1.

Introduction Lalit
2. Copyright Laws Kirti

Copyright laws essentially protect original expressions rather than abstract ideas. These
rights are granted to artists, authors and creators of literary and artistic works. (films,
literature, musical compositions, choreography, photographs, sculpture, drawings,
paintings, maps, dramatic, technical drawings, sound recordings, cinematographic films,
etc.) There is a specific duration for having these rights after which the works must be
made public.

Duration and Author for different kinds of works with copyrights:

● Computer-generated work: 60 years from year-end of production, The person
who creates the work
● Artistic: throughout the existence of the artist and 60 years beyond his death,
Artist
● Photograph: 60 years from year-end of production, Photographer
● Sound recordings and Cinematographic films: 60 years from the time work is
made public or from the time it was produced, Producer
● Literary/Dramatic: author’s lifetime and 60 years post-death, Author
● Music: 60 years from year-end of production, Composer

Rights are given to the Copyright Holder:

● Can showcase his work to the general public
● Can translate his work or adapt his work
● Can make a film of dramatic/literary/musical piece of art
● Can make a sound recording of dramatic/literary/musical piece of art
● Can reproduce his work in any material form
● Can make a public issue of the content created if not done previously
● Can offer the work for sale/rent (pertaining to a computer program,
cinematographic film or sound recording)

3. Trade Marks and Trade secrets Lalit

4. Trade-related aspects of Intellectual property rights Bharath - done
5. Intellectual Property Rights: Boon or Bane Manasa
6. Major IPR issues during Covid 19 Apoorva
7. Covid Vaccine and IPR Patent waiver Shivam

7) Covid Vaccine and IPR Patient Waiver: Shivam

● India, South Africa and many emerging economies pushed WHO and US for a waiver
from patent protection of covid vaccines more than 100 countries supported the same
 ● The proposal was accepted by the Biden Government which are codified in Trade
Organizations Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual property rights ( TRIPS)
● The intention behind the waiver protection was to even distribution of covid vaccines in
all parts of the world
● more than 44% and 51% of the population of the US and UK were vaccinated as
compared to Developing Economies with India at 9.4% and all of Asia and Africa at
4.4%and Below 1% respectively.
● High prices and monopoly was not the biggest problem behind uneven distribution and
reduced cost problem was high Entry cost and risky investment in Research and
Development

Arguments in Favour of Patient Waivers:

● The pandemic is a global Public health problem

● Patient holders cannot produce enough vaccines to meet demand
● Public funding is used for the development of some covid vaccines

Arguments against a Patient waiver:

● Reduction in the return for patent holders on their R&D investment in the vaccine.
● It requires heavy investment in highly specialized equipment, infrastructure and
emerging technologies by those who decide to manufacture the vaccines.
● A possible precedent with regard to possible new solutions that could emerge to combat
COVID-19.

What happened after the Covid Vaccine IPR debate:

Global Context:

Negotiations at the World Trade Organization were prolonged, and it took months for countries
to reach an agreement, particularly on the scope and duration of a waiver. Though a
three-quarters vote of WTO members may obtain a TRIPS waiver, it was unlikely that members
would deviate from tradition.

The European Union stated it was open to talks after Biden's announcement, but Germany was
opposed to a waiver, and other EU and WTO members were hesitant. Meanwhile, the EU is
promoting its own strategy to boost vaccine production, boost exports, and improve the use of
compulsory licensing

Indian Context:

Following recommendations were given by the Committee:

