Intellectual Property Rights - Essay Example

"Intellectual Property Rights" Introduction: This essay first describes the meaning and importance of International property rights. In addition, it then discusses the major aim which was meant to be achieved by setting up IPRs around the world. The essay further describes the major changes in IPRs' motives and its negative impacts. This essay would further focus on the implementation of Intellectual Property Rights in the modern world and weaknesses of intellectual Property laws in providing a safe system to the copyrighted or trademarked material. The two major aims of this paper are to discuss the increasing problems in implementing intellectual property rights in the globalize world and to compare the intellectual property rights of US and UK. A considerable portion of the essay discusses the policies of the two countries and explanation is provided about the differences between their IPR's policies. Background: Intellectual Property is defined by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as the conceptions, formations and creations of the human mind. Intellectual property rights protect all such information and ideas as the intellectual assets for a particular economy. Since the ownership of such assets is acknowledged these assets are also known as intellectual properties. The economic returns on the intellectual property is dependent upon its demand to potential customers, cost of their formation, the place where they are sold and the permission rights for the owners to control it. And similarly the authority which provides this control is Intellectual Property Rights. The intellectual Property rights are classified into two categories i.e. Industrial Property and Copyright. Industrial property saves inventions. They take in patents, trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source. Copyright shields literary and artistic creations for example works of fiction, poetry and plays, movies, novels etc. The necessity to form intellectual property rights was first observed in the Paris Convention for the security of Industrial Property in 1883 and The protection of Literary and Artistic Works was recognized in the Berns Convention in 1886 (WIPO, n.d). The basic aim of intellectual property rights is protect the rights of the creator of such information and to give the rights to the common public to use his or her creativeness. In the light of this fact, IPRs argue to encourage creativity and modernism within the economy (1). Increasing criticism has been observed on the issue if the benefits of IPRs prevail over its costs (2). During the past three decades, it has been examined that IPRs are set up in more and more areas. Some areas in which IPRs were not introduced have now defined the IPRs like software (3) and databases (4). A number of critic researchers have argued that such progresses are causing danger to freedom of expression and holding back creativity (5). In the globalized world today increasingly the numbers of difficulties related to the Intellectual Property Rights are increasing. This essay would further examine these difficulties in the developing world. Intellectual Property Rights A strong point in opposition to intellectual property rights focuses on the efficiency of Intellectual Property Rights to distribute knowledge and pave way for more innovations. To support this argument Copyright law may be used as the best possible explanation. Copyright Law grants the creator the rights on his own creations as well as on the creations which are not actually created by him but are created using his knowledge and ideas (6). If we carefully study and inspect the outcomes of this law we would realize that it doesn't encourage the use of innovations as this incurs an extra expenditure on an innovator who wants to make use of a copyrighted material or idea. This would further lead the innovator to use a less creative idea which may not be copyrighted (2). In addition, Murray and Stern (7) performed an experimental assessment on how intellectual property rights over a particular piece of knowledge, have an effect on the probability of future researchers using up that knowledge in their personal scientific study. They give proof that the reference/citation rate after the patent is approved reduces by more or less 10-20%, with the decrease being prominent with number of years passed since the time of patent approval. This study hence, argues against the claim that intellectual Property rights encourage propagation of knowledge and innovations. The United States of America has included more laws regarding IPR in their constitution since the importance of intellectual property rights has been realized. Patents have formed an important part of the IPR in the United States since its birth. The first case reported in US of patents is of Eli Whitney's cotton gin. The law of patents has since then increased to cover up all the products made by the individuals in the United States. The American law has also included a category of fair use in its laws which allow certain products to be used under certain conditions without the consent of the owner of the product. The laws of intellectual property rights have increased to such limits that mostly the exports done from America now depend on these rights when exporting the products. A Copyright office is established in the United States which receives all the patents and trademarks of products. Similarly this office also receives the complaints regarding these rights. Similarly United Kingdom is also playing an important role in securing the intellectual property rights of individuals in this world. UK has signed treaties with many organizations through out the world to ensure that their policies in the world are known and respected. Patents are also granted in the United Kingdom through a certain process for a new invention by an individual. This patent in the UK helps to protect the product as per the requirements of the owner. However the office of the UK does only protect the patent in the territories of UK until the patent is forwarded to other IPR organizations located in the UK. The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the organizations. Similarly trademarks are also granted by the office of IPR in the UK to individuals if they require it. A certain process to retain the trademark is required. Lastly, the copyrights are not formally applied for in the UK has they are given automatically when a person creates a certain work. The United Kingdom and the United States have been well known about their policies on Intellectual Property Rights over the years. The authorities in United Kingdom have such a setup that the pioneers of articles can easily obtain IPRs for their services and goods. Similarly the United States also have certain requirements after which a pioneer can get the desired IPRs. Furthermore both the states follow the liaison of different world organizations such as World Trade Organization. Both the states offer a variety of Intellectual Property rights to the pioneers so that they can secure their work according to their will. Similarly companies and individual creators are also provided with adequate resources in both these states so as they can get IPRs. Both the UK and US provide individuals with trademarks patents and copyrights respectively. However as both these states have similarities in their policies regarding Intellectual Property