Introduction

In the modern era, Intellectual property rights plays a significant role on trade of every nation. In this digitized world, there stands a higher risk of creative ideas getting stolen without the consent of the author. The need for strong IP laws gives an overall contribution in the economy of the respective state. IPR is one of the sources of security for intangible properties which are still open to the public and which can be quickly replicated by anyone. IP crimes have become the part and parcel of the digitized era leading to failure of business.

Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property is a generic term that defines intangible assets that are owned by individual person or company contributing to the national as well the state economies. Throughout our economy, thousands of companies rely on adequate protection of their patents, trademarks, and copyrights, while customers make use of IP to ensure that they purchase secure, assured goods.An IP asset seeks to offer the same security protection as any other physical property, leading to its potential to offer the same comparative benefits to businesses. In a web-based world, it has now become much more relevant as it is comparatively simpler than ever to reproduce any specific template, logo, or functionality.

Types of Intellectual Property Rights

  • Copyright – It is the right that protects a tangible form of expression like book, painting etc. It protects the mannerism in which the idea is expressed.
  • Trademark - It refers to the protection of logo or design that an individual or company uses. The distinguished logo or design helps the customers to connect with the brand value and thereby ensure trust on the goods and services.
  • Patent– A patent is used to prohibit the use, selling, by another party for a defined period of time, of original production. In brief, a sovereign authority awards the inventor the IP right after an examination of its viability.

The benefits of IP Rights in modern era

  • Innovative idea a means to earn profit – Ideas do have little to no worth of their own. IP has great untapped potential to turn your innovations into products and services which are commercially viable. The registering of copyright and patent will result in a constant stream of fee and increased income that will boost the overall market result.
  • Export Business Opportunities – The productivity of a company in the export market is also improved by intellectual property. An IP right holder may use these logos or designs to sell products and services in foreign countries and may obtain a franchise arrangement with the overseas corporation, or export the proprietary products.
  • Encourage the ideas by securing them -There will still be people who will attempt to duplicate the concept or development for monetary benefit if anyone has a unique idea or development. It is also necessary to protect the IP properties until any third party is unlawfully infringed. For all forms and sizes of companies, IP security may be implemented. Thus, after evaluating the market needs and situations, a person should determine which Intellectual Property Rights (trademark, copyright or patent registration) should be used to cover various areas of IP.
  • Business Growth – Shielding their exclusive goods or services, which the rivals will use to take away market share, resulting in steady growth and profits, is very important for small scale enterprise. Losing a market share of a sector at the initial level can be dangerous in the long run to its corporate health.

The pandemic and IPR

The open COVID-19 pledge is an effort comprising a community of techies including IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, Hewlett Packard and Sandia National Laboratories. In order to battle Covid-19 during the pandemic, they have vowed free use of their intellectual property (IP). In this acute public health crisis (not to be monetized), aspiring businesses could come forward to take advantage of this access and accelerate the production and implementation of diagnostics, vaccinations, therapeutics, medical equipment and technological solutions. Additional technology firms and education and research institutions joined this growing list.

Political leaders around the world have since formed proposals to expand access to IP rights pertaining to COVID-19. For e.g., the EU is considering buying COVID-19 related rights to set up a pool or fund of publicly owned patents. This is an important step in the IP sector and it is an extraordinary attempt by policymakers to ensure that the battle against the pandemic is not obstructed by patents. Several countries are now considering a compulsory license scheme whereby governments permit a third party to perform or use a certain procedure without the patent owner's consent.

Conclusion

From dawn to dusk, a regular guy comes across intellectual properties. The items have a very wide range and are related to food, shelter and clothing; things of survival, comfort and pleasure. He deals with these assets, including waking up from a Gautier bed, using a supportive Sleepwell mattress and pillows, getting a cup of Taj Mahal Tea, to wearing a Nike track suite and shoes for a morning walk.A Modern Bread or Mother Dairy Milk at tea, or a cup of Nescafe, driving to the office in a Zen car, using a Compaq machine, and coming back in a car. In the evening, watching Sony Television and setting alarm to wake up in the morning in his / her Swatch watch, he uses the items which are somebody's intellectual properties. These properties are protected by a copyright or a right to copying or a trade mark. As the life of a common man is very closely connected with papers and goods that are under human property protected by statute.Without the owner's consent, the copying, duplication, alteration, and illegal duplication of these objects which constitute a serious offence. Therefore, for a common man, knowledge of intellectual property rights is needed.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.