IPR & PATENTING

PRESENTED BY:
Jyotsana Thakur & Harprabhjit Kaur
Roll No. RA77M2A02 & RA77M2A05
B.Tech(H)M.Tech(BIOTECHNOLOGY)
 IPR
 Intellectual Property Rights
 An idea which can give rise to a useful
application
 But they can be copied which minimizes the
returns to the original inventor.

The right of an inventor to derive economic benefits

from his invention is called IPR.
 PROTECTION OF IPR
 Depends mainly on the type of :
 Intellectual property
 Protection sought

 Main forms are

 Trade secrets
 Patents
 PBR
 Copyright
Beware !!!!
 TRADE SECRET
 When the individual owing an intellectual
property does not disclose the property to
any one and keeps it as a closely guarded
secret to promote his business interests.
 May relate to :
Formula
Processes
Materials
 CONTINUED
 In the area of biotechnology, materials kept as
trade secrets include :
 Cell lines
 Microorganism strains
 Production processes, etc.
 ADVANTAGES
 Unlimited duration
 The cost of filing, contesting, and enforcing
patents is saved
 Not necessary to satisfy the stringent
requirements for protection under patents
 The risk of someone improving upon the
product, process, etc. is minimised
 DRAWBACKS
 Maintaining trade secret itself is costly
 Offers no protection from independent
innovation
 Non disclosure of the invention does not give
others a chance to improve upon the original
invention
 Can’t be applied to many inventions such as
equipment designs, plant varieties, etc.
 PATENTS
 Right granted by a Govt. to an inventor to
exclude others from imitating, manufacturing,
using or selling the invention in question for
commercial use during the specified period.
 CONTINUED
 Patents are granted for :
 Invention
 Innovation in an improvement
 Process of an invention
 Product of an invention
 Concept
 PATENT REQUIREMENTS
 Novelty
 Inventiveness
 Patentability
 Industrial application and usefulness
 Disclosure
 LIMITS OF PATENT
 Time: valid for a specified period of time from
the date of its award.
Most countries : 15-20 years
Indian Patent Act: 7-14 years
 Space: valid only in the country of its award
not in other countries.
A group of nations may agree to honor the patents awarded
by any member country,
Example: European Economic Community
PROCEDURE
 COPYRIGHT
 Certain intellectual properties are not
patentable; they are protected by copyright.
Example: Edited books, audio and video cassettes,
etc.
 It provides protection for a specified period,
and only for reproduction as such of the
copyright material.
COPYRIGHT
 CONTINUED
 In case of biotechnology, copyright protection
is available for DNA sequences.
 But one may get around this protection by
designing alternative sequence to encode the
same protein taking advantage of genetic code
degeneracy.
 GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION
 Geographical Indications of goods are defined
as that aspect of industrial property which
refer to the geographical indication referring
to a country or to a place situated therein as
being the country or place of origin of that
product.
 Typically, it conveys an assurance of quality and
distinctiveness which is essentially attributable
to the fact of its origin in that defined
geographical locality.
 CONTINUED
 India, as a member of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), enacted the
Geographical Indications of Goods
(Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 which is
likely to be operationalized soon with the
notification of the Rules.
 Geographical Indications of Goods Act 1999
 Geographical Indications of Goods Rule2002
 CONTINUED
 An indication
 Originates from a definite geographical
territory
 Used to identify agricultural, natural or
manufactured goods processed or prepared in
that territory
 Should have special quality or reputation or
other characteristics.
 CONTINUED
 Examples :
 Basmati rice
 Darjeeling tea
 Kanchipuram Silk Saree
 Alphanso Mango
 Nagpur orange
 Kolhapuri chappal
 Bikaneri bhujiya
 Agra petha
 PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION
 Plant varieties and animal breeds are
developed through years of painstaking and
scientifically planned work.
 So these entities should be regarded as
intellectual properties of the breeders who
have developed them.
 It is argued that these entities are essentially
derived from naturally occurring lines, but
after change in gene combination.
 PLANT BREEDERS RIGHTS
 Many countries recognize plant varieties as an
intellectual property and grant a protection to
them through a patent or a suitable form of
PBR.
 In USA, there are 3 different systems:
