Business Law

 Answer to Q-1.

Introduction-

Every life living on planet earth is equally important and we should make sure that we do not
harm any of it just for the sake of our benefit. Biodiversity is the various life forms that exist
in our ecosystem. Presence of biological diversity is really important for the smooth
functioning of the ecosystem, if we disturb or destroy any of the element of ecosystem, it will
affect the overall ecosystem and will have ill-effects on natural life cycle. Ecosystem consist
of many natural resources that are very important for the survival of life on earth.
Biodiversity supports the connection of many living organisms like terrestrial, aquatic,
microorganisms, bacteria, plants, etc. India with ever increasing population is facing some
biodiversity dangers as this is putting a strain on natural environment and depleting the
natural resources at a faster pace. With increasing population, comes the issue of increasing
pollution, increased use of natural resources, etc. which has led to degradation of our
ecosystem.

Concept-

After 1990, India is progressing at a faster pace with opening its doors for outside world and
assisting them to participate in our economy. With this the country started progressing fine
economically but it led to degradation of ecosystem and the biodiversity. On 5th June 1992,
India signed the UN convention on biological diversity and Indian government enacted the
Biological Diversity Act, 2002. There are many objectives to enact this law and they feel it is
really important to enact a law around this so that everyone takes this seriously and respect
the ecosystem and just not degrade it for their personal benefit.
The main objective of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 are-

 To conserve and safeguard the biological diversity in India.

 To regulate the use and access to resources in the ecosystem.

  To ensure the sustainable use of the components of biological diversity and safeguard
it for future generations.

 To ensure fair and equitable benefit from the utilization of the biological resources.

 To establish government bodies like National Biodiversity Authority at the national

level and State Biodiversity Boards at state level.

Let us now discuss some important features and provisions of the biological diversity Act,
2002-

1. Knowledge of local communities must be respected and protected.

2. The NBA and SBB need to consult with Biodiversity Management while making any
decisions related to biodiversity relates issues.

3. All the foreign nationals or organizations should get an approval from the NBA to get
any knowledge or biological resources.

4. The extinct or threatened species should be protected at all cost.

5. Indian organization must intimate the respective SBB before obtaining any
biodiversity resources and SBB has the right to restrain them if they violate the law.

6. There should be a Biodiversity fund created at national and state level to conserve the
biodiversity.

7. BMC has to prepare the People’s Biodiversity Register after consultation with local
people.

8. Protection of the rich knowledge and biodiversity of India from the foreign nationals
and organizations.

Conclusion-

Thus, ecosystem provides us some natural gifts like free oxygen, fresh air, food, water, soil,
etc and we should make a sustainable use of the same. The ecosystem also provides some
services such as soli erosion, controlling the climate change, etc. Hence, it is our duty to
conserve such biodiversity for our survival and make an optimum utilization of such
resources for the benefit. Due to its importance only, government has to enact a law to
preserve biodiversity in the country.

 Answer to Q-2.

Introduction-

Every industry has many firms operating and selling same kind of products and services and
they compete with each other to survive and be profitable at same time. So, competition is
sellers trying to convert prospect customer into their favour instead of their rival firm and
thus getting the benefit from it. The competition Act, 2002 was enacted on 13th January, 2003
to regulate the competition and relates practices in India. It includes some criminal and civil
provisions to prevent anti-competitive practices in the Indian markets. This act came into
existence to reduce some negative practices like, companies coming in contract with
themselves and reducing the competition in market, the second is abuse of dominant position
in the market and third is merger of 2 or more big companies and creating a monopoly in
market.

Concept-

This law was mainly enacted to reduce the practices having an ill-effect on competition on
various markets. There are 4 major elements of the Competition Act, 2002 which are-
 Anti-competitive Agreements
 Abuse of Dominant Position
 Competition Advocacy
 Combination Regulations

The competition act is based on the new modern competition laws, the act ensures that there
is a healthy competition in the market and no companies are using any anti-competitive
practices to gain some advantage over others. There are some objectives of the Competitions
Act, 2002 which are-

 To prevent anti-competitive practices

  To protect the interest of customers.
 To prevent creation of monopolies.
 To provide legal framework for implementation of competition policies.
 To punish and penalise organizations using such practices.

There are some important features of the competition act, which should be discussed to
understand about the law, which are-

1. Prohibits anti-competitive agreements- An agreement which causes an adverse

effect on the existence of the competition is termed as anti-competitive agreement.

2. Prohibits abuse of dominant position- This means the abuse of dominant position
by a bigger firm on other small firms and gaining a competitive advantage by the
same. The law prohibits any company to indulge in such activities.

3. Provides for regulation of combinations- Combination refers to any type of

corporate structuring such as merger, amalgamation, acquisition, etc. If an
organization is able to form a combination with another firm, it may have some ill-
effects on the competition of the overall market.

