UNDERSTANDING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS – MEANING, SCOPE, AND IMPLICATIONS IN THE REAL TIME BUSINESS WORLD

Ms. Mariyam Ahmed

Assistant Professor

Faculty of Commerce and Management

Kalinga University, Naya Raipur, Chhattisgarh

mariyam.ahmed@kalingauniversity.ac.in

“Property” refers to everything that a person or business holds legal title to, granting owners certain enforceable rights over these objects. Most properties have current or potential monetary worth and are thus classified as assets. In other terms, property is anything that belongs to someone. The owner can use, sell, rent, mortgage, transfer, swap, and destroy it. It might be either physical or intangible. Property was divided into mobile and immovable categories in ancient times, but because of the Industrial Revolution and rapid progress in the domains of science, technology, and culture, new types of property emerged. IPRs, for example, attracted attention due to their distinct properties. New rights and properties, such as patents, designs, copyrights, and industrial designs, became known as intellectual property rights.

Intellectual property (IP) is a branch of law that protects mental creations and deals with intellectual property. Today’s definition of intellectual property includes internationally recognized covered patents, industrial designs, copyrights, trademarks, know-how, and secret information. Thus, intellectual property is a broad categorical description for the collection of intangible assets owned and legally protected by a company or individual from unauthorized use or implementation. An intangible asset is a non-physical asset owned by a firm or individual. It is broken into two sections:

1. Industrial property: this category comprises invention patents, trademarks, industrial designs, and geographical indications.
2. Copy rights: it includes literary works (such as novels, poems, films, and music) as well as artistic works such as drawing, painting, and architectural designs.

Thus, intellectual property refers to the rights to such phenomena that are created and established because of individuals’ knowledge, skill, and capacity. Literary, artistic, and scientific works, performing arts, music, and broadcasting, innovations, and discoveries in all fields of human life, scientific explorations, industrial design, and commercial goodwill, trademark, service mark, commercial name, patent, and copyright are all examples of intellectual property. 

Any IP protection system must achieve two major economic goals. The first is to encourage knowledge investment, invention, and commercial innovation by providing exclusive rights to use and sell newly produced technologies, goods, and services. The second purpose is to encourage or require right holders to commercialize their discoveries and ideas to foster the transmission of new knowledge.

Intellectual properties possess distinct characteristics that set them apart. The characteristics of intellectual properties can be utilized to distinguish them from other categories of properties. The nature of Intellectual Property is intangible incorporeal property, regardless of its form.  In every instance, it pertains to a collection of entitlements concerning a specific physical entity produced by the proprietor. In the case of a patent, the property consists of the exclusive rights to use the patented invention, to grant licences to others for the exercise of this right, and to transfer this right to a third party. 

Intellectual Property Rights provides support to the creators to continue producing their things and be assured that their creations will not be misused at any cost. Intellectual property rights are an asset to your business and many aspects of your business can be fortified under Intellectual Property Rights such as your company name, logo, designs, inventions, etc. It keeps your business apart from competitors and is an essential part of your marketing and branding purpose.

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