GS 2, Indian Polity, TLP-UPSC Mains Answer Writing
2. How are industrial disputes related to intellectual property rights settled in India? Explain the existing institutional mechanism. (10 Marks)
भारत में बौद्धिक संपदा अधिकारों से संबंधित औद्योगिक विवादों का निपटारा कैसे किया जाता है? मौजूदा संस्थागत तंत्र की व्याख्या करें।
Approach
Students are expected to write about the IPR and disputes arising out of it. Then simply highlight the mechanism in India to resolve the such disputes with examples and write about existing institutions mechanism to handle the cases.
Introduction
Intellectual Property rights means providing property rights through patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Holders of intellectual property rights have a monopoly on the usage of property or items for a specified time period. And IPR disputes predominantly pertained to infringement/ enforcement actions against parties with no contractual obligations.
Body
- The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has been the main statute in India dealing with the two cited alternate forms of dispute resolution.
- Arbitration, mediation, settlement and conciliation are some of the models which are the alternatives to court based litigation.
- If Alternative dispute resolution methods fails to be the effective choice for the determination of disputes related to intellectual property rights, they can be used for narrowing down the issues for contestability in a traditional model of litigation.
- The Indian judiciary has effectively tried to bring mediation and settlement for intellectual property disputes in the traditional model of litigation, through the reading of Section 89 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908.
- In India some legislations involving IPR laws are India’s Patents act of 1970, patent rules and Patent Amendment rules in 2005 set the laws governing patents in India.
- In India, trademark litigation covers an overwhelming landscape in the intellectual property related litigation. Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, 1999 and the Indian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy for the adjudication of disputes and The Trade Marks Act 1999.
- As per Copyright Act 1957 infringement of copyright in any work or the infringement of any other right conferred by this Act shall be instituted in the district court having jurisdiction.
- The alternative dispute resolution techniques contain various types of dispute resolution methods such as negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, conciliation, Lok Adalat and arbitration.
- The ADR method is mainly focused on problem-solving but not on declaring winners or losers and therefore we can say that the ADR techniques can be also known as a ‘win-win strategy’.
- For India, the WTO’s TRIPs agreement became binding from 2005 onwards as the country has got a ten-year transition period (1995-2005) to make the domestic legislation compatible with TRIPs.
- TRIPs relate to the country’s Patent Laws and have a very serious bearing on major areas of the country’s well being – health, agriculture, research, etc.
- The National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy 2016 was adopted in May 2016 as a vision document to guide future development of IPRs in the country.
Institutions:
- The World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO“) offers specialized procedures at the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center focused on technology and IP disputes.
- Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement) obliges members of the World Trade Organization to provide the IP enforcement mechanisms mentioned in the agreement. The Agreement seeks to ensure that civil, administrative and criminal procedures and remedies meet prescribed minimum standards.
Conclusion
India has made a number of changes in its IPR regime to increase efficiency and has cut down the time required to settle disputes. The culture of innovation is taking centre stage in the country. An efficient and equitable intellectual property system can help all countries to realize intellectual property’s potential as a catalyst for economic development and social & cultural well-being.
