Copyrights:
Copyright (or author's right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that
creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright
range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs,
databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.
Common Law rights and Rights under the 1976 copyright Act
The right to create derivative works of the original work, the right to distribute
copies and phono-records of the work to the public by sale, lease, or rental, the
right to perform the work publicly (if the work is a literary, musical, dramatic,
choreographic, pantomime, motion picture, or other audio-visual work)
Copyright is a right given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical
and artistic works and producers of cinematograph films and sound recordings.
In fact, it is a bundle of rights including, inter alia, rights of reproduction,
communication to the public, adaptation and translation of the work.
Under article 297 of the Constitution, all lands, minerals and other things of
value underlying the ocean within the territorial waters or the continental shelf
of India vest in the Union to be held for the purposes of the Union.
Common law copyright is the legal doctrine that grants copyright protection
based on common law of various jurisdictions, rather than through protection of
statutory law.
Recent Developments:
On 30 March 2021, the Copyright (Amendment) Rules, 2021 was brought into
effect with the primary objective of bringing the existing rules in parity with
other relevant legislations and ensuring accountability and transparency
This amendment made several critical changes to Indian law, including ensuring
that authors of works (especially songs and screenplays) are entitled to royalty
payments and can't assign their rights in perpetuity.
The Copyright Office administers the national copyright system and provides
advice on copyright law to congress, federal agencies, the courts and the public.
Patent Law:
Patent law is a legal framework that gives inventors exclusive rights to their
inventions. It's a specialized area of intellectual property law.
Patent law is a specialized field of law within the broader scope of intellectual
property law. It is a unique legal framework designed to provide exclusive
rights to inventors for their novel, new and useful process, or non-obvious
inventions.
Here are some things to know about patent law:
What a patent is
A patent is a legal document that gives an inventor the right to protect their
invention from being made, used, imported, or sold without their permission.
How to get a patent
To get a patent, an inventor must file a formal application and disclose the
technical details of their invention to the public. The invention must be new,
useful, and non-obvious.
How long a patent lasts
The length of a patent varies by country, but it's typically around 20 years.
Why patents are important
Patents encourage companies and individuals to develop new products and
services without worrying about infringement. They also protect a company's
intellectual property and profitability.
Patent infringement
In some countries, there can be liability for contributory infringement and
inducement to infringement.
Under federal law, patent rights grant the inventor exclusive rights to their
invention for a limited period of time:
Right to prevent others from using the invention
The patent owner can stop others from making, using, selling, or importing the
invention without their permission.
Exclusive rights
The patent owner has the right to decide who can exploit the invention.
Monopoly rights
The patent owner has the right to prevent others from commercially exploiting
the invention.
Exclusivity period
The patent owner has these rights for a limited period, usually 20 years from
the filing date of the patent application.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal agency
that issues patents, examines patent applications, and maintains a database of
issued patents.
The rights granted under patent law differ from those granted under copyright
law. For example, under patent law, it doesn't matter if the infringer
independently developed the same invention.
After a patent has been issued, the owner has the power to enforce the patent.
Most patent owners start by negotiating with the infringer because enforcing a
patent is a long, expensive procedure.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is a government
agency that protects new ideas and investments in innovation:
Patents
The USPTO grants patents to protect inventions. The three main types of
patents are utility, design, and plant patents.
Trademarks
The USPTO registers trademarks and service marks for products and
services. The most common symbols used for trademarks in the United States
are:
™: For an unregistered trademark
SM: For an unregistered service mark
®: For a registered trademark or service mark
Patentability is the process of determining if an invention is eligible for a
patent. To be patentable, an invention must meet certain criteria, including:
Novelty: The invention must not have been made public before the application
date.
Inventive step: The invention must be an inventive solution that is not obvious
to a manufacturer.
Industrial applicability: The invention must be possible to manufacture.
Useful: The invention must have a useful purpose, such as being made or used
in an industrial application.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) evaluates the novelty,
utility, and non-obviousness of each application filed.
Patents grant the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the
protected product or method. Patenting is important to the pharmaceutical
industry and drug discovery process.
Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is
patentable if it meets the relevant legal conditions to be granted a patent. By
extension, patentability also refers to the substantive conditions that must be
met for a patent to be held valid.
The three main types of patents are:
Utility patent: Covers new and useful inventions or improvements to machines,
processes, compositions of matter, or manufactures
Design patent: Protects the unique visual design of an item
Plant patent: Granted for new and distinct plant varieties that are asexually
reproduced
Each type of patent has its own eligibility requirements and protects a specific
type of invention, discovery, or useful process. However, it's possible for one
invention to have more than one type of patent. For example, if you invent an
object with both functional features and a unique design, you'll need to apply for
both a utility patent and a design patent.
To be issued a patent, an invention must meet four conditions:
It must be able to be used
There must be a clear description of how to make and use the invention
It must be new, or "novel"
It must not be "obvious" as related to a change to something already invented
Double patenting is when the same applicant is granted two patents for the same
invention in the same or multiple countries. It's a procedural law principle that's
accepted in most patent systems.
Double patenting can occur when:
A published patent application and another application share a common
inventor, applicant, owner, or assignee
Two applications are filed on the same day
An application and its priority application are filed
A parent and divisional application are filed
If an inventor receives two patents for the same invention, at least one of the
patents will be invalid.
In the US, examiners can reject pending patent applications for double
patenting. An issued patent claim that is affected by double patenting is also
invalid.
Double patenting may exist where a published patent application and an
application share the same inventive entity, at least one common (joint)
inventor, a common applicant, and/or a common owner/assignee.
