Law Firms- Intellectual Property Rights and ADR

SiebenIP is an Indian law firm which was founded By Jaya Bhatnagar. The law firm stands out in providing legal services globally. It is also best known for the IPR services it offers to its customers.

The best law firms in Delhi have their own team of dedicated and unrivaled lawyers who work together with technical experts. These law firms offer a vast variety of services. These duties include services regarding –

  1. Intellectual Property Rights
  2. Competition Laws
  3. Alternative Dispute Resolution
  4. Drafting Of Technical And Legal Documents
  5. Translation Of Documents And Litigation

Intellectual Property Rights

These law firms based in Delhi continually adapts itself to meet the requirement of their clients. This adaption can be seen in an essential aspect of IPR. The law firm provides standing watch of forged Products And Reporting The Same.

Intellectual Property Rights are legal rights overseeing the use of creations of the human mind. These rights have been started to be recognized and protected in recent times only.

The recognition and protection of these rights are of recent origin. Patents, designs, and trademarks are considered as industrial property. These rights are based upon the international convention for the protection of industries and interests of their owners (Paris convention). Under intellectual property rights protection, the following can be protected-

  1. Object patents
  2. Utility models
  3. Industrial designs
  4. Trademarks
  5. Service marks
  6. Trade names
  7. Indications of source or appellations or origin
  8. The repression of unfair competition when copyrights
  9. Geographical indicators
  10. Layout Designs, and confidential information

Alternative Dispute Resolution in India

ADR( alternate dispute resolution) is often also called as an external dispute resolution in various countries around the globe like India. Alternative dispute resolution includes dispute resolution methods and techniques as a means for disagreeing parties to agree short of litigation. It is a collective term for the procedures that parties can settle conflicts, with the guidance of a third party.

Despite popular resistance to ADR by many famous parties and their advocates, ADR has gained general approval among both the general populace and the legal workers in recent years. In fact, some courts now need some parties to resort to ADR of some type, usually agreement, before allowing the partie’s  cases to be tried. Additionally, parties to acquisition transactions and mergers are frequently turning to ADR to settle post-acquisition disputes.

Intellectual property rights in India

India has one of the most meticulously curated constitutions in the world. There was a committee of 300 elected members who worked day and night for 3 years to form the longest constitutions in the history of the world.

India is a land of the free. Recently, the legalization of the fundamental right to privacy has reinstated this fact. People are free to go wherever they like, marry whoever they like, do whatever occupation they like etc. This also includes the freedom to come up with ideas in the interest of the nation or for one’s personal interest. This is where intellectual property rights in India come into play.

What are Intellectual property rights in India?

  • Intellectual property law deals with the rules for securing and enforcing legal rights to inventions, designs, and artistic works.
  • The purpose of these laws is to give an incentive for people to develop creative works that benefit society, by ensuring they can profit from their works without fear of misappropriation by others.

Need of Intellectual property rights in India - SiebenIP

What is the need for intellectual property rights in India?

  • The unpredictable nature of intellectual property presents difficulties when compared with a traditional property. Unlike traditional property, intellectual property is “indivisible” – an unlimited number of people can use an intellectual good without it being depleted.
  • Additionally, investments in intellectual goods suffer from problems of appropriation – as, unlike a landowner, a producer of information can’t put a fence around his idea or can usually do very little to stop their first buyer from replicating it and selling it at a lower price.

Hence, the intellectual property rights in India are to be balanced in such a way so that they are strong enough to encourage the creation of intellectual goods but not so strong that they prevent the goods’ wide use.

Types of Intellectual property rights in India

If you look at it, one would think how can you categorize creativity or decide what falls under which category? Well, that is why there are only 2 broad categories which decide the type of property.

