Intellectual property and copy right law
From - Hardeep singh
Date - 16/08/2012

Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of expressions for which a set of rights are recognized under the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to various markets, machines, musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and applications. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.
Intellectual property is the general name given to the laws covering
Patents is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention.
The procedure for granting patents, the requirements placed on the patentee, and the extent of the exclusive rights vary widely between countries according to national laws and international agreements. Typically, however, a patent application must include one or more claims defining the invention which must meet the relevant patentability requirements such as novelty and non-obviousness. The exclusive right granted to a patentee in most countries is the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or distributing the patented invention without permission
Under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, patents should be available in WTO member states for any invention, in all fields of technology, and the term of protection available should be a minimum of twenty years. In many countries, certain subject areas are excluded from patents, such as business methods and computer programs.
Trademark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify for consumers that the products or services on or with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, designated for a specific market, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities.
A trademark may be designated by the following symbols:
™ (for an unregistered trade mark, that is, a mark used to promote or brand goods)
℠ (for an unregistered service mark, that is, a mark used to promote or brand services)
® (for a registered trademark)
A trademark is typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements. There is also a range of non-conventional trademarks comprising marks which do not fall into these standard categories, such as those based on color, smell, or sound.
The owner of a trademark may initiate legal proceedings for trademark infringement to prevent unauthorized use of that trademark. Most countries require formal registration of a trademark as a precondition for pursuing this type of action. A few countries, including the United States and Canada, also recognize common law trademark rights, which means action can be taken to protect a trademark that is in use but not registered. Generally, common law trademarks do not offer the holder as much legal protection as registered trademarks.
The term trademark is also used informally to refer to any distinguishing attribute by which an individual is readily identified, such as the well-known characteristics of celebrities. When a trademark is used in relation to services rather than products, it may sometimes be called a service mark, particularly in the Australia.
Design An industrial design right is an intellectual property right that protects the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or