With
the upcoming technologies, the global economy is growing very fast due to the year-by-year
under profit balance-sheet of corporate multi-national companies. The same
growth is not seen in various National and SME’s. One reason behind this poor
growth in National and SME’s is lack of awareness about the hidden IP in their organizations.
These organizations if make aware about those hidden IP’s which if get
protection can earn huge revenue for the organization.
Introduction of IPR
Intellectual
Property Rights (IPR) refers to a set of exclusive rights which are product of
our intellect or capability of mind. Intellectual Property (IP) is an intangible form of assets which can be
broadly divided into two categories: a) Industrial property which covers
inventions (patents), discoveries, trademarks, trade-secrets, industrial
design, symbol, geographical indications of source; and b) Copyright which
includes literary, musical and artistic works covering poems, novels,
play-games, films, albums, drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures.
IPR
vs. Business World
Intellectual
Property (IP) can generate business if it is market driven, significant,
economical and inventive. IP when protected legally and have market demand can
become a valuable business asset. The strategic utilization of these assets can
enhance the market value of the organization.
Patent
is a set of exclusive rights given by the government (excluding others from
selling, using or making the invention) to an inventor or its assignee for a
limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention.
Intellectual
Property (IP) in the form of Patents can help in changing innovative ideas into
products which can generates business for the organization. For example,
patents of novel drugs, novel and inventive mobile-phones technologies etc.
Any
confidential business information which provides competitive edge to the
organization over its competitors can be considered as trade secret. Trade
secret includes sale methods, distribution methods, consumer profiles,
advertising strategies, list of supplier and clients, and manufacturing process
of the products.
One
can earn huge compared to their competitors by protecting their IP in the form
of Trade-Secret. Organization can maintain their trade-secret by limiting it to one person or by signing non-disclosure agreement with their
employees e.g. Coca-Cola maintaining the secret of their flavor till-date and
only two persons are familiar with that particular flavored compound.
Trademark
is name, word, phrase, logo, symbol or a combination of these elements which
distinct products, services of any individual or business organization from its
competitors. Its unregistered symbol is ™ or ℠
and registered symbol is ®.
Trademark
represents the face of any business organization in the form of quality
products or better services and ultimately effecting sale of entrepreneur IP
asset e.g. Coca-Cola, Horlicks, Xerox, Cadbury, Nestle etc.. Any organization
can go for the licensing or franchising or assignment or transfer of its
reputed trademark / service-mark to any third party against any fixed amount of
money. For example, franchising of McDonalds, KFC etc. over the globe.
A
patent owner only has the right to use, sale, transfer, license and mortgage
the patent. A license to use the patent can be with or without the transfer of
any interest in the patent.
Inventor
or owner of the patent can seek a high amount as royalty for licensing the
patent to any third party or for transferring the know-how of the patented
technology. The loyalty can be as advance single payment or yearly payment. The
research organizations or those organizations which are not capable to
commercialize the patented technology can license / transfer know-how of their
patented technology.
Copyright
in simple words is “right to copy.” Copyright
gives exclusive rights to creator of an original work for a limited period of
time by the concerned government. Its symbol is ©.
One
can prevent others to use his/her copyrighted ideas and can license / transfer his/her
copyright to any third person or publishing house against a sum of money as
royalty. The publishing house can produce a large number of copies for selling
in global or territorial market and can earn good revenue.
f) Business from Industrial Designs
/ Design Patents
Industrial
designs (ID) mean design applied to any industrial article or product.
Industrial Design is a combination of creative art and applied technology to
improve the artistic and market value of the product. Designs are patentable
only in United States of America while designs are registerable in Kenya, Japan, South
Korea and Hungary. In India, designs are protected under copyright
act. Some examples of design are: bottle design, motorbike design, motorcar
design, computer icon design, photo-frame design etc.
Organizations
in the business world are constantly trying to improve the product’s
marketability and production which can be easily achieved by using attractive
and easily useable industrial design of their products e.g. design of
soft-drinks bottle. The resulting increase in sales of the product increase
revenue of the organizations.
Finally,
we can conclude that Intellectual Property (IP) can be the best source of
building revenue and to get competitive
edge over competitors for various organizations but the need is to identify
and utilize that IP in your organization.
