Software Patent and Copyright Laws in India
This Midterm Paper investigates the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), primarily Copyrights and Patents in India. The Paper performs a Legal as well as Ethical Analysis of the Indian IPR Laws. It recommends improvements; especially regarding Global Issues related to Software Patents and IPR over the Net by substantiating evidence from the Embassy of India Policy Statements and from a reputed magazine in India, called India Today. The author fully acknowledges citations from all the references.
Intellectual Property Rights in India
There is a well-established statutory, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard intellectual property rights in India, whether they relate to patents, trademarks, copyright or industrial designs. Well-known international trademarks have been protected in India even when they were not registered in India. The Indian Trademarks Law has been extended through court decisions to service marks in addition to trademarks for goods. Computer software companies have successfully curtailed piracy through court orders. Computer databases have been protected. The courts, under the doctrine of breach of confidentiality, accorded an extensive protection of trade secrets. Right to privacy, which is not protected even in some developed countries, has been recognized in India. [1]
Protection of intellectual property rights in India continues to be strengthened further. The year 1999 witnessed the consideration and passage of major legislation with regard to protection of intellectual property rights in harmony with international practices and in compliance with India's obligations under TRIPS.
As regards the aspect enforcement, Indian enforcement agencies are now working very effectively and there has been a notable decline in the levels of piracy in India. In addition to intensifying raids against copyright infringers, the Government has taken a number of measures to strengthen the enforcement of copyright law. Special cells for copyright enforcement have been set up in 23 States and Union Territories. In addition, for collective administration of copyright, copyright societies have been set up for different classes of works.
Copyright Protection in India
India has one of the most modern copyright protection laws in the world. Major development in the area of copyright during 1999 was the amendment to the Copyright Act of 1957 to make it fully compatible with the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. Called the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1999, this amendment was signed by the President of India on December 30, 1999 and came into force on January 15, 2000.
The earlier 1994 amendment to the Copyright Act of 1957 had provided protection to all original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematography, films and sound recordings.
Prior to the enactment of the Statute of Anne in 1710, the idea of copyright law, remained in the private law context, was in hands of profit-making stationers' company who only served to uphold their own interests in printing the materials. The Statute of Anne deeply affected the American law of copyright (Patterson, 1965) marking the beginning of copyright in a public context. Although the Statute itself had handful of loopholes like it only governed the printing of books and did not stipulate any means to identify the author, it was still often referred as the most authoritative legislation document because of its groundbreaking, historical impact on its protection to the natural and property rights of authors. In my essay, the Copyright Ordinance in Hong Kong will be illustrated to show that it succeeded the spirit of Statute of Anne, favoring the vigorous and prospering development creative work in our city. I would also suggest some ways to amend the Law in the modern circumstances where Web 2.0 Communication Tools reinvented the creative industry significantly.
However, despite the strong copyright policy and punishment of the United States Federal Copyright Act, as enforced by police as well as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), piracy still rages on, especially...
Intellectual property is an incredibly complicated facet of the law. In the United States, we have many laws in place to control and limit profiting from others intellectual property. The issue is not only profiting from others intellectual property, but not purchasing the property from the originator as well. We will discuss why it is important to protect this property as well as why it is tremendously difficult to regulate all these safe guards. “Intellectual Property has the shelf life of a banana.” Bill Gates
Victor Rosario Professor Jeff Smith BUL 2241 08/27/2017 The Copyright Term Extension Act The first federal copyright act was The Copyright Act of 1790. Due to The Copyright Act of 1790 mainly focusing on chart, map and book authors protection; it has needed to be altered and added to over time to produce more adequate copyright protections for the many people creating creative works. There have been several expansions to The Copyright Act of 1790 and one of those expansions is The Copyright Term Extension Act that was passed in 1998.
