IPR Law:

means intellectual property law and this intellectual property law deals with the rules for securing and enforcing legal rights to inventions, designs, and artistic works. Just as the law protects ownership of personal property and real estate, so too does it protect the exclusive control of intangible assets. The purpose of these laws is to give an incentive for people to develop creative works that benefit society, by ensuring they can profit from their works without fear of misappropriation by others and thisIntellectual property is the product of the human intellect including creativity concepts, inventions, industrial models, trademarks, songs, literature, symbols, names, brands,....etc. Intellectual Property Rights do not differ from other property rights. They allow their owner to completely benefit from his/her product which was initially an idea that developed and crystallized. They also entitle him/her to prevent others from using, dealing or tampering with his/her product without prior permission from him/her. He/she can in fact legally sue them and force them to stop and compensate for any damages.Intellectual property is divided into two categories: Industrial Property includes patents for inventions, trademarks, industrial designs, and geographical indications. Copyright covers literary works (such as novels, poems, and plays), films, music, artistic works (e.g., drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculptures) and architectural design. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and broadcasters in their radio and television program.

Types of Intellectual Property Rights

There are four types of intellectual property include:
1.Trade Secrets
2.Trademarks
3.Copyrights, and
4.Patents.
The first type of intellectual property right is a trade secret.

Trade secrets concern secret or proprietary information of commercial value. These are not covered by specific statutory provisions as other types of IP are, although there could be aspects of contract law or employment law that might be relevant in a particular case.The level of protection conferred to trade secrets varies significantly from country to country. The notion of a secret is mentioned in the Commission Regulation No 772/2004 as being"not generally known or easily accessible". Indeed, trade secret represents an interest for its holder, which is often a competitive advantage.Trade secrets do not receive any protection from intellectual property rights, even though a doctrinal discussion exists on this issue and some authors consider trade secrets themselves as an IP right.

In any case, they could fall under the scope of protection of civil law and unfair competition law. In addition, some countries also provide penal sanctions for persons who fraudulently disclose an industrial secret.

(2) Trademark:

A trademark is a signby which a business identifies its products or services and distinguishes them from those supplied by competitors. It can be distinctive words, marks or other features. Its purpose is to establish in the mind of the customer a link between all the different products and/or services that the company offers and then distinguish them from those supplied by competitors.

A trademark may consist of any signs capable of being represented graphically, particularly words, including personal names, logos, letters, numerals, the shape of goods or of their packaging, provided that such signs are capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings.

(3) Copyright:

Copyright is a legal term describing rights given to creators for their original literary, musical or artistic works which allow them to control their subsequent use. These include for example:
# computer software
# drawings, maps, charts or plans
# photographs and films
# architectural works
# sculptures
# sound recordings
# TV and radio broadcasts

Copyright protection has two components:

# Moral rights, which are not transferable and give the creator the right to be identified as the author of the work and the right to object to any distortion or mutilation of the work.
# Economic rights, which entitle the owner to control the use of its creation in a number of ways (making copies, issuing copies to the public, performing in public, broadcasting, etc)and to obtain an appropriate economic reward.

(4) Patent:

A patent is a title which provides its owner the right to prevent others from exploiting the invention mentioned in the patent. It does not allow by itself making or selling an invention but it rather givesthe right to exclude others from making, using, selling or importingthe patented invention.
This monopoly is granted for a specific field, in a defined country and for a maximum of 20 years in return for the full disclosure of the invention with the publication of its technical details.

Hence patent consists of a deal between inventors and society:

# for the inventor - a patent is the way to prevent competitorsfrom copying its invention
# for society - a patent consists on improving the innovation process by the public disclosure of innovations. In return investment is encouraged by the delivery of exclusivity right and the derived benefits.

Difference Between These Types of IPR:

Patents

A patent is a set of exclusive rights that a sovereign state grants an inventor or their assignee in exchange for public disclosure of their inventions. Patents are issued for certain lengths of time that depend on national laws. To receive a patent, an inventor needs to file a claim that meets the minimum requirements of patentability. These requirements often include novelty (originality) and non-obviousness. Once a patent is granted, it prevents others from using, selling, manufacturing or distributing the invention without express permission.

