International Conventions Pertaining to Intellectual Property

Brussels/ Berne Convention/Paris/Madrid Agreement/IIPO Protocol 1991

IP has both national and international dimension. For example, patents are governed by
national laws and rules of a given country, while international convention on patents ensure
minimum rights and provide certain measures for enforcement of rights by the contracting
States.
The need for a system to protect IP internationally arose when foreign exhibitors refused to
attend an International exhibition of inventions in Vienna in 1873, because they were afraid
that their ideas would be stolen and exploited commercially in other countries. This led to the
creation of the Paris convention for the protection of Industrial Property of 1883 which was
the first major international treaty.
In 1886, copyright entered the international arena with the Berne convention for the
protections of literary and artistic works. Both these conventions set up international bureaux
to carry out administrative tasks. In 1893, these two small bureaux united to form an
international organisation called the United International Bureaux for Protection of
Intellectual Property, best known by its, french acronym, BIRPI which was the predecessor of
WIPO.
WTO agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS
Agreement), came into force in 1995, which brought with new era in the multilateral
protection and enforcement of IP rights.

Some important conventions pertaining to IP are as follows:

Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883)

The Paris Convention, adopted in 1883, applies to industrial property in the widest sense,
including patents, trademarks, industrial designs, utility models, service marks, trade names,
geographical indications and the repression of unfair competition. This international
agreement was the first major step taken to help creators ensure that their intellectual works
were protected in other countries.
This convention created the provision of national treatment. Under the provisions on national
treatment, the convention provides that, as regards the protection of industrial property, each
contracting State must grant the same protection to nationals of other contracting States that it
grants to its own nationals. Nationals of non-contracting States are also entitled to national
treatment under the convention, if they are domiciled or have a real and effective industrial or
commercial establishment in a contracting State.

The provisions of the Paris Convention may be sub-divided into four main categories:

A first category contains rules of substantive law which guarantee a basic right known as the
right to national treatment in each of the member countries.

A second category establishes another basic right known as the right of priority.

A third category defines a certain number of common rules in the field of substantive law
which contain either rules establishing rights and obligations of natural persons and legal
entities, or rules requiring or permitting the member countries to enact legislation following
those rules.

A fourth category deals with the administrative framework which has been set up to
implement the Convention, and includes the final clauses of the Convention.

Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886)

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as
the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first
accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886. The Berne Convention deals with the protection of
works and the rights of their authors. The provisions of the Berne Convention may be sub-
divided into three main categories:

Protection for every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain in any form.

The right to translate makes adaptations and arrangements, perform in public, communicate
to the public, broadcast and make reproduction.

According to the Berne Convention, all works, except cinematography and photography, are
copyrighted for a minimum term of 50 years after the death of an author, but longer terms
may be provided to related parties.

Declaration relating to Article II and III of Appendix to Paris Act (1971)

On March 28, 2018, the World Intellectual Property Organisation has notified a declaration
referring to the deposit by the Government of the Republic of India, on October 7, 1974, of
its instrument of ratification on the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Works (1886), as revised at Paris on July 24, 1971 and to its subsequent deposits, on
February 1, 1984 and June 7, 1984 of declarations according to which the Government of the
Republic of India availed itself of the faculties provided for the Article II and III of the
Appendix to the Berne Convention during the 10 years period that will expire on October 10,
2024.

The said declaration shall enter into force, with respect to the territory of the Republic of
India, on March 28, 2018. The Article II of the Appendix would enable the Republic of India
to substitute for the exclusive right of translation of a work, which has been published in
printed or analogous forms of reproduction, granted by the competent authority, only for the
purpose of teaching, scholarship or research.

The Article III of the Appendix would enable the Republic of India to substitute for the
exclusive right of reproduction of a work, which has been published either in printed or
analogous forms of reproduction, or in audio-visual form of lawfully made audio-visual
fixations, to publish an edition which has not been distributed/on sale for a period of 6
months, except when either the translation is not published by the owner of the right of
translation or with his authorization, or when the translation is not in a language general in
use in India.

India has been the Member of Berne Convention since 28th April, 1928 and has been
submitting the declaration as per Article II and III of the Appendix from time to time. The
present notification is in continuation of India's earlier position.

