This document discusses recent developments in intellectual property rights (IPR) in India. It provides an overview of how strengthening IPR helps economic development by encouraging innovation and attracting foreign investment. The key law changes discussed include amendments to trademark, copyright, patent, and geographical indication laws to be better aligned with international standards. Recent initiatives to make the patent application process more efficient and provide free access to patents are also summarized as India aims to become a more IPR-friendly nation.
2. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• How IPR helps in economic developments.
• Determinants of economic developments.
• Interface between ip and national developments goals – examples.
• Trademark law brought at per with international practices.
• Protection to geographical indications provided
• Copyright law modified.
• Patent law more aligned with TRIPS.
• Protection of plant varieties and rights of farmers established.
• Recent developments for IPR in India.
• References
6. Why IP needs Protection?
• Effective IP protection stimulates creative and innovation by
providing reward for it.
• Competitiveness that the system generates the help create jobs.
• IPR protection rewards the inventors and creators.
• Strong national and institutional IPRs system help in attracting
FDI, technology transfer and licensing – china has emerged as large
as destination of FDI due to stated policy of IP protection.
7. How IPR helps in Economic Developments
• Intellectual Property Rights could play a significant role in
encouraging innovation, product development, and technical
change to help in development of economy through low- cost
initiation of foreign product and technologies.
• IPR could stifle technical change even at low levels at economic
developments.
8. Determinants of Economic Developments
Economic factors in
Economic Developments
Non-Economic factors in
Economic Developments
Capital formation
Natural Resources
Marketable surplus of agriculture
Conditions in Foreign Trade
Economic System
Human Resources
Technical Know- How and general Education
Political Freedom
Social Organisation
Corruption
Desire to develop
9. Interface between IP and national developments goals – examples
• “Many countries have recognised the importance of
science and technology and innovation to economic
growth. Singapore must push on with transforming itself
into its innovation – driven economy, competing on
knowledge and talent, and in so doing put itself on the
path towards sustained economic growth”.
• Singapore since and technology Plan (2006-2010).
10.
11. Trademark law brought at per with international
practices.
* Service marks, for the first time, made protectable through registration.
* The definition of "trade mark" now includes graphic representations, shapes,
packagings and combinations of colors, thereby widening IPR protection.
* The period of registration and renewal has been increased from seven to ten
years.
* The definition of "trademark infringement" has been broadened to give protection
beyond the use of identical/deceptively similar marks in relation to goods for which
they are registered.
12. Protection to Geographical Indications provided
• The GIG Act provides for registration and better protection of
geographical indications relating to goods to help identify the place
of origin of goods, quality, reputation and other distinctive
characteristics of these goods.
• GIG Act helps in protecting unique Indian product linked to
geographical region in India.
• The GIG Act also lays down provisions for infringement actions.
13. Copyright law Modified
• In this copyright law , it is modified in 2012 amendments with the
WIPO or WCT .
• The Government is considering further amendments to the Indian
Copyright Act to help deter continuing piracy.
• Amendments would provide for greater deterrents against
infringement through more effective legislative and administrative
frameworks.
14. Patent law more aligned wit TRIPS
• The list of inventions not patentable, incorporating greater rights of
the patentee, reversing the burden of proof in an infringement suit
on process patents.
• Creating a uniform period of patent protection of twenty years for all
categories of invention.
• In the year 2014, the Indian Patent Office released guidelines
pertaining to issuance of pharmaceutical patents.
• Indian Patent (Amendment) Rules 2014 recently introduced a third
category of applicant being of "small entity", and provided
procedural rules for governing the same.
15. Protection of plant varieties and Rights of
farmers established
• The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act, 2001,
to provide for the establishment of an effective system for
protection of plant varieties.
• The 2001 Act provides for a total eighteen years protection for
trees and vines and fifteen years for other plants.
• India opted for the sui generis for the system of protection of
plant varieties giving importance of farmers’ rights, by enjoyed
the team over centuries.
• The Act tries to balance farmers right and breeders right.
16. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS FOR IPR IN INDIA
• India has been trying to establish itself as an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
friendly nation in the world, by defining its standards as per the Global Intellectual
Property norms.
• The Indian government’s vision to set-up fully computerized Intellectual Property
offices based on the United States Patent and Trademark Office model.
• The Government has recently approved the Patent Prosecution Highway Program
which will ease and expedite the process of patent examination in India.
• Changes in the Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedures have clarified and
eased several filing processes.
• Other developments in the IP regime include the Defense Research and Development
Organization (DRDO) allowing free access of its 450 patent to industries.
17. ISSUES COVERS IN IP RIGHTS
• Govt. Approves Patent Prosecution Highway Program – Measure to
Expedite Patent Examination in India
• DRDO grants free patent access to boost indigenous production.
• Government brings key changes in Manual of Patent Office Practice and
Procedure (2019)
• Filmmaker’s win over YouTube and Google in Copyright violation case
• Steer Engineering Pvt. Ltd. v. Glaxosmithkline Consumer & Ors.:
Copyright infringement on filing Patent Application.
• Make My Trip (India) Private Limited v. Make My Travel (India) Private
Limited: Mere silence no acquiesce.
