Introduction:
Intellectual Property rights are the legal rights given the inventor or creator for his or her innovation and creation. As the creations and innovations are are the products of human intellect, it is named as Intellectual Property rights (IPR). It includes inventions, songs, poem, literature of any form, names, symbols, trademark, logo etc.
The ownership rights are similar to property rights. When a person buys a home, he or she gets the ownership of that property. The ownership rights allows the owner to get complete financial benefit of the property. No one else can sale, rent or have any kind of deal without the permission of the owner. Similar rights are availed in Intellectual property rights to the creator or inventor.
Origin and History of Intellectual Property Rights:
The Intellectual Property rights was originated in Greek in 5th Century (500 BCE). It was initiated by giving special rights for the citizens who contribute in any kind of improvement in existing luxury items or materials. These rights were given the creator so that he or she can get financial benefits out of his contribution. The financial benefits or perks obtained from the ownership was motivating people to invent, create and contribute more.
The informal rights were made legal in the Statute of Monopolies. It was established in 1623 by the Britishers. It is in the same timeline when Industrial revolution was occurring. The Statute of Monopolies granted the legal rights to the inventor for 14 years. During this period, the owner had rights to govern his/her invention or creation.
The law was reformed in Statute of Anne in 1710. The new version of law allowed the creators and inventors to renew the ownership after the 14 years. It also allowed the owner to recreate, modify and distribute the created work.
As the world was not connected we see today. Due to which the Intellectual Property laws remain restricted to the states. There was no uniformity in implementing the laws. To overcome this, the Paris Convention begin in 1883 to discuss International agreement. The major motive was to protect the innovations and Industrial Process.
So far, the laws only protected scientific, Engineering and industrial inventions. We know that the human creations are not limited to Science and Engineering and Hence, in 1886 Berne Convention was called. In this convention, writers, poets and artists came together to create laws for protecting their artistic creations. Their creations included drawings, songs, poems, opera, paintings, sculptures and many more.
Considering the common protection laws for Science, Engineering, Industries and Arts field, the Paris and Berne conventions were eventually combined to create United International Bureaux for the protection of Intellectual Property. This is the antecedent form World Intellectual Property Rights (WIPO). The WIPO works under the umbrella of United nations (UN). The WIPO intends to motivate people for innovations and creations and allow them to get its financial benefits.
Forms of Intellectual property Rights:
- Patent
- Copyright
- Trademark
- Trade secret
- Industrial Designs
- Geographical indications
Patent:
It is an Intellectual Property Rights received to creator or innovator for creating any idea or process which in non obvious, useful and novel.
Copyright:
It is an intellectual Property Rights given to the creator for creating artistic work like music, drawing, dance, literature. It also includes coding of software program.
Trademark:
It protects phrases, words, symbols, sounds smells of the product. It is the Intellectual Property Rights given to the Industry who created its product or service.
Trade secrets:
It is an intellectual Property Rights of Trade, Business, company or Industry to protect their secret procedures, strategies, formula or any such confidential information that adds value to their profit.
Industrial design:
Industrial design is an IPR given to the Industries and Business for their whole product or parts of the product. It includes shape, size, surface and texture of the product is protected under this law. It also includes the design of chips and circuits used in computers and electronic devices.
Geographical Indication:
It is right given on the products based on their geographical origin. The law is stringent to give these rights to the product that represents the place, people and culture its origin.
Hence, The Intellectual Property rights gives the creator an ownership and allows to gets benefits financially.
References:
https://www.dubaicustoms.gov.ae/en/IPR/Pages/WhatIsIPR.aspx
http://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-3581-ipr-law-history.html
Dr. Sangha Bijekar has 9 years of Teaching Experience at University level. She loves to get engage in teaching and learning process. She is into blogging from last two years. She intends to provide student friendly reading material. She is avid Dog Lover and animal rescuer. She is learned Bharatnatyam and Katthak Dancer. She is into biking and She also loves to cook.