by Namrata Pahwa, June 2020

It’s been 63 years since the first IP Act was introduced in India. After several amendments, introductions of newer Acts in the Country, the Government has undertaken a massive digitisation exercise, recruiting a large number of examiners leading to an exponential increase in the examination and grant of IP. To encourage start-ups to seek protection of their IP and to file patent applications, facilitators have been appointed. However, practicing lawyers still find it difficult to get a comprehensive IP protection for their clients in terms of Copyright, Design and Patent as many of the actions have not yet translated into concrete benefits for innovators and creators, and long-standing deficiencies persist. India remains one of the world’s most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP.

Here are my two cents solely from my experience…

Copyright:

The improvement of the national culture heritage depends on the level of protection given to literary, musical, dramatic and artistic works; cinematography films and sound recordings. The higher the protection level the more number of people are encouraged to create something.

Now, in US and UK, there exists tests – audience test, pattern test, abstraction filtration comparison test, total concept and free test; for checking infringement as opposed to India that only follows the substantive test.

Therefore India needs to embrace a few provisions of treaties like WIPO internet treaties. Online licensing could be a great idea to prevent online piracy and data infringement. Online licensing helps beat technology with technology itself. An efficient online licensing system would help regain the confidence of customers as wells reduce the chances of falling victim to online piracy.

Design:

Copyright Act provides that copyright shall not subsist in any design which is registered under the Designs Act. Any subject matter that is capable of being registered under the Designs Act will lose copyright protection as soon as any article to which the design has been applied has been reproduced more than 50 times through an industrial process. This provision not only discourages parties from availing of protection under both acts, but also ensures that anyone attempting to do so has both sets of rights extinguished.

This underlines the fact that not all commercially exploited artistic works can be placed in the same category as common industrial designs, and that each variation/iteration is registered as a precondition to claiming protection. South Africa has specific provisions on spare parts – which may have both aesthetic and functional attributes – which provide clarity on the scope of protection available to rights holders. Thus, a few well-chosen changes to the Indian regime could boost the often overlooked and underrated design right.

The design laws of many jurisdictions are evolving to address the concerns of creators and innovators. The legislature should further take note of trends in case law and consider updating Indian design law accordingly. For instance, certain unregistered designs are afforded protection for a limited period in the United Kingdom and the European Union. – Like a Design and Utility Patent.

Geographical Indication:

How do you protect the IP of local artisans? This is probably one of the most asked questions in today’s time.
GI in relation to goods, means an indication which identifies such goods as agricultural goods, natural goods or manufactured goods as originating, or manufactured in the territory of a country, or a region or a locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of such goods is essentially attributable to its geographical origin and in case where such goods are manufactured goods one of the activities of either the production or of processing or preparation of the goods concerned takes place in such territory, region or locality, as the case may be.

GI Tags and GI Panchayats are braving the way forward. Like for example, the villagers assemble under the banner of traditional panchayats to discuss a range of issues, the GI panchayats similarly bring together farmers, artisans and other villagers associated with GI products in the area. Here they are informed about things like how with middlemen, their products are sold at inflates prices by the time they make their way from the farmer or the artisan to the consumer.

Patent:

Apart from the global patentability requirements for inventions to have novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability, the Indian patent act has specific provisions, covered under Section 3, that makes the patentability of an invention relating to subject matter such as a) derivatives of a pharmaceutical drug; b) patentability of stem cells; c) diagnostic methods and kits; d) isolated DNA sequences; e) computer-related inventions etc. non-patentable subject matter. As a result, these inventions face a higher threshold of examination and scrutiny. Though guidelines in relation to the patentability of software, biotech inventions and pharmaceutical inventions have been issued by the Indian Patent Office, the practical challenges outlined below continue to be faced by patent holders.

Trade Secrets & Confidential Information:

Unfortunately in India, there is no codified law which enables you to protect trade secrets and confidential information. The only way to do that is through the clauses of a contract. However in the absence of the same, harm caused by the breach of trust or of contractual protection of trade secrets can be remedied in the courts.

A less discussed aspect of the trade secret debate in India is the use of criminal law, primarily against former employees accused of unauthorised disclosure of confidential information.

While it is not possible to secure injunctions under criminal law, it is possible to get a person imprisoned or at the very least summoned to a criminal court and put through a long-drawn criminal trial.

A relatively recent OECD paper has claimed that several large and small American businesses ranked ‘trade secrets’ as a very important form of IP protection. This is understandable given that trade secret protection, unlike patent protection does not involve significant legal costs and is comparatively easier to administer. It should thus be no surprise that lobbyists from the American industry are urging the American government to take up the issue of trade secret protection at all global forums. As is evident from this article, India does have a basic legal framework to protect confidential information but like many areas of judge made law in India, Indian jurisprudence is not well developed. The time is ripe for codification of the law and like any other codification process, the government should not only restate the law but also use the opportunity to reform the law to suit Indian peculiarities rather than replicate foreign legislation on the issue.

Although Indian IP law is thorough and generally comparable with European IP laws, there are still significant concerns over IP enforcement. A major cause for concern in enforcement is bureaucratic delay, with a backlog of cases at both the civil and criminal courts. This means that cases can run for five years or more. There is also a lack of transparency, particularly at a local level. A significant feature of the IP environment in India is the large number of small players infringing IP rights. This means that seizures tend to be small, which requires a sustained and financially draining effort in order to make an impact.

For more about intellectual property and legal writing, visit our dedicated page here.