18. India- IPR friendly nation
• India has been trying to establish itself as an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) friendly
nation in the world, by defining its standards as per the Global Intellectual Property
norms
• One such effort can be seen in the Indian government’s vision to set-up fully
computerized Intellectual Property offices based on the United States Patent and
Trademark Office model.
• The Government has recently approved the Patent Prosecution Highway Program which
will ease and expedite the process of patent examination in India.
• Changes in the Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedures have clarified and eased
several filing processes.
• Other developments in the IP regime include the Defense Research and Development
Organization (DRDO) allowing free access of its 450 patent to industries. This newsletter
aims to bring to you the latest updates in the IP segment.
19. Govt. Approves Patent Prosecution Highway Program- Measure to
Expedite Patent Examination in India
• The Union Government with its notification dated 20th November 2019 has affirmed a
proposal for adoption of Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programmed by Indian Patent
Office in collaboration with Patent office of various other countries and region .
• This programmed is aimed towards efficacious work sharing and accelerated processing of
patent application by way of bilateral arrangements between patent offices.
• The participating patent office agrees to speedy examination of corresponding patent
claims when such patent application has been already accepted by other collaborating
patent office.
• Japan’s patent office will be 1st patent office to collaborate with Indian patent office for
initial period of 3 years.
• It needs to be ensured as extension of programme might require curtailing flexibilities
allowed to local sectors (like pharmacy), in order to tailor patent laws according to
International standards.
20. DRDO grants free patent access to boost indigenous
production
• DRDO has eased down the need for license and royalty for use of Indian patent
held by the agency.
• DRDO has put it’s over 450 patents (covering missile technology, aeronautics,
naval system, electronic, communication etc.) for free access to industries for
commercial exploitation .
• DRDO patents at zero cost, giving them the opportunity for enhancing their
capabilities and improving supply chain.
• DRDO patent will be granted to public and private entities including start-ups
after taking into account the entities’ capacity to absorb technology, production
capabilities, and quality control mechanisms.
• This is grant by DRDO is a welcome step to help indigenous industries by
allowing them access to technology which might enable them to increase their
output and enhance their capabilities.
21. Government brings key changes in Manual of Patent
Office Practice and Procedure (2019)
• New Manual tries to accommodate various developments like
automating and digitalizing the process. It also tries to increase
transparency in functioning of Patent Office .
• The Government has clarified that, it signed by the Applicant/ Patent
Agent.
• It is also changes on payment mode like Net banking, Credit
Cards, Debit Cards and Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
22. Filmmaker’s win over YouTube and Google in
Copyright violation case
• The filmmaker Suneel Darshan (Plaintiff) , the District Court of Gurgaon, imposed liability
on YouTube and Google (Defendants).
• The Plaintiff had accused both online platforms for sharing and circulating his works
without prior authorization.
• The Defendants further argued that such copyright infringement suit must be brought
against the offenders who uploaded the work, rather than the service providers.
• The Court while deciding the matter in favor of the Plaintiff held that the Defendants are
guilty of infringement as they had exclusive knowledge of the offender(s) uploading such
content and they being such giant online service providers had access to monitor, locate
and remove such URLs uploaded on the online platform which are in infringement to the
works of any existing copyright holder.
23. Steer Engineering Pvt. Ltd. v. Glaxosmithkline
Consumer &Ors.: Copyright infringement on filing
Patent Application
• In the case of Steer Engineering Pvt. Ltd. v. Glaxosmithkline Consumer & Or ., the Karnataka High Court has
decided on copyright infringement when filing International Patent Application.
• The Appellant had entered into a Master Services Agreement (MSA) with the Defendants for transfer of the
said technology of extrusion process to be used in manufacture of Horlicks, a famous nutritional food
powder.
• The Defendants having received the right to patent of the technology by virtue of the MSA, filed for an
international patent application submitting with it all the test results and data provided to them by the
Appellant.
• The Court while ruling in favor of the Defendants stated that there was no infringement of copyright as the
Appellant had failed to produce the original work (test results) and instead produced was a redacted
document.
• Appellant had failed to indicate confidential nature of such information at the time of transfer under the MSA
and therefore they cannot claim violation of copyright.
• This is an interesting case law which throws light on the laws relating to confidential information and
copyright of test results in India.
24. Make My Trip (India) Private Limited V. Make My
Travel (India) Private Limited: Mere silence no
acquiesce-
• The Delhi High Court in a recent matter has granted “temporary ad-interim injunction” in favor of
Make My Trip (India) Private Limited (Plaintiff) in a trademark infringement case.
• The Plaintiff is one of the famous Tours and Travels Service Provider Company in India having
registered trademarks "MakeMyTrip", "MMT" and tag lines "Memories Unlimited" and "Hotels
Unlimited".
• The Court ruling in favor of the Plaintiff held that the word marks used by the Defendant were
identical and deceptively similar in nature, concept and idea which are evident from use of the
words in specific combination.
• This case becomes important as it upholds the principles that mere silence or non intervention
doesn’t amount to acquiesces. Also, for acquiesce to be taken as a defense positive
encouragement on the part of victim must be shown.
25. References-
• The Economic Times News Paper
• Intellectual Property Rights by Neeraj Panday and Khushdeep
Dharni.
• Intellectual Property Human Rights and Development by Duncan
Matthews.
• Law reviews for IP development and recent trends in India.
• www.Wikipedia.com
• www.google.com