Universal Copyright Convention, 1952

The Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) was adopted in 1952 in Geneva, Switzerland. It
was developed by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) as an alternative to the Berne Convention.

While countries may continue to become members of the UCC, the UCC has lost some
significance because most States are members of the World Trade Organisation and conform
to regulations under TRIPS agreement.

Main features of UCC are as follows:

No signatory nation should accord its domestic authors more favorable copyright treatment
than the authors of other signatory nations, though no minimum protection for either
domestic or foreign authors is stipulated.

A formal copyright notice must appear in all copies of a work and consist of the symbol, the
name of the copyright owner, and the year of first publication, a signatory nation, and may
require further formalities, provided such formalities do not favour domestic over foreign
works.

The minimum term of copyright in member nations must be the life of the author plus 25
years, except for photographic works and works of applied art, which have a 10 year term.

All adhering nations are required to grant an exclusive right of translation for a 7 year-period,
subject to a compulsory license under certain circumstances for the balance of the term of
copyright.

WIPO Convention, 1967

The WIPO Convention is the multilateral treaty that established the World Intellectual
Property Organisation (WIPO). The Convention was signed at Stockholm, Sweden, on 14th
July, 1967 and entered into force on 26th April, 1970. The origins of WIPO go back to 1883
and 1886, when the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Berne
Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, respectively, were concluded.
Both conventions provided for the establishment of an International Bureau. The two bureaus
were united in 1893 and, in 1970, were replaced by the World Intellectual Property
Organisation, by virtue of the WIPO Convention.

WIPO's two main objectives are:

To promote the protection of intellectual property worldwide and

To ensure administrative cooperation among the intellectual property Unions established by
the treaties that WIPO administers.

India became a member of WIPO in 1975. It is currently a member of the following

agreements administered by WIPO Berne Convention (1928), Phonograms Convention
(1975), Nairobi Treaty (1983), Paris Convention (1998), PCT (1998), Budapest Treaty
(2001), Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and Protocol
Relating to the Madrid Agreement (2013).

India has continued its constructive engagement with WIPO and participated actively in the
meetings of the WIPO Standing Committees on Intellectual Property and Development,
Patents, Copyright and Related Rights, Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical
Indications, the Inter-Governmental Committee on Traditional Knowledge, Folklore and
Genetic Resources, the Advisory Committee on Enforcement, the PCT Working Group and
other bodies dealing with organizational issues.

Patent Cooperation Treaty, 1970

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is an international patent law treaty, concluded in 1970.
It provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of
its contracting States. The PCT focuses on bringing the world within reach, on streamlining
the process of fulfilling diverse formality requirements, to postpone the major costs
associated with international patent protection, to provide a strong basis for patenting
decisions and is used by the world's major corporations, research institutions and universities
in seeking international patent protection.

The procedure under the PCT has the following advantages for the applicant:

Presentation of a single 'international' patent application in compliance with the formal

requirements of the PCT, made in one language and the payment of a single amount of fees.

International Search where an International Searching Authority (ISA) analyses the invention
and provides an opinion on the potential patentability.
International publication in which the content of the international application is disclosed
internationally, immediately after expiry of the period of 18 months from the earliest filing
date (priority date).

The office in charge of the 'International Preliminary Examining may perform at the request
of the applicant, an additional patentability analysis, usually on an amended version of the
application.

After the international phase is finalized, the application enters into the national phase,
requesting 'the granting of the patent' in the National Patent Offices of the countries seeking
protection. The granting of patents remains a matter of national patent offices.

India approved the PCT and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs deposited the required
instrument with the Director General of WIPO on September 7, 1998 and PCT became
'Applicable' to India from December 7, 1998.

TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement, 1994

One of the most important agreements of WTO is the TRIPS Agreement. The Agreement on
Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international legal
agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

TRIP was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) between 1989 and 1990 and is administered by the WTO. This agreement
came into force on Ist January, 1995. This agreement sets down the minimum standard for
many forms of intellectual property regulations. The agreement is, till date, the most
comprehensive agreement of a multilateral nature on IP.

Following areas of Intellectual Property covered under the agreement are:

Copyrights and related rights (like the rights of performers, producers of sound recordings
and broadcasting organizations)

Trademarks (also service marks)

Geographical indications (including appellations of origin)

Industrial designs

Patents (including protection of new variety of plants)

Layout-designs of integrated circuits

Undisclosed information (Trade secrets and Test data)

The agreement is a seven-part document containing complex provisions with respect to

Intellectual Property rights.

