Intellectual property rights refer to exclusive legal rights conferred to the creator or inventor to protect his or their invention. They are intangible in nature but can be safeguarded by the law when used without consent. The main objective of IPR is to reward intellect and uphold the contribution of the creator by giving them the exclusive right to use it.
These are termed to be valuable assets of any business and which makes it vital for it to be protected. These intellectual properties can set you apart from other businesses in a way that customers can distinguish your product easily. It creates a unique selling proposition in a market where customers can distinguish your brand like no other. People may steal your strategies but they cannot steal the style that your brand carries.
In order to protect their intellectual property, one needs to have a clear idea of what exactly it contains.
Need of Protecting Intellectual Property for Business
The most important reason to protect IPR is to give your business a competitive advantage over various similar businesses. It prevents unauthorized use of your intellectual property and makes it exclusive only to your business.
IPR enhances the value of your company and also opens new doors for collaborations and opportunities which might help generate income, such as by entering into licensing agreements to exploit/work the invention/work. IPR helps to attract clients and makes your business easily identifiable, which creates brand value too.
For example: customers start to identify a handbag from a specific brand because of its unique design and registered trademark.
Intellectual Property Laws for Business
The purpose of IP law is to restrict third parties from enjoying the fruits of someone else's creativity, and to encourage inventions that promote the social, economic, scientific, and cultural development of society.
There are various acts that aid in protecting intellectual property rights to incentivise creators and allow them to make economic gains out of their creations. Let's delve deep into understanding the intellectual property required by businesses:
Trademark
A trademark is a symbol that is used to distinguish the goods of one enterprise from its competitors. A trademark may consist of a single letter, logo, symbol, design, or numerals and three-dimensional features such as shape and packaging. A trademark may include the shape of goods, their packaging, and a combination of colors - distinctiveness is the hallmark of a trademark. A business that registers a trademark has the exclusive right to use it for a period of 10 years, after which renewal is required. The legal implications of trademarks are governed by The Trademarks Act, 1999.
Copyright
Any copyright created and registered by a business is known as its IP, and mostly contains literary and artistic works. Copyright is also called a 'literary right' or 'author's right'. It gives its owner two basic and important rights: economic and moral rights. Copyright gives the business an exclusive right to its creation and prevents copying and unauthorized publishing of its work for 60 years. The Copyright Act, 1957 is the governing law relating to copyright in India.
Patent
When a product is created, it may have a unique functioning, method, or process - a novel way of doing something or a solution offered. A patent is granted when an organization or business creates commercial value by innovating something new. Registering it gives the owner the exclusive right to manufacture and produce using the same procedure for 20 years, after which it requires renewal. The Patents Act, 1970 governs patent-related technicalities in detail.
Conclusion
There are other intellectual property elements that protect the rights of creators, but these three - trademark, copyright, and patent - are the most important for a business. They give a face to the brand and are vital to businesses, since registering these forms of intellectual property makes them distinguishable in the market.