Intellectual Property is the kind of property that includes intangible
construction of the human mind or we can say ideas that have some monetary
value. The constitutional rights of intellectual property are called
Intellectual property rights and it's defined under intellectual property law.
These laws are identified and respected by more than 150 countries worldwide.
The sole purpose behind intellectual property law is to maintain the safety of
the Original ideas and creation and keeping safe them from duplicacy. To protect
the rights of the owner, creators, thinkers. Ideas, creations also have a
monetary value so they also can sell in the market as a car or property. As it
can be bought or sold like any other physical property that's why word property
is being used.
Intellectual property law deals with the rules for securing and enforcing legal
rights of the creator, owner of inventions, writing, Music, Designs, and other
work which all are included in intellectual property. 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.
There are 7 types of intellectual Property rights
- Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right
to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited
period of years in exchange for publishing an enabling public disclosure of the
invention. A patent provides the owner a legal standpoint in front of others
from making, using, selling, piracy the use of the idea. The term of the patent
is usually 20 years from the filing date and is based on the payment of
maintenance fees. It's difficult to file a patent in your name, as there will
always be a thirst party or can say opposition who will be ready to appeal that
the idea is already taken or used. The patent is mostly used for inventions made
by the owner.
- Copyrights
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive
right to make copies of a creative job, usually for a limited time. The creative
work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form.it is used to
secure the original idea in the form of creative work done by the person.
Copyright authority is shared among several individuals, each of whom holds the
right to use the license work. The duration of copyright expires after 50-100
years based on different jurisdictions of different countries. If a person uses
a certain product that is being copyrighted without taking permission from the
owner, the person needs to pay some amount to get the product still being used,
or otherwise, the product can be banned.
- Trademarks
A trademark is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable
sign, design, or expression which identifies products or services of a
particular source from those of others, although trademarks used to identify
services are usually called service marks. The owner of a Trademark can be an
individual, a business organization, or a legal entity (company).it can be
placed on products, packages, labels, vouchers, gift items as well as on the
building of the company. The owner of the trademark can have legal action
against the infringement of the Trademark.
- Industrial Design Rights
An industrial design right is an intellectual property right that protects the
visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. Industrial designs
include the creation of the shape, composition, or configuration of pattern
color in the 3D form including aesthetic value. The applicant or holder can file
for a single international deposit with WIPO or with the national office in the
country. The design will be safe in member countries of the treaty as desired.
The design rights have a duration of 15-50 years depending on the jurisdiction
of the country. WIPO already have published maximum term for protection of the
designed rights.
- Trade Secrets
A trade secret is the type of intellectual property that includes practice,
formula instruments, patterns, or compilations of information that have inherent
economic value because they are not generally known or readily ascertainable by
others, and which the owner takes reasonable measures to keep secret. In some
country jurisdictions, such secrets are called confidential information. They
are an important component of a company that is invisible. Their contribution to
a company is measured as its market capitalization which can be major. For
example- Coca Cola refused to reveal its secret recipe or can say secret trade
in front of two judges order.
- Trade Dress
Trade Dress is the intellectual property in which it describes the
characteristics of the visual appearance of the product or its packaging or the
design of the building that signifies the source to the end-user consumer.
Getting the Trade The dress can be difficult as Applicant needs to prove that
the design he owns has a secondary meaning to the consumer and is limited by
functionality doctrine. To gain protection from the law the trade dress should
not be in function at or before the time of applying for the same.
- Plant Varieties
It is also known as Plant breeder rights. These are the rights granted to the
breeder of the new variety of a plant which gives the breeder exclusive control
over the propagation material and harvesting material which includes seeds,
cutting tissue culture cut flower, etc. of a new variety of plant for few years.
The breeder also can become the exclusive marketer of the plant, but for this,
the breeder needs to give the plant for examination, seeds will be submitted to
the plant variety office, who will grow to check the stability of the plant. If
the test is passed the exclusive rights will be granted to the breeder for 20-25
years will annual maintenance fees will be paid by the breeder.
Importance of Intellectual property in the life of an engineer
Intellectual property is very important for engineers. Being the technical rich
branch, there are lots of innovation and invention take place in an engineering
institute of the country and to protect their knowledge and product knowledge of
intellectual property law is necessary. Knowledge of the rights and laws nor
only protect the knowledge and product of engineer but the licensing also help
them to reach the larger interest of the society as they have to publish about
the intellectual property to get legal rights. It also promotes people to bring
new ideas in front of society. It not only creates or brings new opportunities
to the engineers, it also brings a source to earn money.