● The Committee emphasizes the importance of giving Compulsory Licenses to

businesses and individuals who want to use patents to help the public in times of
emergency and catastrophe. It goes on to say that India was prudent in only exercising
 the Compulsory Licensing provision once when the patent was for generic production of
a life-saving Nexavar medicine at a reasonable price.
● The Committee believes that, while caution is required in granting a Compulsory License
on a patent, it could be considered in the instance of the development of medicines and
vaccines for the treatment of Covid-19, given that the pandemic has caused a public
health emergency in India. Generic manufacture in big quantities without the need for
patents would be beneficial.
1. Introduction
It is known that the inventor of the machine, the author of a book, or the writer of music ‘own’
their work somehow. Because of this ownership, we probably have been made aware of the fact
that we cannot just copy or buy a copy of their works without consideration of their rights, which
are further known as Intellectual Property Rights.
In a single sentence, IPR is “Exclusive rights over the creations of the mind.”
These are made of three portions, which are-
Intellectual: Creation of minds, something which is tangible but has intangible value
Property: attributes of tangible properties, ie, right to possess, right to use, and right to be
disposed of
Rights: Intellectual properties adapted into rights under statutory provisions, determines the
duration of ownership
While considering whether or not something should be considered as Intellectual Property and
thus come under the protection of the law as IP Rights depends upon the following four factors:
1. Novelty: Invention must be new and not known previously
2. Non-obviousness: Must have an inventive step, must not be obvious to any person in
that field (PHOSITA)
3. Utility: Invention must be of some use to the society (depends on interpreted as legal by
the law of that land)
4. Enablement: Providing sufficient and detailed information about the invention

There are several forms of IPR which are further discussed as follow:
Patents:

A patent is a grant given by the Government to an inventor for having made an invention.

Once issued, the Patent gives the inventor the right to exclude others from making, using,
selling, importing or offering for sale the invention

It is for the duration of the patent term (usually 20 years from the date of filing the patent
application)

Copyrights:

Copyrights are a form of IP rights given to an author, artist, composer, or programmer to exclude
others from either copying or publishing literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, or software works.
Trademark:

Trademark is a unique symbol that is used in marketing business products by a person who
owns the symbol. The trademark owner will have a monopoly over the usage of that symbol.

Trade secrets:

Any information that is not generally known, that will give a business advantage or is
commercially useful. Sometimes it is considered and referred to as confidential information. It
may be a formula, process, design, device etc.

3. Trademark and Trade secrets

Trademark: Trademark is a sign or symbol capable of distinguishing goods and services of one
company from that of another and covers from a symbol, tag, font, to trade dress.
Trademark encounters happen to us from a visit to a shopping mall to an ad break on TV. They
are important and indispensable in the present business scenario.
Trademark infringement case example
The Coca Cola Company v. Bisleri International Pvt. Ltd.
The defendant Bisleri sold and assigned the trademark MAAZA to Coca Cola by a master
agreement including formulation rights, know-how, intellectual property rights and goodwill for
India to Coca Cola, but in 2008 it filed for registration in Turkey for the mark of MAAZA and
started exporting fruit drinks under the same name. Coca Cola then claimed for permanent
injunction and infringement damages of the trademark.

Trade secrets: An information is qualified as a trade secret if it is:

commercially valuable
known only to a limited group of persons
subjected to reasonable steps taken by the rightful holder of the information to keep it secret,
These steps might include confidentiality agreements between business partners and
employees. Therefore any unauthorized acquisition, use or disclosure of such secret information
which is contrary to honest commercial practices is termed as an unfair practice and a violation
of the trade secret protection.
MAJOR IPR ISSUES DURING COVID19

Counterfeit Products

● There were many counterfeit critical products such as sanitisers, PPE kits that came in
the domestically market and/or were being imported during these times using the
branding and design of established brands such as Dettol, Purell.

● During the COVID second wave, several counterfeit drugs and medicines were also
being circulated in the market including but not limited to RAT kits and several other
drugs which were in high demand like FabiFlu and Remdesivir.

Turnover of personnel and trade secret misappropriation

● During the COVID there was an economic downturn and multiple organizations were
laying off employees in large numbers and there was a lot of attrition with a lot of people
even some of them having access to trade secrets of the company.

● The owner of trade secrets must keep a handle on and record any transitions including
probative entry and exit interviews with certain personnel.

● License arrangements, particularly exclusive license arrangements that were there

before COVID, may be at risk of being devalued if everyone is delivering crisis innovative
products that would have otherwise been reserved for the businesses with these
licenses.

● A consideration is to affirmatively and proactively offer royalty-free licenses with limited

scope and field of use and limited-term, rather than waiting on a compulsory license
being issued.

Licensing arrangements and limited licenses

● Under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 offenders can be met with the strict
penal action. Some of the IPC Sections pertaining to drugs are:

a) Section 274 (adulteration of drugs),

b) Section 275 (sale of adulteration of drugs),
c) Section 276 (Sale of drug as a different drug or preparation),
d) Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property)

Hence the brands must be up to date with all the fresh filings with respect to
Trade-Marks, Copyrights, designs etc. which may be deceptively similar to the IP rights
enjoyed by them.
 ● Brands should have specific Trade Secret Protection Programs to help reduce the risk,
impact and likelihood of trade secret loss, theft or misappropriation incidents through
enterprise essential training and awareness.