Following is a brief description of the structure of the Agreement:

Part I The general provisions and the basic principles of National Treatment and Most
Favoured Nation are covered under this part. (Article 1 to Article 8)
Part II The standards concerning availability, scope and use of Intellectual Property Rights is
covered under this part. (Article 9 to Article 40)
Part III This part deals with the enforcement of IPRs. (Article 41 to Article 61)
Part IV This part addresses the provisions for acquiring and maintaining IPR. (Article 62),
Part V This part deals with prevention and settlement of disputes arising out of the provisions
of the Agreement. (Article 63 to Article 64)
Part VI This part is concerned with transitional agreements. (Article 65 to Article 67)
Part VII This part of the Agreement concerns various institutional agreements. (Article 68 to
Article 73)

Features of Agreement
Standards: In respect of each of the IP areas covered by the agreement, all member nations
are obliged to provide a minimum set of standards for the protection of IPRs. Each area of IP
is covered such that it clearly describes the main elements of protection, i.e. the subject-
matter which seeks protection, rights which are to be conferred and permissible exceptions to
such rights and also the minimum duration of protection.

Enforcement:

Each member nation is obliged to provide domestic procedures and remedies with respect to
protection of IPR. Further, the agreement lays down certain other provisions so that right
holders can effectively enforce their rights. These provisions relate to civil and administrative
procedures and remedies and detailed specifications as to special requirements related to
border measures and criminal procedures.

Brussels Regime

What is the Brussels Convention in IPR?

1968 Brussels or Satellites Convention provides for the obligation of each Contracting State
to take adequate measures to prevent the unauthorized distribution on or from its territory of
any programme-carrying signal transmitted by satellite.

The Brussels or Satellites Convention provides for the obligation of each Contracting State to
take adequate measures to prevent the unauthorized distribution on or from its territory of any
programme-carrying signal transmitted by satellite. A distribution is considered unauthorized
if it has not been authorized by the organization – typically a broadcasting organization – that
decided on the programme's content. The obligation exists in respect of organizations that are
nationals of a Contracting State.

The Convention permits certain limitations on protection. The distribution of programme-

carrying signals by non-authorized persons is permitted if the signals carry short excerpts
containing reports of current events or, as quotations, short excerpts of the programme carried
by the emitted signals or, in the case of developing countries, if the programme carried by the
emitted signals is distributed solely for the purposes of teaching, including adult teaching or
scientific research. The Convention does not establish a term of protection, leaving the matter
to domestic legislation.

The provisions of this Convention are not applicable, however, where the distribution of
signals is made from a direct broadcasting satellite.

The Convention does not provide for the institution of a Union, governing body or budget.

It is open to any State member of the United Nations or of any of the agencies belonging to
the United Nations system of organizations.

Instruments of ratification, acceptance or accession must be deposited with the Secretary-

General of the United Nations.
IIOP is an integral component of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture
(CORBA), which is a well-known IT industry standard. IIOP is an implementation of
General Inter-ORB Protocol (GIOP), which is an abstract interation protocol used by
object request brokers (ORB).

IIOP is similar to Microsoft’s Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), which

is a primary CORBA/IIOP competitor.

IIPO

Internet Inter-ORB Protocol

Like CORBA, IIOP follows client-server architecture for communication, where a message
request is always transmitted from a client to a server.

Object Management Group (OMG) specifications for IIOP are as follows:

Common Data Representation (CDR): Provides a standard data encoding/decoding method

Interoperable Object Reference (IOR): The client must have a program address, known as an
IOR, prior to sending a server request. The IOR is based on the IP address and port numbers
of the server and is usually mapped to a value table created by the client’s computer.

Message formats defined to support CORBA’s ORB specifications

IIOP advantages include:

Better architecture neutrality

Communication transparency

Scalability

Code reusability

CORBA (Common object Request Broker Architecture) specification was developed in 1991
by the Object Management Group (OMG) goal was to adopt distributed object systems that
utilize object-oriented programming for distributed systems. Systems to be built on
heterogeneous hardware, networks, operating systems and programming languages.

History
Goal

Definition

Features