How Can You Protect Your Invention Through IPR?

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How Can You Protect Your Invention Through IPR?

Intellectual property rights (IPR) rights refer to the legal rights which are granted to an inventor or creator so that he can protect his invention or creation for a certain period of time. These legal rights give him or his assignee the exclusive right to fully utilize his invention/creation for a specified period of time.

In this article, we will discuss how you can protect your invention through intellectual property rights (IPR) in India.

Work of an inventor or creator can be protected through intellectual property rights (IPR). The requirements for obtaining IPR registration for the intellectual property varies depending on the type of asset under consideration. By acquiring intellectual property rights, inventors and creators can get various rights for protection and commercialization of their assets that are protected by the IPR laws.

In India, the most popular forms of intellectual property rights are trademark, copyright and patent. Let’s discuss them.

Trademark 

Words, phrases, symbols and logos which identify a company’s goods or services can be protected by trademark registration. A trademark registration can last forever as long as it continues being used in business, and trademark renewal is done in the prescribed period. Trademark is one of the most important forms of IPR for businesses in India and around the world.

If the trademark is similar to one of your competitors, it may not get registered. It is important to choose your trademark carefully.

How is Trademark Registration done in India?

The Registrar Office of Trademarks (RoT) is responsible for the registration of trademarks in India. Few steps are involved in trademark registration. First you need to choose a trademark. You must keep in mind that the trademark must be unique and distinctive in nature. Another crucial requirement is to identify the class you belong to. At present, the trademark can be registered under 45 classes of goods and services. It is important to do trademark search so that you can check whether your trademark doesn’t already exist. This will help you to avoid any future conflicts. 

Now you must file an application with the Registrar Office of Trademarks. Upon the filing of the trademark application, the Trademark Registrar will apply the Vienna classification to the figurative elements of the trademark. The Vienna Classification refers to an international system which categorizes the trademark’s figurative elements of trademarks. Once the trademark application is examined carefully, an examination report will be prepared which can either yield positive or negative results. The RoT will notify you regarding the report.

If the trademark application gets accepted, it’ll be published in the trademark journal for a period of 4 months. The general public can check your trademark in the trademark journal and if there are no objections regarding the trademark, it’ll finally get registered and the RoT will provide you with the trademark registration certificate.

Copyright 

Rather than the idea itself, the copyright protects the expression of an idea. A protection under copyright can be obtained for original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematograph films, and sound recording of the individuals. It is interesting to note that a copyright protection can also be obtained for computer programmes. A copyright refers to an exclusive right which is granted to a person to do or authorize to carry out certain activities with regards to the copyrighted work. 

For example, if a movie production company wants to make a movie based on an author’s book, it requires the permission of the author (or the author’s estate, if the author is no longer, or the present copyright holder if the author no longer has the film rights to his or her work) to make a movie derived from the book of the author as long as the book is still under the copyright protection.

How is Copyright Registration done in India?

Copyright is an inherent right. However, the copyright registration provides a chance to get a legal backup on the original works of authorship. The copyright registration is done by the Registrar Office of Copyrights in India. Few steps are involved in the process of copyright registration. First, you need to file a copyright application with the copyright office for which Form XIV has to be used. Each application must be with respect to only one work. 

Once the copyright application is received by the Copyrights Office, it will be examined carefully to ensure all the basic requirements are met. If any discrepancies are found, a letter is sent to the applicant and the applicant will be given 30 days from the date of such letter’s receipt to remove the discrepancies. Until then, the application status will be regarded as ‘Work Awaited’ on the copyright office’s website.

A mandatory waiting period of 30 days is applicable from the date of application’s receipt. The application is examined carefully to ensure it meets the statutory as well as other registration requirements. The registrar will hold an inquiry and give an opportunity to be heard before rejecting the application if there is any objection or issues with the particulars mentioned in the application.

Once the registrar is satisfied with the application’s particulars, he will make an entry in the register of copyrights and sign and issue a copy of the same. The copy of the entry will be sent to the applicant. 

Patent

A patent is another popular form of IPR and is granted for any device, substance, method or process that is new, inventive and useful. It allows the patentee to prevent others from using their invention for commercial purposes for up to 20 years. 

The patentee gets the exclusive right to produce or sell their invention. The patentee can also trade his patent, meaning they can sell it or license the use of their invention. For example, if a pharmaceutical company gets a drug patent for their new drug or medicine, then another pharmaceutical company cannot bring the patented drug or medicine to the market unless the patentee has given it the license to do so.

The Patents Act grants each inventor with a registered patent with certain rights such as:

• With respect to a patent for a product, the patentee gets the right to prevent third parties from using, selling, making and importing the product without the patentee’s prior consent.
• With respect to a process for which a patent is obtained, the patentee is granted the right to prevent third parties from using, selling or offering a product obtained from that process without the patentee’s prior consent.

India is a signatory to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which allows an applicant to file an international patent registration’s application. Once the application has been filed, the inventor or creator gets patent protection in multiple countries which are PCT members. However, it is important to note that once the patent expires i.e., after 20 years, the invention becomes common property and can be used by anyone freely.

How is Patent Registration done in India?

The patents are registered in India with the Indian Patent Office. Few steps are involved in this. The first step in this process is to conduct a worldwide patent search to determine the uniqueness of your invention. You should do this step before you apply for patent registration, since if it is found that your invention isn’t unique in nature and a patent already exists for similar invention, your patent application will be rejected by the Indian Patent Office.

You are required to draft a patent specification for your invention, which is written in technical and legal language and may or may not include your claims. If the claims are not included, it will be considered a provisional specification. However, if the claims are included, it’ll be considered a complete specification.

As prescribed in schedule I, a patent application can be filed with the Indian Patent Office either with provisional specification or with complete specification along with fee. This means that the patent application can either be provisional or complete. According to the Indian Patent Act, the provisional/complete specification is filed in form 2 and the patent application is filed using form 1. 

If you choose to file a provisional patent specification, you have to apply a complete specification with the claims within 12 months of the initial filing. After you are done with the patent application's process and the Indian Patents office has carefully reviewed your application, the patent will be published in an official journal and then made available to the general public. If there are no objections raised by the public, the patent will be granted. If there are any objections, the registrar can call you for a hearing for resolution. Once all the objections have been addressed and the registrar is satisfied, the patent application will be considered for the patent registration’s grant. 

Conclusion

With the help of three popular forms of intellectual property i.e., trademarks, copyrights and patents, individuals and entities can protect their logo, work, creation or invention. The requirements and applications for all these three forms/types of intellectual property differ from each other. It is essential to know which form of intellectual property you must apply to protect your rights regarding your work, logo, creation or invention. For assistance regarding the same, you can get in touch with Registrationwala. 

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