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Unit 8: World Trade Organization
geographical origin of biological material used for invention; (ii) Anticipation notes
having regard to the knowledge, oral or otherwise available within local or
indigenous community in India or elsewhere.
l z Copyright: A copyright prohibits persons from reproducing or ‘copying’ any ‘literary,
dramatic, musical work’ without the consent of the owner who has the copyright over that
work. This protection also applies to cinematograph films, sound recordings and now,
computer programmes.
The TRIPS Agreement mentions that ”copyright protection shall extend to expressions and
not to ideas, procedures and methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such”. Just
as ‘commercial use or utility’ is an important precondition for the granting of a patent,
ideas should have crystallised as expressions or artistic forms for the granting of a patent.
Copyright subsists in the following class of ‘works’:
z Literary Work;
z Dramatic work; and
z Artistic works.
l z Trademarks: A trademark is a visual symbol in the form of a word, device, name, letter
or numeral, brand, heading, signature or label or any combination of these that enable a
person to make a connection between a product and the company involved in offering the
product. The company can be one involved in manufacturing goods or offering services. In
case of the latter, the term ‘service mark’ is used.
l z Indian Act: The Trademarks Act of 1999 came into effect on September 15, 2003, mentions
the grounds for refusal of registration of a trademark. The reasons could be when the
trademark:
z Is devoid of any distinctive character, that there is difficulty in distinguishing
between goods or services;
z Consists exclusively of marks or indications which have become customary in the
current language, that is, an absence of distinctiveness;
z Is of such a nature as to deserve the public or cause confusion;
z Contains or comprises any matter that hurts religious feelings;
z Comprises or contains scandalous or obscene matter; and
z Consists exclusively of the shape of a good, e.g. the photo of mango by itself cannot
be a trademark.
Under the Trade Marks Act of 1999, there is provision for infringement of a trademark.
l z Geographical Indications: Geographical indications are place, names used to identify the
origin and quality, reputation or other characteristics of products. The examples usually
are “Champagne”, “Tequila” or “Roquefort”. However, countries such as India would like
“Kanjivaram Saree” and perhaps even “Mysore Dosa” to become standard examples.
Protection required under the TRIPS Agreement is defined in two Articles. All products
are covered by Article 22, which defines a standard level of protection. This says that
geographical indications have to be protected in order to avoid misleading the public and
to prevent unfair competition.
The protection being provided exclusively under Article 23 for wines and spirits is
unfortunately not available to several products from the developing world.
l z Layout Designs (Topographies) of Integrated Circuits: With regard to the treaty on
intellectual property in respect of Integrated Circuits (IPIC Treaty), members agreed to
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