Foster, Sharon E. "Prelude to Compatibility between Human Rights and Intellectual Property." Chicago Journal of International Law 9.1 (2008): 171-211. ProQuest.Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
” Seeing the economic-development tactic that developing countries employ, it is in the developing countries’ best interests to stop them. Under vigorous lobbying by the United States and other developed countries, TRIPS, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, was negotiated in 1994. TRIPS Agreement covers copyright, related rights, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, patents, layout-designs of integrated circuits, and undisclosed information (“Overview of TRIPS”). In order to be a member of the World Trade Organization, a country must agree to the TRIPS Agreement and provide protection to intellectual property in the above areas. The ratification of TRIPS Agreement impacted the present situation of Intellectual Property because this is the agreement that enforced Intellectual Property Protection worldwide with 164 members (“Membership”), and the debate between developing countries and developed countries could only have been prompted because of the global implementation of Intellectual Property Rights Protection. If Intellectual Property Rights were never globally protected by the TRIPS Agreement, developing countries would have continued with imitating and would never have argued
“Copyright is a fundamental right of ownership and protection common to all of the arts” (O’Hara & Beard, 2006, p. 8). “It is a form of intellectual Property (IP)” and it gives the owner exclusive rights to the copyright (O’Hara & Beard, 2006, p. 11).
In sum, many of the provisions established in the Copyright Act of 1976 were not contemplated by the drafters of The Copyright Act of 1909. For instance, the policy behind The Copyright Act of 1909 was created to protect the owners of copyrighted material in a time where there was a growing threat of infringement due to technological advancements that allowed infringers to distribute written works and music faster than ever before. Therefore, since the drafters of the Copyright Act of 1909 were extremely focused on providing the utmost protection to authors and composers, it should not come as a surprise that they did not implement the defense of fair use at the time or even think about it for that matter. For the most part, the drafters of the Copyright Act of 1909 felt like certain works needed to be protected and that is why they allowed statutory damages at the election of the copyright holder, and established various criminal and civil penalties for defendants depending on the
Copyright, in its first form, was first introduced in 1710 with a British statute of Anne. Since this time copyright laws have changed to remain current, and have grown into an international agreement by many countries around the globe.
There is a growing problem on the Internet with people infringing on the intellectual property rights of their rightful owners. The copying of such property goes back some time, starting in the 1500’s, and has continued until today. Lots of people do not care about rules on the Internet, doing whatever they wish to do, or they just do not care. There are numerous solutions to this problem; some of them involving increased monitoring of the Internet. The illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted materials on the Internet should be more closely monitored and punished by the government, ensuring that the intellectual property rights of their owners are not violated.
The World Intellectual Property Organization, Intellectual property is the ‘products of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, any symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce’. Intellectual Properties such as Patents, designs, trademarks and copyrights are protected by laws .The US government offers different types of protection for these properties. The Lanham Act (15 U.S.C.A. section 1051 et seq) also known as the trademark act of 1946 provides protection for trademarks. A trademark is defined as a name, a word, a symbol, or device or any combination thereof, adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify his goods and distinguish them from those manufactured and sold by others. (Miaoulis 1978)
Because of its intangible nature, and particularly the increase of the digital domain and the internet as a whole, computers and cyber piracy make it easier for people to steal many forms of intellectual property. Due to this major threat, intellectual property rights owners’ should take every single measure to protect their rights. Unless these rights are either sold, exchanged, transferred, or appropriately licensed for use in exchange for a monetary fee, they should be protected at all cost. In order to protect these rights, the federal and states governments have passed numerous laws and statutes to protect intellectual property from misappropriation and infringement. “The source of federal copyright and patent law originates with the Copyright and Patent ...
There are many reason that why is it important to protect one’s intellectual property. Some of the reason are Creator being accused as a theft, Loss of Reputation, Loss of income, Loss of Asset and Loss of Authority Rights.
In its simplest terms, copyright is the U.S. government’s way of protecting the rights of anyone creating an original work, such as a play, song, poem, book, or artwork. Only the work’s original author or creator can make copies, distribute, sell, perform or adapt that work. Originally passed into law 35 years ago, the Copyright Act of 1976 has undergone many changes in the wake of advancing technology, including such changes as categorizing any work on the Internet as “published” (Copyright Act of 1976). Of
Copyright is a protection for authors, composers or artists and other creators who create innovative idea base work. Copyright law is important because of its role to protect the interests of the creator, while allowing others to gain access to it legally. It designed to make sure that creators receive appropriate rights for their own ideas and creativity, and to promote artistic creativity by protecting the creator.