Copyright

A copyright grants the right to copy a work of intellectual property. It also assigns credit for the IP. Though copyrights were originally conceived as a way for the government to restrict printing, they have since become a means of protecting authors’ rights to profit from their creative endeavors. In addition to written works, copyrights can be assigned to other forms of IP including songs, films, and works of art. Copyrights are issued for a finite amount of time, usually between 50 and 100 years from the time of the author’s death.

Some of the exclusive rights that a copyright affords an author include the right to display the work publicly, transmit or display the work by radio or video, to produce and sell copies of the work and create derivative works for the original.

Trademark

A trademark is a distinctive sign or the symbol used by a business organization, individual or other established legal the entity that is used to differentiate that entity’s products and services from others. Trademarks are typically a word, phrase, design or symbol. Trademarks therefore serve as a badge of origin for a brand in order to communicate that origin to consumers.

Trade Secret

A trade secret is a design, formula, process or other pieces of intellectual property that are not known to the general public, which provides an economic advantage over competitors. Businesses can take steps to protect their trade secrets including requiring employees to sign nondisclosure agreements or contracts with non-compete clauses.

Procedure For Registration:

Step 1: Write down the invention (idea or concept) with as many details as possible

Collect all the information about your invention such as:
Area of invention
Description of the invention what it does
How does it work
Advantages of the invention
.

Step 2: include drawings, diagrams or sketches explaining the working of the invention

The drawings and diagrams should be designed so as to explain the working of the invention in a better way with visual illustrations. They play an important role in the patent application.

Step 3: check whether the invention is patentable subject matter

All inventions may not be patentable, as per the Indian patent act there are certain inventions that are not patentable explained in detail in (inventions not patentable)

Step 4a: Patentability search

The next step would be finding out whether the invention meets all patentability criteria as per Indian patent act? That is,
# Novelty
# Non-obviousness
# Industrial application
# Enabling

Step 4b: Decide whether to go ahead with patent

The patentability report and opinion helps us to decide whether to go ahead with the patent or not, chances are what you thought as a novel might already been patented or know to the public in some form of information. Hence this reports saves lots of time, efforts and cost of the inventor by helping him decide whether to go ahead with the patent filing process or not.

Step 5: Draft (write) patent application

In case we are at a very early stage in the research and development for our invention, then we can go for aprovisional application. It gives the following benefits:
# Secures filing date
# 12 months of time to file complete specification
# Low cost
After filing provisional application, we secure the filing date which is very crucial in patent world. We get 12 months of time to come up with the complete specification, upon expiry of 12 months, our patent application will be abandoned.

When we complete the required documents and our research work is at a level where we can have prototype and experimental results to prove our inventive step then we can file complete specification with the patent application.

Filing the provisional specification is the optional step, if we are at the stage where we have complete information about your invention then we can directly go for complete specification.

Step 6: Publication of the application

Upon filing the complete specification along with the application for patent, the application is published after 18 months of first filing.
An early publication request can be made along with prescribed fees if we do not wish to wait till the expiry of 18 months from the date of filing for publishing our patent application.
Generally, the patent application is published within a month form request form early publication.

Step 7: Request for examination

The patent application is examined only after receiving a request for the examination that is RFE.Upon receiving this request the controller gives your patent application to a patent examiner who examines the patent application with different patentability criteria like:
# Patentable subject matter
# Novelty
# Non-obviousness
# Inventive step
# Industrial application
# Enabling
The examiner creates a first examination report of the patent application upon reviewing it for above terms.This is called patent prosecution. Everything happening to patent application before grant of patent is generally called as patent prosecution.

The first examination report submitted to the controller by examiner generally contains prior arts (existing documents before the date of filing) which are similar to the claimed the invention, and the same is reported to the patent applicant.

Step 8: Respond to Objections

Majority of patent applicants will receive some type of objections based on the examination report. The best thing to do it analyze the examination report with the patent professional (patent agent) and creating a response to the objections raised in the examination report.

This is a chance for an inventor to communicate his novelty over prior arts found in the examination report. The inventor and patent agent create and send a response to the examination that tries to prove to the controller that his invention is indeed patentable and satisfies all patentability criteria’s.

Step 9: Clearing all objections

This communication between controller and patent applicant is to ensure that all objections raised in the patent application are resolved. (if not the patent will not be granted ) and the inventor has his fair chance to prove his point and establish novelty and inventive step over existing prior arts.
Upon finding the patent application in order of grant, it is granted to the patent applicant as early as possible.