 The Plant Patent Act 1930
The Plant Variety Protection Act 1970
The Utility Patents Act 1985
 CONTINUED
 The Plant Patents Act 1930: covers varieties of
asexually propagated crops
 Example: Ornamentals and Fruit trees
 The Plant Variety Protection Act 1970: US
version of the plant breeders rights system
followed by European Union and several other
countries.
 The Utility Patents Act 1985: cover man made
industrial inventions and processes.
 HARMONIZATION
 Paris Convention for the Protection of
Industrial Property in 1983
 Established equal protection of industrial IPR
under the laws of member countries for both
nationals and residents of other member
countries of the convention
 Allows inventors to claim priority in all the
member countries by filing a patent application
initially in one member state
 EPC
 The European Patent Convention
 Began in 1978
 17 member states
 First to introduce specific provisions for
biotechnology inventions, including
 Need for depositing cultures of microorganism
for which patents are sought
 Exclusion of plant and animal varieties breed
through classical methods from patent coverage.
 GATT / WTO
 The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the
only Global international organization dealing
with the rules of trade between nations. At its
heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated
and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading
nations and ratified in their parliaments.
 The goal is to help producers of goods and
services, exporters, and importers conduct
their business (146 members; 30 observers;
others)
 WIPO
 The World Intellectual Property Organization
 International organization dedicated to
promoting the use and protection of works of
the human spirit
 With headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland,
WIPO is one of the 16 specialized agencies of
the United Nations systems of organizations.
It administers 23 international treaties dealing
with different aspects of intellectual property
protection.
 CONTINUED
 Objectives of the organization :
To promote the protection of intellectual property
throughout the world through cooperation among
States and, where appropriate, in collaboration with
any other international organization
To ensure administrative cooperation among the
Unions.
 TRIPs
 The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights
 Agreement which forms a part of the Uruguay
Round to GATT (General Agreement on
Tarrifs and Trade; signed by India and other
states)
 Multilateral WTO Agreement, applicable to all
existing and newly acceding Members.
 CONTINUED
 Intellectual Property Rights itself is defined, in
the context of the TRIPS as a right given to
people over the creations of their minds. It
usually gives the creator an exclusive right
over the use of his creations for a certain
period of time.
 CONTINUED
 The TRIPS Agreement consists of 73 articles
contained in the following seven parts :
Part I : General provisions and basic principles
Part II : Standards concerning the availability, scope and use
of Intellectual Property Rights
Part III :Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights
Part IV : Acquisition and maintenance of Intellectual
Property Rights and related inter-parties procedures
Part V : Dispute prevention and settlement
Part VI :Transitional arrangements
Part VII : Institutional arrangements; final provisions
 CONTINUED
 For the purpose of TRIPs agreement,
intellectual property refers to all categories of
intellectual property that are the subject of
section 1 to 7 of part 2 of the TRIPs
agreement viz.
Copyright and related rights
Trademarks
Geographical Indications
Industrial Designs
Patents
 MAIN PROVISIONS OF TRIPs
 General obligations: national treatment and
most-favored nation treatment
 Minimum standards of protection for all types
of IPRs:
Patents, copyright and related rights, trademarks,
geographical indications, industrial designs, trade
secrets, etc.
 Obligations on the enforcement of IPRs
 BENEFITS FROM IPR
 Encourages and safeguards intellectual and
artistic creations
 Encourages investments in R&D efforts
 Provides consumer with the results of
creations and inventions
 Enables dissemination of new ideas and
technologies.
 PROBLEMS FROM IPR
 Monopolies may takeovers have been
motivated by access to an IPR
 Perceived as a threat to food security
 May adversely affect biological diversity and
ecological balance
 Complicated- as monitoring and tackling the
IPR aspects of inventions
 enhances cost
 demands time, attention and effort
 may act as disincentive for R&D efforts