The 2 examples where investigations and punishments were enforces under the competitions
act are-

1. Reliance Big entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Versus Tamil Nadu film exhibitors.

The case was files by Reliance entertainment against the Tamil Nadu film exhibitors
association under the section 19 of the competitors act, 2002. There was an agreement
between the informant and M/S Balaji Real Media Pvt. Ltd. and as per agreement they had to
distribute a film named Osthi in Tamil language. They also granted the satellite rights to Sun
Tv and later on TNFEA decided not to screen the film on any screens as satellite rights were
granted to Sun Tv. The informant told CCI that Sun TV owed some money to TNFEA and
that is why they ordered not to screen any films whose rights were given to Sun TV.
Thus, it came into existence that TNFEA is the biggest association of cinema theatre owners
in Tamil Nadu and they can control and restrict the market. After the case proceedings, CCI
directed TNFEA not to indulge in any anti-competitive practices and they also imposed some
penalty on TNFEA.

2. Indian national shipowner’s association Versus ONGC.

The case was filed by INSA against the ONGC under the section 4 of the act. The informant
stated that for procuring the services of the offshore support vessels, ONGC used to float
International Competitive bidding and the informant claimed that ONGC had a dominant
position in hiring of OSVs and it had put a one-sided clause and not open for negotiations.
But it was later on decided that the conduct of ONGC was driven by a response to an
exceptional change in market conditions and this they considered that in the present case the
conduct of ONGC does not abuse the dominant position within the Act and directed to close
the case.

 Answer to Q-3 (a).

Introduction-

There are some changes on how we do business now, with the new era, intellectual capital
has come into existence, which means the total of all intangible assets of a business-like
human capital, patents, goodwill, trademarks, etc. In India, we do have a statutory body that
administers and safeguards the IPR. India is a member of WTO and is also a part of the
TRIPS agreement. The law has introduced the Intellectual Property rights (IRP) which means
that a creator of that particular property has an exclusive right over the use of that creation for
certain period of time. IPRs enable the creators and inventors to invent new and advanced
items without thinking about the illegal use of that item. They can easily be given a patent
and copyright which allows them to use that item exclusively and it protects their right as
well in the eyes of law.

Concept-

In the business sense, IPR consist of trademarks, patents, copyrights, etc. It is really
important for businesses to understand the important of IPRs and develop their strategies
around it. They should be well aware about their rights and the rules and regulations of IPRs.
Organizations keeps on updating and produce new and advances products and services and
they have the right to keep these products protected and safeguard by using the patents and
copyrights under IPR.
In India, patents are regulated by the Patents Act, 1970 and it now extends to many fields like
technology, food, drugs, etc. A patent is a document that gives the creator or inventor the sold
right of the property. Patents are issues with the regulating authority after getting an
application by the creator. The main purpose of patents is to motivate the creators to get the
economic advantage of their creation and innovate more products later on. It gives the creator
a right to sell, own or use the creation.
Copyrights and relates rights are governed by the Copyright Act, 1957, it is a form of
intellectual property that protects the interest of creator or author who have produced the
original work. It gives a protection to the author and prevents other to reproduce that work. It
includes, creative work like a published book, musical work, a movie, etc.
Trademark is a unique symbol or name or a word which helps in identifying a product or
service and differentiate it from other product or services. It is governed by the Trademarks
Act, 1999. It gives the exclusive right to use that particular symbol or word or a name to the
trademark owner and protect their right against any infringements.

Conclusion-

I think in the above example, the siblings can use copyrights and trademark intellectual
property right for their brand “SamSam” as it will protect them against any misuse of their
name by other people. They should surely register the name for a trademark as it would help
them differentiating their brand from others and no one would be able to use it for their
product or services.

 Answer to Q-3 (b).

Introduction-

Organizations and individuals create intellectual property to gain an advantage and make
some profits out of it and in order to protect their right and to encourage them it is necessary
to provide remedies that can be accessed by them. Authorities and governing bodies have
crated various enforcement for the infringement actions. The owner has the right to seek
either reactive or proactive enforcement. The owner of IP can action these infringement
remedies like-

 Stop unauthorised use of their IP.

 Obtain recovery from the other party.
 Prevent any further infringement.
  They can also ask for some compensation for the damages.

Concept-

There are various laws that protect the IP rights in India, which are, Trade marks act,
Copyright act, Patent act, etc. There are some civil and criminal remedies under the law for
IPR enforcement.
The civil remedies under the law are-

1. Injunction- An injunction is a civil court order that orders the party to not carry out
any lawsuit.

2. Anton pillar order- This order permits the lawyer of the party who files the suit to
enter into the premises of infringers to get the evidence.

3. Order to deliver- This order asks the infringer to give the infringing goods to the
plaintiff.

4. An award for damages- Damages are gives to plaintiff to compensate for the loss
they incurred due to infringement.

The criminal remedies are as follows-

1. Filing a complaint with the magistrate.

2. FIR can be registered with the police.

3. Infringement of copyrights and falsification of trademarks is a cognisable offence.

4. An imprisonment of 6 months to 3 years and a fine of 50,000 to 2 lakhs can be levied.

5. Infringing goods can be seized or destroyed.

Conclusion-
With more and more innovation and new businesses coming into existence, it becomes
necessary to strengthen the Intellectual property system in the country. People should be
educated and made aware about their rights so that they can take any action when they face
such infringements. The enforcement agencies should keep a close on eye and they should try
to make the punishment harder for the infringer if possible.

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