Types of Intellectual Properties - Essay Example

Intellectual property Organizations in various sectors have their own operational edge over there competitors for keeping their business aloft. Different companies approach in process and the type of manufacturing the product which is uniquely devised by the work force. To confine the right and authority on the process and products or service there is a need to authorize the product fro the specific organisation. Intellectual properties encourage the individuals to provide new creations. Individual recognition and highlights his effort in the public thus providing boost to venture in new avenues of inventions and discoveries. The IP rights enable the inventor or discoverer to reward for his effort. Intellectual property ensures that the products are out into market from the original effort and curbs adulation. A property which is exclusive achievement of a particular company is guided by the intellectual property right according to the constitutional legal process existing in the country. Thus the intellectual property provides exclusive right to have freedom to work on the application or product and eliminates others to copy your effort. A resource or goods should be allowed to own and benefit from it, and the rights should describe whom should property rights be vested for those resources Second, what constraints should be covered in those rights consist of Intellectual Property: a term often used to refer generically to property rights created through intellectual and/or discovery efforts of a creator that are generally protectable under patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, trade dress or other law University of Michigan Reference: University of Michigan, Available at this website http://www.techtransfer.umich.edu/index/glossary.html. Viewed on 12th September 2006 11PM IST Intellectual property rights is now used extensively as a business parameter due to competition, product differentiation and process flow gaining much importance in running a business entity. According to the nature of business operations and systems intellectual property rights have been classified to address a specific area of concern. Types of intellectual properties: Industrial property rights are classified into two broad categories: Industrial property rights Copy rights related Copy right: A right which authenticates an individuals or an organisation work not to copied, reproduced, summarized or redistributed in any form without the concern of the initiator. Design: A right gives exclusive rights on the individuals or an organisation to proceed legally if any party copy sell or redesign the same features under other name, thus conferring rights to the first initiator. Patent: An exclusive recognisition for the utilities, design process flow thus not allowing others to copy sell or redistribute the original idea but others can quote the work for another application in any other form. Trademark: Are the distinguish features like symbols, design, words, caption or a sentence which is entitled to a single organisation. This confers that the products or service is from one brand. Reference: September.13.2006. "Glossary of Intellectual Property Terms". Available at this Website: http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/intelprp/glossary.htm Viewed on 12th September 2006 10PM IST Trade secret: A trade secret is an management tool that is kept in the internal walls of an organisation which is vital in the success of a feature, product or a process flow different from other business entities. Intellectual property has a greater significance in this period of globalization as it enables us to locate and protect every aspect which drives your revenues. An IP policy makes the organisation to stand ahead of others in competition and which are very unique and exclusive to your organisation. The advent of new technologies which can tap the essence of any new product or application of the process is an important aspect to observe as it gives opportunities to the competitors and the pirate professional to imitate and forward to the market in the manner they perceive to their profitability. The intellectual property rights create many opportunities in the maintenance and creating of new methodology to cope with the growing sophistication. Intellectual property rights enables to enjoy the right to dictate the terms related to his new innovation or discovery. The IP right gives the right to the individual or to an organisation to market his new application, his work to the public. The patent rights a at times as rigid as the person can enjoy as life long royalty for his effort which has created a new option to the consumers and the marketers. Multinational companies which have strong brand penetration like the Coke, Microsoft, Mc Donald's etc earn huge revenues by selling their brand name to the native companies. This strategy is useful to the parent company and to the new entrant. Reference: Protecting Intellectual Property. Department of Trade and Industry". Available at this Website:http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detailtype=RESOURCES&itemId=1074300698 Viewed on 12th September 2006 10-30PM IST Intellectual rights can be used in different dimensions and sectors for the social well being. The IP laws are useful to promote a sustainable usage of the natural and economic resources and makes a check on the over exploitation. An organisation has greater benefits in formulating intellectual boundaries. An investment is a key factor in a business. Organizations irrespective of the amount of investment strive to entice maximum returns. The investment should create a sustainable option for staying aloft in the business. To stay in the business the products, the services, the process flow have to kept intact. So, IPR'S arises as a major guiding factor for the profitability. The main advantage is that the IPR acts will be protecting their business success factors in various process levels. When an organizational work is secure and held under strict monitoring in prevarication and in avoiding the same feature products and services, the organisation will have the feasibility to explore in-depth by the revenue generation. Intellectual property rights are more essential for industries like Bio-technology, pharmaceutical companies. Reference: "What is Intellectual Property". Available at this Website: http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/ Viewed on 12th September 2006 11PM IST Manoj Nadkarni, March. 