What is Intellectual Property Rights and Why is it Important For Your Business

You run a business and have come up with an idea on how to make your product more durable, a USP that your competitors do not already offer. But how do you make sure that you can sell the advanced product in the market without having your idea stolen by your competitors? You need to secure the intellectual property rights for your technique!

What is intellectual property rights?

Be it any differentiating aspect of your product or any advanced service that only you have thought of offering in the market – Such creative work of mind or intellect become your intellectual property. Intellectual property rights are the rights given to individuals or companies over such innovative ideas or concepts. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time. The intellectual property rights include industrial property rights (e.g. patents, industrial designs and trademarks) and copyright (right of the author or creator) and related rights (rights of the performers, producers and broadcasting organisations).

Having the right type of intellectual property rights protection helps you to stop other companies or sellers from stealing or copying –

• Names of your products or brands
• Any business invention or creative idea
• Design or features of your products
• Your content like logo, punchline, jingle, slogan, etc

Patents, copyright, industrial designs and trade marks are all types of intellectual property rights. You get some types of protection automatically, others you have to apply for. It is advisable to hire a professional intellectual property rights service provider. The IPR service providers have the staff, skill-sets and domain knowledge needed for the process. With the assistance of intellectual property rights service provider you can legally prevent others from stealing or copying your work.

Intellectual property rights for your business

“Intellectual property rights refers to the general term for the assignment of property rights through patents, copyrights and trademarks. These property rights allow the holder to exercise a monopoly on the use of the item for a specified period. By restricting imitation and duplication, monopoly power is conferred, but the social costs of monopoly power may be offset by the social benefits of higher levels of creative activity encouraged by the monopoly earnings.” (Source: stats.oecd.org)

Image source:nikon.com

Protecting your intellectual property makes it easier to take legal action against anyone who steals or copies it. It is the responsibility of creator (individual or a company) to defend his intellectual property and to take measures if anyone uses it without his permission (infringement). Some of the examples of intellectual property infringement are –

• When someone uses all or some part of your work under copyright without prior permission
• When someone uses, sells or imports your patented product, service, technology or process
• When someone produces, offers or sells your registered design for commercial benefit
• When someone uses a trademark that is identical to your registered trademark

An intellectual property rights professional can offer you advice or handle a dispute for you. In case you have not already registered your intellectual properties then a IPR service provider can undertake and execute the entire process of complex legalities for you. They carry out each step involved in copyright process with expertise. They staff highly qualified and experienced IP professionals who completely understand the legal system that governs IP issues.

TMT Law Practice can be a great choice for your business. Offering cost-effective and highly reliable services, TMT Law Practice is India’s first and boutique Technology, Media and Telecommunications Law firm. Their practice combines Intellectual Property, regulatory, corporate and transactional, dispute resolution, and legislative work in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Industry.

The strength of TMT Law Practice lies in understanding the issues faced by corporate decision makers because their lawyers have themselves held key government and in-house positions. They understand how geo-political issues affect operations because their lawyers have themselves worked in complex business and regulatory environments. They have diverse field experiences and offer advise on the latest market developments, regulatory changes, legislative actions, and commercial and technical issues.

Their clientele surpasses names like Google, Inc., 360 Degree Media Pvt. Ltd., Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited., Bharat Technical Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Birlasoft (India) Limited., Dainik Bhaskar Group of Companies, Infoedge India Limited, Snapdeal, Dreamcraft Productions, Fremantle India Productions Pvt. Ltd., and others.

Universal Legal, Intellilocus, and R. K. Dewan & Co. are some other reputed companies in the field of Intellectual Property Rights. Established in 2004, Universal Legal offers broad range of services in the US and in India from a common pool of resources and people. Be it a small business in an emerging industry, or a multinational corporation, Universal Legal partners effectively and with efficiency, giving high importance to each project.

Their intellectual property practice primarily focuses on – comprehensive IP strategies to protect clients core & ancillary IP, prosecuting registration applications in respect of copyrights, designs, trademarks and patents, drafting patent specifications relating to a wide array of technologies, filing national patent applications in India and overseas, patent operation treaty applications and their prosecution, coordinating with international law firms in procedural aspects of IP registration process worldwide, and interacting with various government departments on Intellectual Property infringement and Passing-off actions.