India has sufficient legal protection for intellectual property rights.
The
enactments have shown to be effective in governing and administering
intellectual property that is born in India. But what about the worldwide
status of our Registered IPs? Imagine how challenging it would become
to convey to the world that a new IP has emerged. Through what medium
will the registered proprietor of an IP approach another country in order to
get his IP registered there and protect his rights?
Here is where the International Conventions and Treaties make it easier to
facilitate and oversee intellectual property all around the world. The
primary goals of these conventions and treaties are to promote the
protection of Intellectual property rights and regulated matters relating to
intellectual property in all of the parties’ participating nations. These
Conventions and treaties create a global platform for all its member
countries who are looking forward to developing the Intellectual Property
sector.
There are various types of conventions and treaties that govern
Copyrights and industrial property and to name the important ones: WIPO
Convention, Berne Convention, Paris Convention, TRIPS Agreement, WIPO
Copyright Treaty, etc.,
WIPO CONVENTION
The World Intellectual Property Organization is an agency within the
United Nations dedicated to promoting intellectual property rights
throughout the globe. WIPO was established in 1970 after being ratified in
Stockholm in 1967[1]. The adoption of the Paris and Berne Convention
has formed WIPO. WIPO is committed to fostering creativity and
innovation by guaranteeing that the rights of creators and owners of
intellectual property are safeguarded globally and that the authors and
inventors are recognized and rewarded for their novelty.
WIPO has mainly two objectives:
i) Promote the protection of Intellectual Property Rights throughout
the world through coordination among States and where appropriate, in
collaboration with any other international organization.
ii) To ensure administrative cooperation among the intellectual
property Unions established by the treaties that WIPO administers, such
as Paris Union, Berne Union, etc.[2]
There are various functions that WIPO has to undergo in order to attain its
said objectives:
i) Normative Activities: This activity involves setting norms and
standards for the protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property
Rights.
ii) Programme Activities: This activity involves legal and technical
assistance to its member countries in the field of Intellectual Property.
iii) International classification and standardization activities: This
activity involves cooperation among industrial property offices concerning
Patent, Trademark, and Industrial design documentation.
iv) Registration and filing activities: This activity involves services
related to international applications regarding patents for inventions and
for the registration of marks and industrial design.[3]
All such above functions are undergone by WIPO in order to safeguard the
concept of IPR in its member countries. WIPO facilitates the process of
reciprocation among its member countries, but it is essential to determine
what makes a country part of WIPO. A country is considered to be a part
of WIPO if,
a) It is a member of the United Nations; or
b) It is a party to the Statute of the International Court of Justice; or
c) It has been invited by the General Assembly of WIPO; or
d) It has applied to be a part of WIPO;
BERNE CONVENTION:
The Berne Convention revolves around the protection of Literary and
Artistic works. Berne Convention is supposed to be the oldest treaty on
Copyright. This convention was adopted on September 9, 1886, at Berne
and came into force on 04th December 1887. [4]Berne convention
mandates its member states to protect the economic such as the Right of
Reproduction, distribution, communication to the public, etc., and moral
rights such as the Right to claim authorship, objection, etc., of the Authors
over their Literary or Artistic work.
The Convention, which was revised several times in order to cope with the
challenges posed by the technology, rests on 2 basic principles:
i) National Treatment: The convention focuses on ensuring that each
member state provides equal protection to the all-other member
countries as it would provide to its own nationals without any
discrimination.
ii) Automatic Protection: It is a known fact that Copyright does not
require registration in order to avail protection. As soon as a work, original
in its nature, comes into existence, the author of such work will have a
copyright over it. Berne Convention relies on the concept of automatic
protection and allows the protection and enjoyment of copyright at the
international level with any formality of registration.
PARIS CONVENTION
Paris Convention is the first-ever agreement that deals with the protection
of all Industrial Property such as Patents, Trademarks, Industrial Design,
Utility models, Trade Secrets, etc., This convention, which is administered
by the World Intellectual property organization, was adopted in 1883.
The Paris Convention promises three important elements to each of its
member countries in order to fulfill its goal which is-
a) National Treatment: It says that one nation has to provide the same
and equal kind of protection to the other member nationals.
b) Right of priority: It says that if an applicant files an application for
the registration of any industrial property, as the case may be, he can
within the stipulated time apply for protection of such industrial property
in any other contracting States and such application will then be
registered as of the first date of application.
TRIPS AGREEMENT
The World Trade Organisation and World Intellectual Property
Organisation members developed a Trade Related Intellectual Property
System (TRIPS) with minimal requirements established to be observed by
all the contracting Countries. The most extensive international agreement
on intellectual property as of today is the TRIPS Agreement, which headed
into implementation on January 1, 1995. The World Trade Organisation,
which administers the Agreement, brought Intellectual Property Law to
the international trade system. The Agreement also grants its member
countries exemptions, advantages, favors, and privileges in the area of
Intellectual Property.
The TRIPS Agreement entails enforcement procedures, Remedies, and
Dispute Resolution Procedures. The process for resolving any disputes
that may develop between the member nations is akin to the World Trade
Organization's dispute settlement system. The Agreement intends to
resolve the dispute arising over the Intellectual Property among the
contracting countries and amicably settle them.
The TRIPS Agreement focuses on shielding Intellectual Property Rights
i.e., Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents, Industrial Design, Trade Secrets,
Geographical indications, and Layout Designs for integrated circuits. The
main aim of this Agreement is to maintain a fine balance between the
welfare of Intellectual Property and economic development. Further, the
Agreement looks after protecting and promoting Intellectual Property for
technological novelty and growth.
WIPO COPYRIGHT TREATY
The WIPO Copyright treaty was adopted at the WIPO Diplomatic
Conference in order to meet the gap which happened to remain post the
TRIPS Agreement came into force. The TRIPS Agreement has lacked in
ascertaining the challenges contained in new technologies. The
Agreement did not provide for the protection of- i) Computer Programmes
(regardless of the mode of expression), ii) Intellectual creations born out
of Database or data Compilation.
Because of the reasons mentioned prior, it was necessary to bring into
force the WIPO Copyright Treaty which suggests three exclusive rights of
authors-
a) Right of distribution;
b) Right of rental;
c) Right of Communication to the public.
The WIPO Copyright Treaty obligates its members to provide legal
remedies against the avoidance of technological fraud/error and/or
measures.
CONCLUSION
The sector of intellectual property is expanding dramatically. The need to
simultaneously protect and enforce intellectual property rights has been
recognized worldwide. To make the science of intellectual property as
transparent as science itself, several international institutions have been
working extremely hard to drill deeper into the intellectual property crust.
With the aid of conventions and treaties, a new platform has been created
for the globe to come together and address IPR-related issues by
establishing norms and ideologies.
REFERENCES
1. [Link]
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4. [Link]
5. [Link]
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7. [Link]
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