2005. "Properties and Rights: Owning Ideas, Fish and Forests". Available at this Website: http://www.infochangeindia.org/IPR_article13.jsp Viewed on 11th September 2006 10PM IST The advent of internet results in proliferation of the vital organizational information viewing through virtual third sources. Thus the IPR acts may have the teeth to curb the concerns with this regard and help in controlling the information theft. A company which has made a mark in the customers' perceptions would like to keep up the good will by offering the same quality products and services every times a customer approach. So the IPR acts will ensure that your genuine products are there in the stands for the customers. These initiatives will enable the company to develop its market and allows customer to use his favorite brand. IPR enables in creating a corporate identity by positioning of the brand at the right place in front of consumers. IPR ensures in regulating over commercialization of the goods thus creating a lead for the initiator to grow from his innovation. Limitations: Organizations IPR are termed to question the constitutional rights of the people to the individual rights or organizational rights. In some countries confining the information relating to the societal usage is unacceptable. Obtaining approval or right against a product or service is considered expensive and the process is time consuming with the interference of critical procedures. The IPR may be achieved for a term period after which the organisation has to renew. The companies may have the patent right in one country but he can't question imitation in some other part of the world. Companies are restricted to extend the product related features without the consent of the parent companies. An organization has to allocate definite amount of investments to process their claim to protect their property rights. The organisation may be made responsible in monitoring the competitors' moves which may harm the organisation. Different territories need different approvals which may be difficult to perceive. Organizations in process of research may breach other organizations patent features which does not allow to future elevating an area of concern. IPR may restrict the collaborative possibilities between organizations which are covered under the act. An organisation has the responsibility to defend the invention, discovery, investments and the products. In this technology driven world it is essential to capture the essence of the process innovation of an organisation. The organisation need not allow others to cash on the organisation concepts. The IPR should create the flexible environment to explore the strategy which creates a mutual beneficial environment for every section. Reference: Joshi Abhishek. "Importance of Intellectual Property Rights". Available at this Website: http://www.legalservicesindia.com/articles/impip.htm Viewed on 12th September 2006 11PM IST Krummenacker Markus. 1995. Available at this Website: http://www.n-a-n-o.com/ipr/extro2/extro2mk.html Viewed on 13th September 2006 11AM IST Case study Disney is one of the Largest Entertainment Corporations in the world providing amusement and fun for millions of kids around the world. Disney's characters, Mickey Mouse are still popular among the kids. Technology is changing but Disney's animation movies and characters are ever cherished. Disney's products include a wide range of Animations, Cartoons, Toys, Action Packed Games and much more. Disney does have patent and copyrights with "Mickey Mouse". As far as the revised US Patent Laws are concerned, all the products which do have patent and copyrights are liable to be made free after a particular period of time. Later the extended copyright law stated that no products made in or after 1923 will enter the public domain until 2019. Disney protects its characters and animations with copyrights and patents. There have been many cases which Disney launched against some of the corporate giants for using Mickey Mouse as in some or the other way. Disney somehow allows some companies to exhibit their products for the purpose of marketing. Reference: http://warp.povusers.org/grrr/morecopyright.html Viewed on 13th September 2006 1PM IST "What is Intellectual Property". Available at this Website: http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/studies/publications/ip_smes.htm Viewed on 13th September 2006 10AM IST Many Companies have major concerns while dealing with their patent rights and copyrights. This is not different in the case of DISNEY. Disney played a major part in the 1998 copyright protection act which is also called "Mickey Mouse Protection Act". Disney's attitude towards protecting its age old cartoon characters like "Mickey Mouse" has been despised by most of the corporate society. Disney in order to secure its copyright over the "Mickey Mouse" character lobbied the US Government to pass the law. Disney for all these years has been using many of the arts and characters which have been expired and which entered the public domain. Lets consider the case of "Jungle Book". Disney took this book after its copyrights have been expired and made into a movie which earned huge revenues for Disney. There has been many age old art works that are lying dormant for such a long time that no one is allowed to recreate something now due to these copyrights. If this continues, Disney's hands will become dustier than ever. It gets the rights of most of the works in the pubic domain and lobbies the Government to further extend the Copyright law. This way any writer or artist who wants to use a similar work should first pay Disney and should use it. Recently Disney sued some of its business partners for exhibiting their products. Stunningly Disney won a case against a company for showing their trailers. This is just ridiculous on Disney's part for suing those who promotes their products better than them. Reference: "Copyright Term Extension Act". "Wikipedia". Available at this Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_Term_Extension_Act. Viewed on 13th September 2006 1PM IST In any case protecting our Intellectual property rights is a top priority for almost all the corporates in and around USA. This is in particular a top priority for Disney considering their huge revenues and projects. These days file sharing has become the easiest approach to download or share music/movies virtually anything on the internet. The advent of DRM (digital rights management), companies are trying to make their products secure in the internet. We can easily download any of Walt Disney's picture's from the net and can keep in our website's home page but only with a risk of Disney suing us for copying their content which as per US Intellectual Property Law is a crime. Disney so far succeeded in some of its attempts to protect its copyrights and patents. One of it's major success is to successfully convince Congress to extend the copyright law till 2025. One of Disney's success stories include an incident way back in 1971 Mr.Dan O'Neill a cartoonist and his colleagues drew some obscene pictures of Mickey mouse to elevate the image of Disney. Disney sued the individuals and won the case in a District court sending the cartoonist behind the bars for six months. Reference: Muralidharan, Omkar. Managing Editor. "Promoting Science and Useful Arts: The Growth of Copyright Since 1976". Available at the website. http://www.stanfordreview.org/Archive/Volume_XXXVI/Issue_9/Features/features1.shtml. viewed on 19th september 2006 Conclusion: It is agreed that every organisation should have their own rights over their own created products or works. But it should not be taken as a means to viciously steal the market from others. This behavior is prevalent among many corporate giants these days. A better understanding of the Intellectual property, copyrights and patent laws in various process systems has to tune to the current requirements. The advent of the high technological elements would demand more distinctiveness in the framing the rights that best suits the industry under consideration. In order to protect one's IP rights in other countries , the country should necessarily have a bilateral agreement on these patents and copyright laws. Once this is done, any company can successfully protect their copyrights and IP laws. Same is the case with Disney too. Reference: "Intellectual Property Rights in the Indian subcontinent" Available at the website http://www.bustpatents.com/forindi.htm. Viewed on 19th September 2006. Read More