Industrial Property or Intellectual Property?

In the previous post we saw what is law and international law.Now we will get to know what is intellectual property and its international aspect.Intellectual property is an area where every business is rushing to protect , either it is an MNC or SME or R&D etc. Intellectual property is now prevailing almost in all kinds of things that we use in our day to day life for eg. be it a mobile,TV, noodles,apparel,pen,pencil and the list is endless.Earlier "intellectual property" was commonly known as industrial property. It was in the late 19th century that the term intellectual property replaced industrial property which was coined by Josef and Edmond Picard.It is called as intellectual property since such property is created by a human mind or intellect.Lets explore briefly as to what is property before getting to know what intellectual property is?

Property means one which confers bundle of rights through ownership and possession and there is also exclusive right over such property.There are different types of property like corporeal and incorporeal property.Rights granted over tangible things like building,land are called as corporeal property and rights granted over intangible things like idea,expression are incorporeal property.Thus intellectual properties fall under the category of incorporeal property.

What is intellectual property?

Any product created by human mind or any idea perceived by human intellect which is reduced to product is called as intellectual property.Intellectual property is intangible in nature but such property is granted rights only if it has been reduced to a tangible medium.For eg. if you have an idea to invent a device or any product for that matter, right will be granted over such idea only if it has been created.If it is an invention then Patent will be granted. Supposing if it is a story book or any artistic work or any photo taken by you, then you have a copyright over such book,artistic work or photography.The copyright is given for expressions. Each and every IP right is different in its own kind.

Other different forms of intellectual property are Trademark, Designs, Geographical Indication, Semiconductor integrated circuits and layout designs and Trade secret.These will be explained in the forth coming posts.As every law has its source, intellectual property laws also have their own sources.

Sources of International Intellectual Property Law can be bifurcated as Berne convention and Paris convention.In the history of Intellectual property, Paris convention is a landmark source of law that was convened in 1883. It had provisions mainly for Patents,Trademark,Industrial Design and later Service mark,Trade name were included.Exactly after 3 years in 1886 Berne convention came into effect that contained provisions for literary , artistic works which is the source of Copyright Law.

The other sources are International conventions such as Rome convention,Universal Copyright Convention,Hague Convention,Madrid Agreement, madrid protocol,Convention on biological diversity,UPOV ,Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy,ICANN etc.Apart from conventions there are also treaties like Patent Cooperation Treaty, Budapest Treaty,TRIPS Agreement,WIPO Internet Treaty.With respect to International custom ,passing off is the only custom that has been accepted as a common law remedy in intellectual property laws.

Thus, we saw briefly of what is property,intellectual property and its international sources.In the next post we shall deal elaborately with each and every convention.

Note:For extensive reading on this topic kindly refer the book: International Intellectual Property Law, Edited by Anthony D' Amato and Doris Estellee Long ,Published by Kluwer Law International.