Question

As the textbook states, "Intellectual property and information rights are extremely important assets of individuals."

The protection of these rights in today's world with the speed of the Internet is often difficult to secure. We have seen designs, works, and products abused by those who seek the quick profit copying them illegally, whether the original was good or bad.

Is the protection of the patent, copyright, and trademark going to be a thing of the past?

Your thoughts, please. Make sure to include in your discussion how these rights are transferred and protected.

Answer 1

Yes, intellectual property rights (IPRs) are very important both for individual and a society as whole because it encourages and promote R&D. With internet explosion however, the need for protecting IPRs become even more important than ever. In mostly all developed or first world countries intellectual property rights are well defined, well written and well implemented but it is these other underdeveloped and developing countries which need to step up their IPRs upto international standards. The inconsistencies in laws in different countries may add extra costs to these big MNCs which spend huge amount of money in innovation (Samsung is one example which spends huge on R&D, in 2016 it spent more on R&D than what Indian government spent in its budget).

With rapid advances in digital technology it becomes very important to evolve /upgrade IPRs and many countries have started working in that direction. In the past years, for example, USA has ammended its trade secrets law, patent law, copyright law and trade mark law to expand its scope and coverage.

Internationally, Established in 1970, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is an organization dedicated to helping ensure that the rights of creators and owners of intellectual property are protected worldwide, and that inventors and authors are therefore recognized and rewarded for their ingenuity. It has 191 countries as its members and it work closely with these member states to ensure that intellectual property system remains an adaptable tool too protect creative work.

It divides the IPRs in into two categories:

• Industrial property which includes patents for inventions, industrial designs and geographical indications.
• Copyrights, which covers literary work like novels,poems, films, artistic works etc.

WIPO defines all these rights and makes modal laws for each category of IPRs and then the member states are required to have corresponding domestic laws on each category on based of these international laws. WIPO also services global registration systems for trademarks, industrial designs and appellations of origin, and a global filing system for patents.

Better coordination, consistencies, punitive laws in case of violation of IPRs on both international and domestic level are the only way foreward and many countries are well aware of this pressing need and working towards it.