Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual Property is an intangible asset that originates from one’s mind or intellect. Intellectual Property is one of the indispensable elements of innovation. The rights associated with such intangible assets are exclusive to the creator or owner of such Property.
Protection of intellectual property rights is crucial and essential to gain monetary benefits out of such creations. Protecting such rights will foster innovation and will enhance the research and development process. It takes a lot of work to come up with a useful and unique idea, and part of the incentive is knowing that once you obtain protection from such an idea, one will have the ability to capitalize on their invention for a set period without knockoff products legally entering the market.
The creator or owner of an intellectual asset can be an individual or business entity or any corporate body. The business entities or corporate bodies should not only protect their Intellectual Property but should also monitor their competitors from misuse of such rights associated with intellectual properties.
Protecting such intangible assets can be achieved in various forms like Copyrights, Related Rights associated with Copyrights, Trademarks, Trade Dress, Patents, Industrial Designs, Geographical Indications, Trade Secrets. Copyright protects artistic works, literary works. Related rights associated with Copyright protect the performance of such artistic or literary works as Performers rights, Broadcasting rights, Producers rights and so on. A Trademark protects the identity (brand) of an entity. A patent protects an invention that can be a product or process that is new, inventive, and capable of industrial use. Industrial Design protects Architectural designs, automobile designs, apparel designs, jewellery designs that hold structural significance rather than any technical importance. Trade Secret means high confidential information like customer data or client information or method of business (e.g. Recipe of KFC, Composition of beverages like Coco-Cola).
A Geographical Indication is entitled to the products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin (e.g. handlooms, craftworks, Tirupathi Ladoo.)
Intellectual Property is valuable for every business which invests huge sums in research and development for creating indigenous products and services. A business entity needs to implement Intellectual Property solutions to identify novel innovations and increase revenues. A well-defined Intellectual Property strategy for a business entity can result in achieving business objectives and help position the business as a leader in the marketplace.
Apart from business entities, academic institutions can also protect their Intellectual Property rights that can foster the partnership with business entities to commercialize such protected technology.
To foster innovation and to establish a prominent position in the market a corporate or business entity need to build a strong IP strategy and such strategy should contain identifying inventions and protecting such Intellectual Properties.