Step 10: Grant of Patent

The application would be placed in order for a grant once it is found to be meeting all patentability requirements. The grant of patent is notified in the patent journal which is published time to time.

Trade Mark:

# Trademark Registration Process
# TrademarkSearch

Before beginning the trademark registration process, the entrepreneur or a trademark professional must conduct a trademark search of the trademark database. A trademark search will provide information about an identical or similar trademark that has already been filed with the trademark registry.

Trademark Filing Trademark registration can be obtained for words, logo, numerals, slogan, device and more in India. Trademark registration provides the legal right of exclusivity for use of the mark to the owner of the trademark. Trademark registration is, however, a long process involving multiple steps. In this article, we cover the trademark registration process in India.Once a trademark search is completed, the application for trademark registration can be filed with the Trademark Registrar. The application for registration of the trademark must be made in the prescribed manner and filed along with the fee for trademark registration.

A Trademark Registration application must contain the following information:

# Logo or the Trademark
# Name and address of the trademark owner
# Classification orTrademark Class
# Trademark used since the date
# Description of the goods or services

Trademark Application Allotment

Once the Trademark registration application is filed with the Trademark Registrar, a trademark application allotment number is provided within one or two working days.

Vienna Codification

The Vienna Classification or Vienna Codification, established by the Vienna Agreement (1973), is an international classification of the figurative elements of marks. Once the trademark registration application is filed, the Trademark Registrar will apply theVienna Classification to the trademarkbased on thefigurative elements of marks. While this work is in progress, the trademark application status usually reflects as “Sent for Vienna Codification”.

Trademark Examination

Once Vienna Codification is completed, the trademark registration application will be allotted to a Trademark Officer in the Trademark Registrar Office. The Trademark Officer would then review the trademark application for the correctness and issue a trademark examination report. The Trademark Officer has the ability to accept the trademark registration application and allow for trademark journal publicationor object the trademark registration application. If the trademark registration application is objected by the Trademark Office, the trademark applicant has the right to appear before the Trademark Officer and address the objections. If the Trademark Officer is satisfied with the justifications of the trademark applicant, the trademark would be allowed for trademark journal publication. In case the Trademark Officer is not satisfied with the justifications, the trademark applicant has the right to appeal the decision of the Trademark Officer before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board.

Trademark Journal Publication

Once the trademark registration application is accepted by the Trademark Registrar, the proposed trademark is published in the Trademark Journal. The trademark journal is published weekly and contains all the trademarks that have been accepted by the Trademark Registrar. Once the trademark is published in the trademark journal, the public has an opportunity to object the trademarkregistration, if they believe they will be damaged by that registration. If there are no objections filed within 90 days of that publication, the mark will typically be registered within 12 weeks – months time. If the trademark registration application is opposed by a third-party, hearing will be called for by the Trademark Hearing Officer. Both the trademark applicant and the opposing party have the chance to appear at the hearing and provide justifications for registration or rejection of the trademark application. Based on the hearings and the evidence presented, the Trademark Hearing Officer will determine if the trademark registration application should be accepted or rejected. The decision of the Trademark Hearing Officer can also be challenged by escalating to theIntellectual Property Appellate Board.

Trademark Registration

Once there are no objections or oppositions for the trademark registration application, the trademark manuscript and trademark registration certificate will be prepared and sent to the trademark application. Once the trademark registration certificate is issued, the trademark is considered to be a registered trademark of the owner, granting the trademark owner exclusive use of the mark. The® symbol can now be placed next to the logo or trademark.

Copyright:

The procedure for registration is as follows:

Application for registration is to be made on as prescribed in the first schedule to the Rules;
Separate applications should be made for registration of each work;
Each application should be accompanied by the requisite fee prescribed in the second schedule to the Rules;
The applications should be signed by the applicant or the advocate in whose favor a Vakalatnama or Power of Attorney has been executed. The Power of Attorney signed by the party and accepted by the advocate should also be enclosed.

Time for Processing Application

After you file your application and receive diary number you have to wait for a mandatory period of 30 days so that no objection is filed in the Copyright office against your claim that particular work is created by you.