Intellectual Property Rights Consultancy Services

Innovation plays a key role in the economic development of any nation. In recent years, there has been an increase in IPR awareness as well as in the perception to protect one’s innovation in India. This increased awareness has consequently led to a gradual rise in the number of patent applications being filed in India. According to numbers as indicated in the Intellectual Property Annual Report 2018-19, patent filing in India has increased by 5.1% from 2016-17 to 2017-18.

The term patent as defined under the Indian Patent Act 1970, means a patent for any new invention, granted for a new product or process, involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application.

In simple words, Patents can be understood as ‘an exclusive statutory right for an invention granted for a limited period of time to the patentee by the Government, in exchange for full disclosure of his invention’. Patents are a type of statutory rights that give a monopoly to exclude others, from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented product or process for producing that product for the aforementioned purposes without the consent of the patentee.

In order to be a patentable subject matter, the invention is required to meet the following patentability criteria:

An inventive step as defined under the act means a feature of an invention that involves technical advancement as compared to the existing knowledge or having economic significance or both, which is not obvious to a person skilled in the art.

A new invention as defined under the act means any invention or technology which has not been anticipated by publication in any document or used in the country or elsewhere in the world before the date of filing of patent application with complete specification, i.e., the subject matter has not fallen in public domain or that it does not form part of the state of the art.

Trademark and brand names play a very crucial role, as they act as a source of identity for any entity. With increased IPR awareness entities are aggressively protecting their trademarks in India and globally. Trademark landscape in India is also nurturing day by day and entities and individuals in the quest to protect their trademark, brand names, logos etc from being copied are leaving no stone unturned to protect their goods from being copied.

A trademark in India is defined under Section 2 (1) (zb) of the Trademark Act, 1999. It is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual or an organization and is applied to the articles of commerce so as to identify the products of one trader from those of another.

A Trademark Performs The Following Functions:

Design is a feature of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colors applied to any article whether in two dimensional or three dimensional or in both forms, by any industrial process or means, whether manual, mechanical or chemical, separate or combined, which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye; but does not include any mode or principle of construction or anything which in substance a mere mechanical device, and does not include any trade mark, property mark or artistic work.

Design right is a territorial statutory right (enforceable only upon registration of said design), which allows the proprietor to prevent others from producing, importing, selling or distributing products having an identical appearance or a fraudulent or obvious imitation.

The Indian Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the primary office, which comprises of the Trade Marks Registry, The Patent Office, and The Designs Office in India. The Designs Office has its head office at Kolkata and the other Branches of the Patent Office only function to accept design applications but all technical examination is conducted at the Kolkata Office.

The filing, prosecution and registration of Industrial Designs in India is governed by the Design Act, 2000 and corresponding Rules- Design Rules, 2001. Any person or his legal representative or assignee can apply for registration of design. On registration the registered proprietor acquires statutory rights over the registered design and can protect the design against infringement from a third party.

Under the Copyright law in India, copyright subsists in all original published or unpublished literary, artistic, dramatic works etc. It is essentially a bundle of rights including but not limited to rights of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation and translation of the work. Slight variations in the composition of the rights are possible depending upon the kind of work and its ownership, authorship and licensing. Copyright comes into existence as soon as a work is created, i.e., expressed in a tangible form, and no formality is required to be completed for acquiring protection. However, it is advisable to apply for registration of Copyright in India for its evidentiary value.