May, 2009: IP has different colours and flavours expressed and manifested in different form of ideas and innovation. When it comes from the brain of an artist it may resemble as a dramatic play, a song, music or a painting. When it comes from the heart of a poet it may be expression of a poem or a song or a story or any other form of the literary work. Thus any of such performance or work of art, literature, music or dramas or a cinematographic film or any sound recording may take the character of a copyright, in one of the domain of intellectual property rights. The reward to such artists can be in the form of royalty or license fee or as the full value of consideration for assignment of such copyright. Generally the copyright has validity for the life of the author and sixty years after his death. The copyright can be bequeathed by in favour of any person or association of persons. The copyright protection is available at global level without a separate registration for individual countries under the Berne convention.

The other form of the IP rights, be it patent or trademark or design need to be registered separately in each individual country though the advantage of certain conventions and treaties are available under Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the Madrid Protocol and the Hague Convention for Patent, Trademark and Design respectively. The invention of any technology by a scientist is regarded as a patent provided it satisfies certain basic criteria of novelty, inventive steps and industrial application. Though the copyrights, patent and design emanates from the ideas and innovation, the Trademark owes its origin and value to the business practice which essentially comes from the quality, standard, ethics, integrity and honesty of the business enterprise over a period of time by winning the confidence of consumers and of people in the society.

Now-a-days the brand value optimization is built by publicity and sometimes even at the cost of quality but in the long run it is the goodwill on the basis of quality which adds to the brand value and brings revenue to the business by occupying larger space in the market share. Today, Google brand value has exceeded US$100 billion with the highest ranking followed by Microsoft with US$77.3 billion.

In today’s world, we find that the intrinsic value of a product comprises mainly of its technology, design and the brand and therefore there is a need to protect the Intellectual Property Right (IPR) by converting the intellectual property into a legal right under different laws within and outside the country of origin. One can only realize the full value of the potentiality of the product if it is sold and is available in the global market and for thus there is a need for protection of IPR under different jurisdiction at global level. Information technology has brought the world closer and has reduced the cost of communication to almost negligible level. One can register his patent or trademark by way of e-filing in all those countries where this facility is available. However the linguistic barriers sometimes demand translation of the innovation or the literature in the language of the respective countries though english is considered as a medium in almost all advanced countries except Japan, China, Russia and few other countries including Brazil and Mexico.

The biggest challenge to the innovative world is from counterfeiting and piracy for which there is a need for awareness and proper enforcement of IP rules. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) celebrates 26th April as the “Intellectual Property Day” every year for creating IP awareness at global level. ITAG has joined the IP club and is becoming a hub of all types of IP Solutions as a single window service provider through its worldwide network of its own branches and associates. Let us take a pledge to reward those who are at the core of the innovation and prevent the theft of ideas and invention and build a world with purity of knowledge to serve the society and optimize the global wealth in the present knowledge era.

--Dr. D. R. Agarwal