  • The first one is Copyright and rights related to copyright. It includes protection for artistic works such as books and other writings, musical compositions, paintings and sculptures for a minimum period of 50 years after the death of the author. This also includes the rights of ps performers, producers, and broadcasting organizations. The main social purpose of the protection of copyright and related rights is to encourage and reward creative work.
  • The second type in intellectual property rights in India is the Industrial Property. 
One is characterized as the protection of distinctive signs, in particular, trademarks (which distinguish the goods or services) and geographical indications (which identify a good as originating in a place where the good is attributed)other types of industrial property are protected primarily to stimulate innovation, design and the creation of technology. In this category fall invention (protected by patents), industrial designs and trade secrets.

IPR - SiebenIP

Important characteristics of the intellectual property rights in India

  • These rights are given for a finite duration depending upon which kind of right has been applied for. It is, however, generally for 20 years.
  • It protects the owner from the infringement of the copyrighted item. If infringement does occur, rights to intellectual property can be enforced in federal court.
  • If you have created or obtained the rights to something unique, an IPR Law firm in Delhi can help you protect your interests.

India is a secular state, which means that there are close to 20 religions actively practiced in the country. With these religions come to their cultural practices and festivals and different way of living. As the drafting committee members were against the idea of turning India into a Hindu Pakistan, hence they had to accommodate every small religious belief that an individual of the minority would possess.

This has in fact led to the Constitution being a bit hard to translate for a common man. There is a certain gap between the people and the law as so many acts, mandates, categories, and subcategories have made it hard for the people to directly approach the law. The option is the best law firms in Delhi which bridge the gap between the two.

The IPR law firms in Delhi work towards –

  • They ensure that the law is not being misused in any way and that people do not take advantages of the loopholes.
  • In addition to this, they find the quickest way possible to get the justice that the client is seeking. Before filing a lawsuit, however, owners will want to consult with an attorney and carefully consider whether litigation is in their best interests. Infringement cases are expensive to prosecute, and there is always a risk that the owner’s rights once dragged to court will have less market value than before.
  • Explaining the meaning of the various sections to a layman, so they know how the law is made to protect them.

Trademark registration in India – An overview

A trademark is a visual symbol, which may be a word, name, device, label or numerals used by a business to distinguish its goods or services from other similar goods or services originating from a different business. Trademarks are used to protect the interests of a company/brand.

However, a trademark can’t be registered if it is similar to an already existing registered trademark or if it is offensive, generic or contains specially protected emblems.

Trademark registration in Delhi | SiebenIP

Before jumping into the process of trademark registration in India, it is important to know that registering a trademark is not mandatory. There are, however many additional benefits of registering a trademark, let’s have a look.

Legal protection against illegal trademark infringement –

Owners of a registered trademark in India are allowed to sue for the damages caused by the misuse of the name of the company.

Creation of an intangible asset for an organization –

It can later be sold or franchised. It will create a unique identity for the company so that the competitors won’t be able to create similar services/ products.

Goodwill and trust building among the customers –

The goodwill and trust will further attract them towards the brand. Trademarking substantially reduces the number of similar fake products in the market which instills a sense of belief in the customer.

Any person/ group of people claiming to be the proprietor (the creators) of the trademark can apply for the trademark registration in India.

Now after a company decides to go ahead with trademark registration, in India the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act 1958 comes into play. After the application for obtaining a trademark is filled, a thorough inspection is conducted. After a positive result from the inspection, the MARK is advertised in the official journal and after 4 months of being unopposed, the trademark registration is approved.

After obtaining the trademark, even though the protection is perpetual but it needs to be renewed every 10 years to prevent any misuse of the name. Any trademark that has been passive continuously for more than 5 years stands for cancellation of the registered trademark.

Now, these trademarks can be registered online as well, so no hassle of going to the courthouse again and again. However, legal advisors would still be required you guide you every step of the way to make the process smooth.

These days many companies are providing trademark registration in Delhi but it is a tricky task that can’t be accomplished by everyone. Only the right experienced company will fetch you, the desired trademark in the least possible time. Hence, choose wisely.