● They should have compliance monitoring techniques to ensure acceptable employee

and contractor behaviours, and ensure immediate investigative practices to remediate
deviant behaviours.

● A layered risk mitigation approach should help reduce the number of employees who
routinely save trade secret information in their trade secret piggy banks.

TRIPS and Doha Declaration

Capitalism Communalism U Socialism

Competition Development

Intellectual Development Equal Distribution

Race and Growth Contentment

Reward Equality and Distribution

The WTO has a multilateral agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) facilitating trade in knowledge and creativity, resolving trade disputes over intellectual
property (IP), and assuring WTO members the scope to achieve their domestic policy
objectives. The Agreement legally recognizes the significance of the connection between IP and
trade, and the need for a balanced IP system.

TRIPS and Public Health:

The WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, agreed by WTO
members in 2001, helped in framing the health policy context of the intellectual property
system⁽¹⁾. The Declaration identified specific options, also termed ‘flexibilities’, open for nations
to address public health needs. The inclusion of public health in Sustainable Development
Goals stressed its significance.
2003 Waiver and 2017 Amendment:
On 30 August 2003, the member countries agreed on legal changes that will relax the terms for
poorer countries to import cheaper generics made under compulsory licensing if they are unable
to manufacture the medicines themselves. The decision waives countries’ obligations under a
provision of the TRIPS Agreement that says production under compulsory licensing must be
predominantly for the domestic market.

The member countries approved changes to the agreement to make the waiver permanent. The
amendment took effect on 23 January 2017 after acceptance by two-thirds of the WTO’s
members and replaced the 2003 waiver for members who have accepted the amendment.

Developed vs Developing Countries:

TRIPS boost the world economy in dire times like pandemics by minimizing licensing fee to
make vaccines. It also allows developing countries to make generic medicines. TRIPS drives
further innovation by setting higher standards. Developed countries pushing towards TRIPS
Plus by having stringent rules and Data Exclusivity especially in the case of Pharma Industries.

Intellectual Property Rights: Boon or Bane

Every coin has heads and tails. In the same way, IPR has both pros and cons. On a case by
case basis, you can conclude whether IPR is a boon or bane in that particular case.

PROS of Intellectual Property Rights:

● Patents, copyrights and trademarks all provide important incentives and protection for
both your original ideas and your business.
● IP rights also foster innovation and invention because they encourage individuals to
come up with new ideas. When individuals are guaranteed rights against infringement,
they put in a lot of effort to generate new ideas as all the profits/fame because of those
ideas belongs to only them.
● Copyright laws protect artistic creations.
● Trade secret protection is especially important for preventing former employees from
disclosing key information about the company and its processes.
● Securing IP protection is also important for proving your company's worth to potential
investors.
● Some countries offer tax breaks on profits generated by registered IP.

In 2020, research and development spending in the pharmaceutical industry totalled nearly 200
billion U.S. dollars globally. This research is responsible for the creation of many new drugs and
treatments. This kind of spending is possible only because they are guaranteed patents on their
invention. Since companies know only they can generate returns on their invention, they are
willing to spend such huge amounts on R & D.

CONS of Intellectual Property Rights:

● Obtaining a patent, registering a trademark, and maintaining those protections can be

expensive and time taking. In the case of large corporations, this might not be a great
deal but for start-ups this adds up to a substantial amount.
● IP opponents also argue that ideas cannot be owned. The whole idea of intellectual
property stems from physical property, so ideas are treated as tangible objects when, in
fact, they are intangible.
● Copyright protections are sometimes granted to ideas that need no protection. For
instance, Amazon patented “pictures on a white background,” which is a prime example
of patent frivolity.
● In return for providing exclusivity, the patent owner is required to reveal the definite idea
portrayed in patents, including how they work and what makes them different. This gives
the contenders precise and explicit facts regarding how to manufacture and work these
innovations. Hence, once the patent expires, these parties can create counterfeits with
ease, limiting the market advantage of the patent holder.