unit 1

• Intellectual Property


  Various types of creations of mind, like inventions, music compositions, movies, books, paintings, brand names
• Intellectual property


  Intangible or non-monetary assets with commercial value
• Intellectual property rights


  • Owners are granted certain exclusive rights over their creations or works
  • Help owners benefit from their creations and protect their work
  • Encourage people to come up with new inventions and creations
• Types of Intellectual Property Rights

  • Copyrights
  • Trademarks
  • Patents
  • Industrial design rights
  • Trade secrets
• Copyright


  Exclusive right to control the publication, distribution and adaptation of creative works
• Trademark


  Symbol used to identify a particular product and indicate its source
• Patent


  Rights related to new inventions, conferred on persons who invent any new machine, process, article of manufacture or composition of matter and biological discoveries
• Industrial Design Rights


  Protect the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian, but have an aesthetic or ornamental value
• Trade Secrets


  Designs, practices, formulas, instruments, processes, recipes, patterns, or ideas used by a company to gain an economic advantage over its competitors
• Salient features of patents

  • Invention must be new
  • Invention must involve an inventive step
  • Invention must have industrial application
• According to the TRIPS Agreement, patents shall be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology with certain exceptions
• Inventions that are not patentable

  • Inventions relating to atomic energy
  • Inventions contrary to public order or morality
  • Mere discovery of scientific principles or abstract theories
  • Mere discovery of new form of known substance without enhanced efficacy
  • Discovery of living things or non-living substances occurring in nature
  • Mere admixture of components or traditional knowledge
  • Mathematical or business methods, computer programs, mental acts, or games
  • Methods of agriculture, horticulture, or medical/surgical treatment
  • Plants, animals, and essentially biological processes
• Literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works including cinematographic and television productions are covered by copyright, not patents
• Topography of integrated circuits is a separate field of intellectual property, not covered by patents
• thematical or business method or a computer programme per se or algorithms or a computer programme per se are not inventions within the meaning of the Indian Patents Act
• A mere scheme or rule or method of performing mental act or method of playing game are not inventions within the meaning of the Indian Patents Act
• Items that are not inventions within the meaning of the Indian Patents Act

  • A method of agriculture or horticulture
  • Any process for the medicinal, surgical, curative, prophylactic, diagnostic, therapeutic or other treatment of human beings and animals
  • Plants and animals in whole or any part thereof other than micro-organisms but including seeds, varieties and species and essentially biological processes for production or propagation of plants and animals
• Works that belong to different fields of intellectual property and are not subject matter of patents


  • A literary dramatic, musical or artistic work including cinematographic work and television productions (covered by copyright)
  • Topography of integrated circuits (separate field)
• Computer programmes and microorganisms have emerged as two special categories where patent protection is increasingly sought
• Under the Indian law, computer programmes

  They are protected under the Copyright Act, 1957 and are not entitled to protection through patents
• When a computer programme enables the computer to operate in a new way to produce a required result the computer system so programmed is patentable
• A computer so programmed is a modified equipment to operate in a new way and as such the computer, along with the programme, is patentable
• In 1980, the US Supreme Court granted a patent to Dr. Ananda Chakraborty for a genetically engineered bacterium, which could degrade oil spills. It did not exist in nature. It satisfied the criteria of novelty, non-obviousness and utility for a patentable invention
• For the first time in history a living entity, the engineered microorganism, was accorded the status of a product
• The issues about patenting life-forms has generated a lot of debate in different countries
• Who can apply for a patent


  • A person claiming to be the true and first inventor of the invention
  • Assignee of the true and first inventor
  • Legal representative of any deceased person who immediately before his death was entitled to make such an application
• True and first inventor

  The actual inventor and not merely the first importer of the invention or the first person to whom the invention is communicated from outside India
• In case the inventor is an employee of an organization, the inventions made during the employment would be patentable in the name of the employee. However, the ownership of the patent (i.e. rights of preventing others from using, manufacturing, selling etc.) will be dependent on the terms of contract between the employee and employer</b>
• It is a common practice in the R&D organizations to assign the inventions to the employer although those who contribute to the development of the invention are listed as inventors in the patent
• Filing a patent application


  • There is only one application filed for one invention
  • It is to be filed in triplicate in a prescribed form along with the prescribed fees in the appropriate patent office
  • It should be accompanied by a provisional or a complete specification
• Appropriate patent office


  • An office within whose territorial jurisdiction the applicant or the first applicant in the case of a joint application normally resides, or has his domicile or has a place of business, or the place where the invention originated falls
  • If the applicant has no place of business or domicile in India, the appropriate office would mean having jurisdiction over the place of business address in India given by the applicant
• If the application is filed by the assignee, it must be accompanied with the proof of the right to make the application
• Every application must state that the applicant is in 'possession' of the invention and shall name the assignee and the true and first inventors
• Possession of an invention

  • It signifies not merely the physical possession but also the conscious and intentional possession as well
  • Conception has been defined as "the formation in the mind of an inventor of a definite and permanent idea of the complete and operative invention, as it is thereafter to be applied in practice"
• Every international application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) for a patent designating India is deemed to be an application under the Indian Patents Act if a corresponding application has also been filed before the Controller in India
• The filing date of such an application and its complete specification processed by the Patent Office as designated office or elected office shall be the international filing date accorded under the PCT
• Typically, the form of application for grant of an Indian patent asks for

  • Full name, address, nationality of the applicant(s) and inventor(s)
  • Patent specifications
  • Whether an application has been made or patent granted in a PCT or a convention country
  • Claim of priority
• Specification


  • A complete and accurate description contained in a patent document stating how the invention can be carried out by the method best known to the applicant
  • The specification ends with a claim or claims defining the scope of the invention for which protection is claimed
• Provisional specification


  • It only prescribes the nature of invention
  • It relates to the stage of conception of an inventive idea in the form of proof of concept which has not yet been fully developed
  • Filing of an application for a patent with only a provisional specification ensures priority, however, the conception of invention given in the application must encompass all limitations of the claimed invention
  • Conception is the complete and definite idea formed in the mind of the inventor, when reducing the invention to practice is only a matter of ordinary skill; at this stage no extensive research or experimentation remains to be done
• It is necessary to file the complete specifications within one year of filing the original patent application. The application is deemed to be abandoned if this condition is not met