Rights, they also have differences in them. Moral rights form an important part of intellectual property rights. Moral rights can be defined as the rights which give the creator of a work the exclusivity to be identified for his work. The United States does not identify the moral rights separately in the IPRs; however in the UK moral rights are given much importance. The United States of America does not specifically identify these rights but instead categorizes in different forms such as infringement of trademarks etc. Developing countries are often found involved in Trademark infringement. The continuous rise in the incomes of developing economies of Asia and Latin America is creating a great change in their living standards. They are moving towards a high living standards and the demand for imported and status goods is also increasing. High-quality cosmetics, jewelry, attires, food products and machinery are demanded. The market price of original and legal products is much higher than the costs to make its imitation. Hence counterfeit merchandise is sold with similar or closely similar trademarks on higher prices. These trademarks cannot be judged as fake or unauthorized unless they are closely looked at and judged. It is a common free rider problem. It is difficult to create trademarks and reputation in the world market and once this reputation is obtained local inventors take full advantage and sell counterfeits using their trademarks. It is difficult to have a good reputation and obtain a trademark as it requires a lot of efforts, financial costs and marketing. This problem badly affects reputable domestic and international brands that expend a great deal in developing trademark for a fruitful future of their business. As the foreign multinationals are viable to illegal use of their brand image, product so are the local brands. As these brands are well-known amongst the local consumers many small vendors tend to steal their image and name. The owners of these local brands are mostly not powerful enough to enforce the copyrights on individuals. There is a lack of trademark laws enforcement and this inadequacy is creating a great harm to the business development and goodwill. Copyrights are known to protect original artistic and fictional expression in various media, consisting of print publishing, audio and video recording, live performances stored in some medium, video games, software etc. The continuous introduction of new and advanced technologies has harmed the copyrighted materials and its value. The standard copyright policy took notice of only the typical technologies and products. Film and music production is a progressing industry in the United States. The sales of recorded tapes and audio and video music albums are increasing in the global market. Due to tough competition in this industry, the industry tries to use more and more advanced technology and tools for better sound and special effects. The firms also try to keep the quality of their recordings consistent. They spend a lot on marketing and quality and on acquiring a good reputation in the market they are protected by both copyright and trademark. Intellectual Property Rights are greatly criticized due to the copying of copyrighted materials. The requirements for pirating are easily accessible. Machinery for the copying of videotapes, audiotapes, digital disks, compact disks etc. are cheap and it is easy to make as many copies as required with a minimum possible expenditure. These pirated products are preferred over the legitimate products due to a considerable difference in the prices of these two. The International Intellectual Property Association (also known as IIAP) declares that American firms loss a huge amount of their revenues every year. It declared that the industry was at a loss of approximately 2.3 billion dollars in movies, shows, dramas or moving pictures and around 1.3 billion dollars in records and music (8). These losses are considerable and hence proper enforcement and revision of copyright laws is required. Conclusion As the world is developing so are the problems in the world. An inventor or pioneer of articles is having the fear of his articles being used in someone else's name. Thus the creators have to make sure before launching an article that their article is fully safe and secure under their name. Thus any pioneer, who creates an article, makes sure that he gets intellectual property right in time. However on the other hand these rights have their own negatives when being implemented. These rights have expanded to such a level that they not only cover the creations of mankind but they also cover the categories of knowledge. Knowledge through intellectual property rights is being portrayed as a property, but knowledge is not a property which can be consumed but it is a vast subject which can help to enlighten the whole world. (4). Frow emphasized on the fact that knowledge is not a property and it should not be exchanged for a certain value. Attaching a certain value to it may make the source of knowledge scarce in this world. According to Vaidhynathan protection of articles should be to such an extent that it does not hinder the course of information from passed at different levels (9, p.5). The intellectual property right has given the scheme of patents which is available to everyone easily and it lets any individual to get a patent for a certain human idea (10). The intellectual property rights helps to reward a pioneer for his creativeness. It also stops many illegal people from stealing the ideas of other pioneers but on the other hand it also gives rise to many other problems. In my view these rights should be maintained through out the world but their level of intensity should be decreased. Bibliography 1. International Chamber of Commerce (August 2005). Intellectual Property: Source of innovation, creativity, growth and progress. Retrieved August 13, 2007, from http://www.iccwbo.org/uploadedFiles/ICC/policy/intellectual_property/Statements/BASCAP_IP_pub.pdf 2. Besen, S.M. & Raskind, L.J. An Introduction to the Law and Economics of Intellectual Property. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5(1), p3-27 1991. 3. BESSEN, J., & HUNT, R. M. (2007). An Empirical Look at Software Patents. Journal of Economics and Management Strategy. 16, 157-189. 4. FROW, J. (2000). Public Domain and the New World Order in Knowledge. SOCIAL SEMIOTICS. 10, 173-186. 5. COOMBE, R. J. (2005). Protecting Traditional Environmental Knowledge and New Social Movements in the Americas: Intellectual Property, Human Right, Or Claims for an Alternative Form of Sustainable Development FLORIDA JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW. 17, 115-136. 6. WIPO (n.d.). Understanding copyright and related rights. 7. MURRAY, F., & STERN, S. (2007). Do formal intellectual property rights hinder the free flow of scientific knowledge:An empirical test of the anti-commons hypothesis. JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR AND ORGANIZATION. 63, 648-687. 8. AIPPI CENTENNIAL SYMPOSIA, STRAUS, J., KURER, M., & LUTZ, M. (1998). New technologies, global markets and territoriality of laws: a challenge for intellectual property. Zurich, AIPPI. 9. VAIDHYANATHAN, S. (2001). Copyrights and copywrongs: the rise of intellectual property and how it threatens creativity. New York, New York University Press. 10. Calderaro, A. Digital Divide in the web of Intellectual Property. 2006 Read More