"A small idea can change the full life of a person"
To understand intellectual property rights and laws you don't need a legal
degree or have in-depth knowledge of law you just need strong technical
background and you already have it being an engineering student. There is so
much of a lack of understanding of intellectual Property law because this
subject is not introduced in the graduation as well as post-graduation of many
countries. The entire professional like engineers, chemists, doctors,
researchers, breeders should know the subject. In all these professions as you
will go to a higher level you will surely need to study about the subject one
day. It will be better if it is included in the graduation or post-graduation
degrees only so that new and opportunities will arise for the students
The usefulness of Intellectual property rights for the engineers
- Knowledge of Intellectual Property adds monetary value to your work:
Many engineers have a great mind and from that great mind it comes great
ideas of innovation and invention of different products, services, and
technologies but due to lack of knowledge either someone else takes the
credit or it remains published in a small section of some newspaper or
project report which no one ever read and the hard work goes in vain. But
knowledge of rights will help the engineers to exploit their ideas and
innovation commercially and convert them into the monetary property
- Knowledge of Intellectual Property enables you to improve the quality
of your work:
Knowledge is like ocean take as much as a bucket of water with you still the
ocean remains the same, same way it's with knowledge, there may be many
things of which you have a piece of knowledge about but there are many more
things for which you don't know yet. So the database of patents is a huge
knowledge which you can assemble for free. Knowledge worth millions is there
for you for free. With that knowledge, you can create something creative or
innovate something new. You can harness the power of intellect to enable the
creation of your mind.
- Knowledge of Intellectual Property empowers you to take your own
decisions:
Knowledge is the power and power that can lead you to from nowhere to your dream
location or dream life. Intellectual property empowers you to become a job
creator than a job seeker. it opens up various tremendous opportunities for
entrepreneurship and It gives you easy access to venture capital funding
compared to those who don't know about intellectual property.
- Knowledge of Intellectual Property opens up a world of new career
opportunities for you:
Careers in the field of intellectual property are highly paid and can give your
career a boost and make your dream life real. They open a new world together a
world you never thought existed. Patent agents, patent attorneys, patent
litigation experts, patent analysts, technology transfer professionals,
licensing specialists, etc. are some of the new careers for engineering
professionals in which there is always a shortage of the right people. As only a
few people knew about intellectual property rights and laws there is highly
shortage of staff in these jobs and they are highly paid government jobs too.
- Knowledge of Intellectual Property has special value for qualified
engineers in terms of consultancy promotion:
For engineer professionals, knowledge of Intellectual Property opens a whole lot
of opportunities. It also opens new tremendous opportunities in technical
consultancy. You can sell your knowledge and earn a huge amount of monetary
benefits. You get the knowledge to help the industry, to troubleshoot and solve
problems of the companies, and being from a technical background and your
knowledge of Intellectual Property helps in the expansion of the company.
Knowledge of Intellectual Property gives you the path to enable rare technical
knowledge hidden in patents, which can give your career a great boost and
increase your income.
As an engineer you must have certain ideas to enhance the functioning of a
machine, change in technology, altering the production process can drastically
affect the price.
It can lead to significant global technology and change the future of the
product, making the product global competitive and earn foreign value from being
a small company to a large MNC. Hence engineers and engineering students need to
know the immense value of the property and the way to save lots of your ideas
and innovations and the way important they can be in changing the lives of the
person.
To illustrate the importance of intellectual property I would like to give an
example of
jack biscuits.
Jack Biscuits
Naman, an engineer joined '
Biscuit Planet'-a a biscuit manufacturing
company of a special brand Jack Biscuits. The process of manufacturing biscuits
includes the use of heavy machinery. A company thought to expand its business
they went in for purchase more and more imported machines. The machines were
huge giants and consuming lots of electricity and at least 5 people were
required to handle a single machine and transportation and installation charges
were need to be paid extra. The machines cannot be copied as the company had
'Intellectual Property Rights' in form of patents and trade dress over the
machines which they had enforced strictly all over the world.
Naman as an engineer used to spend a lot of time with these machines and he had
seen the problems faced by the company in the manufacturing of these biscuits
and huge manufacturing cost is given and he started thinking. Then one day he
got an idea which can produce the same amount of biscuits effectively and
efficiently.
Excited he talked to his supervisor who also liked his idea very much and he
took the idea to the company's management. The management listed the idea
carefully and patiently and after discussing they thought about the idea is
worth exploring. So they called the patent attorneys who drafted a 'provisional
patent. Naman told their idea and deposited it in the Patent office. Naman idea
was safe and the company agreed to give some percentage of the profit from the
sales to him if his idea got successful.
He worked hard and created a new machine, which produces the same Quality of
Biscuits. His machine was quite innovative which was smaller in size and also
used less electricity and can be operated by only one person. The management was
very happy with Naman As they created biscuits at a much cheaper rate and
enjoyed more profit. Encouraged from the machine company filed patent worldwide.
They sold the patent to different manufactures and earned a huge amount of
money.
Naman's work was appreciated worldwide and also was honored for bringing the
recognition of the technology change. Naman got rich from the royalty earned
from selling machines, from being a small engineer He was known worldwide for
his innovation.\
"
Asimple idea can change the world of Naman can also change the life of yours
too"
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