Intellectual Property Laws

Intellectual Property (IP) laws are very important for the scientific development of a country. Strong Intellectual Property legislation ensures the progress in different fields and result in the growth of a country's knowledge bank. The greatest importance of the strong IP laws must be ably supported by an equally strong enforcement mechanism. Strong, Fair, and non- discriminatory Intellectual Property Rights enforcement creates economic incentives that encourage innovation. The common types of intellectual property are copyrights, industrial design rights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets.

Copyright: - In India, copyright protection is available for any musical, literary, sound recording and artistic work. The types of copyright registration works are provided by the Copyright Act 1957.

Trade Marks: - The trademark laws are governed by the trademarks Act, 1999. The Act of 1999, permits registration of a service mark and also facilitates filing of multi-class applications.

Patents: - The patent laws are governed by the patents Act, 1970. The parliament passes the patent act, 2002, which provides the protection for new micro organisms and proposes a uniform 20 years from filing date fro all patents granted after commencement of the act.

Industrial Design: - The industrial designs Act, 2000 protect certain designs. The features of shape, pattern, configuration, ornament or composition of lines by an industrial process, which appeals to the eye can be registered under the said Act.

Trade Secret: A trade secret is a formula, instrument, process, practice, design, pattern or compilation of information, which is not usually known or reasonably ascertainable. Additionally, a business should be able to obtain an economic advantage over customers by keeping this information private.