impacts of
human rights and IPR such as the right to health have become much more visible following
the adoption of the TRIPS Agreement.

Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) enunciates an inherently

strong connection between human rights and IPR. Following closely to Article 27, the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Icescr), under Article 15(1)
further validates rights to take part in cultural life; to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress
and its applications and; to benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests
resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Nearing the end of 20th century a critical movement began in the field of IPR when a host of
nations made concerted demands for access to medicines, access to knowledge and protection
of cultural and traditional knowledge systems thus demanding an IP regime that is respectful
of the rights of indigenous communities as well as the diverse developmental levels.
Although this idea was not new, it drew little attention until the formal internationalisation of
Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) through the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (Trips) agreement. Professor Peter K. Yu in fact suggests a lack of interest
from policymakers, scholars and activists that was due in part to the arcane, obscure,
complex, and highly technical nature of intellectual property law and policy and in part to the
ability of countries to retain substantial policy space for developing their own intellectual
property systems. After several negotiations when Trips was finally formalised the global
outlook towards IPR underwent a massive transformation however developing and less-
developed countries remained belligerent on the potential conflicts of the agreement vis-à-vis
realisation of economic, social and cultural rights. Later, the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) emphasised the flexibilities built into the Trips agreement and other international
trade agreements in order to boost the potential coexistence of human rights and IPR.

Social and economic implications of IPR

Intellectual Property Rights served major role in economic development of the country. It
promotes new ideas, innovations, new technologies which help to growth of the country. An
overly protective system of IPRS could limit the social gains from invention by reducing
incentives to disseminate its fruits. However a weak system would reduce innovation and
there is high chance of plagiarism which leads to the failure in return of investment and make
a person to suffer major loss in his business. It leads to cause loss in the interest of
innovation, destroy new ideas and make the country to stay in a stagnant position. To avoid
all these problems IPR has been implemented in the country. IPR gives protection to idea
creators, innovators and entrepreneurs to safeguard their ideas and also encourages them to
innovate more because there is no chance for plagiarism of the content. In brief, IPRS could
be effective and market-based mechanisms for overcoming problems that exist in markets for
information creation and dissemination. A first analytical point to recognize is that national
regimes of intellectual property protection strongly depend on the level of economic
development. Indeed, that governments strengthen their IPRS systems as their economies
become wealthier and attain a deeper basis of technological sophistication is well established.
The claim that strong IPRS promote technical change and development is more debatable.
Because still there is some cases which leads to loss of protection, absence in extent of
coverage, delegation in enforcement measures to safeguard etc. will cause the negative
impact on Intellectual Property Rights. IPR will not give enormous growth only by
implementing the new reforms and feasible things for the users, it must also be enforced in
efficient manner, should be implemented in a proper way, must keep a regular check on the
working process to reduce the chances of mistakes. Developing countries tend to have an
intellectual property rights to be provided in a feasible manner at low cost efficiency and to
have major developing ideas which will make their country to promote at next level in
innovation. This policy is suggests to prevent inventions and new ideas even from domestic
level of areas. Because that is the place of local market where people tend to make major new
ideas, new technology and it will benefit the domestic level growth of the country. Domestic
level growth is the important thing for each and every country when domestic areas are
begins to develop it will definitely develops the whole country automatically. In vast
circumstances, the minor invention makes huge growth in the country in a cumulative manner
it also increase knowledge level of people located in the country. Many Indian companies
have placed importance on the protection of IPRs and taken initiatives to increase awareness
and protection within the companies and promote IP as a policy. It is widely believed, that
stronger IPRs in India will greatly benefit software companies across sectors, and will
encourage greater product development in India. The Relationship between IPR and
Development of the economy is directly proportionate which means when IPR increases then
the Country’s development will automatically tend to increase. It is argued that IPR systems
play a vital role in encouraging and facilitating the process of taking innovative technology to
the market place, and that it plays a major role in enhancing competitiveness of technology-
based enterprises, whether such enterprises are commercializing new or improved products or
providing service on the basis of a new or improved technology. Innovation is usually
measured through the expenditure of an economy on R&D. Technology innovation costs a
lot, and it need to be financed through mass R&D expenditure. Some argue that in the
absence of patents, companies would never take the risk of investing time and money in R&D
as any technological breakthrough would soon be copied, and the exclusivity of such
breakthroughs would diminish. And since local businesses in developing economies have
limited resources for sustainable R&D programs as compared to the local business in the
developed ones, thus they rely more on imitation; reverse engineering, dismantling and
incremental modification rather than innovation or invention. India has robust IP laws and
enforcement that it has inherited from its colonial times, and it has recently joined the
countries that have adopted stronger IPR protection after joining the WTO and signing the
TRIPS agreement for reasons mainly as of boosting economic growth and bilateral and
international trade relations with developed economies as well as its local financial
institutions.

Intellectual Property Rights Theft

The General meaning of theft is acquiring the thing which is not owned by us. Robbing the
thing of others is known as theft. Intellectual property right is not the subject to theft because
it is intangible form. In IPR violation, generally, people rob the ideas, inventions,
expressions, creativity etc. to gain money, by exploiting the same. In this era of digital
technology, such types of wrongdoings are not uncommon. The most popular remedy for IPR
theft is a permanent injunction order from the court which is a civil remedy. One example of
intellectual property theft is when an individual knowingly copies the logo of a company and
uses it on their own items without the consent of the company. Another example may be
when an employee takes the secret food recipe of a company and uses that to create their own
food product. Intellectual property theft can cost people their jobs, damage the reputation of
the original maker of the counterfeited product, cause sickness and bodily harm, deprive
governments of desperately needed tax revenue, and even result in the spread of organized
crime and gangs—which in turn can damage more lives and destroy neighbourhoods. It isn’t
a victimless crime. The IPR Centre uses the expertise of its 25-member agencies to share
information, develop initiatives, coordinate enforcement actions, and conduct investigations
related to IP theft and trade law violations. In our digital world, IP thieves may include
current and former employees, competitors, and hackers. IP theft can be a primary motive or
an opportunistic exploit, as IP can be stolen in bulk when illegally retrieving corporate data.
By stealing IP or purchasing already stolen ideas and creations, dishonest individuals and
organizations can create products faster and cheaper than if they designed those products
themselves. Because of IP theft, organizations that invested in original creations may find
themselves competing with copies of their own ideas that are selling at half the price. There
are three methods of intellectual property theft Hacking, Privilege Abuse, Human errors.
Hacking means cyber criminals enter into website through unauthorised access and steal the
information related to the company. Privilege abuse means using the position or authority in
the company steal the IPR information by their influence and sold it to the opponent
competitors or else use the information and release it as their own product. Human errors
occur because of employees are not always caused by malicious intent. Often, employees
make dangerous mistakes due to carelessness, lack of cybersecurity awareness, or fatigue.
And once a data breach appears, it may expose various types of confidential information,
including IP. Under Part II of Schedule I of the CrPC, IPR theft are offences which are
punishable with imprisonment for less than three years or with a fine only, are bailable and
non-cognizable. However, offences punishable with imprisonment for three years and
upwards but not more than seven years, are non-bailable and cognizable. Section 63 of the
Copyright Act and Section 103 of the Trademark Act, provides punishment for certain
offences with imprisonment for not less than 6 months and may extend to 3 years.