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Director's Message
June, 2008: There is a very close nexus between Intellectual Property Rights and International Trade and that is one of the reasons that WTO has incorporated Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) as one of the WTO agreement dealing with International Trade Laws. International Trade Center, a catalyst of UNCTAD and WIPO, has jointly published a paper titled "Secrets of Intellectual Property-A Guide for Small and Medium Size Exporters". The said guideline deals with Intellectual Property mistakes commonly made by exporters which sometimes result into tremendous harm to their export market and collapse of their business. Some of such common mistakes are: i) Believing that IP protection is universal and worldwide although these are territorial rights, ii) Not checking whether a Trademark is already registered or is being used by competitors in the export market, iii) Disclosing information too early or without a Confidentiality or Non Discloser Agreement, iv) Infringing the IP rights of others, v) Seeking to license a product in a market where the patent or design is not protected or the IP laws are not strictly enforceable. It is therefore advisable for an exporter to consult an IP consultant before entering into export business.
The words of caution for Technology based companies are, "Patent Sharks". Patent sharks are entities which intentionally attack the companies who inadvertently infringe on the sharks' IP rights and derive undue profit from them. These sharks have hidden intellectual property rights which is divulged only when a company unknowingly infringes on the sharks' right. Just like parasites these sharks suck money out of the company by suing them for infringement of their hidden intellectual property rights. Notwithstanding these morally unfair practices, the activities of patent sharks' are perfectly legal. Manufacturers must understand that these patent sharks are extremely dangerous which can do major harm to a company. Some of the safeguards for such Technology Companies are prior art search, flexibility in technology, IP- mapping and IP-Iand scapping. ITAG undertakes several awareness programmes and provide consultancy to prevent such mishaps in the business by way of protection of IP rights. Industry should take full advantage of their ideas, creativities, and innovations by registering their IP rights in order to withstand the global competition and avoid the risk of violating other's IP rights. --Dr. D. R. Agarwal |
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