International overview on intellectual property

International patent law International copyright law International trademark law

About international intellectual property lawInternational intellectual property law is a patchwork area of intersecting multilateral and bilateral agreements and their resulting harmonization of national law. It has become an increasingly important and frequently litigated areas particularly in patent, copyright and trademark arenas.

In addition, in the past few decades, there have been louder calls for the protection of domain names, databases, software, and traditional knowledge. Many of these cutting edge intellectual property issues are addressed on an international level through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

International patent law•WIPO is a United Nations agency "dedicated to

developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP) system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development while safeguarding the public interest." WIPO's PatentScopedatabase allows you to "do full-text search/es in over 1.7 million published international patent applications from the first publication in 1978."

Treaties regarding patent lawSpecific treaties that impact patent law:

Paris convection for the protection of ip

Berne convection for the protection of literary and artistic works

Patent cooperation treaty Patent law treaty

PCT – The International Patent System

•The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) assists applicants in seeking patent protection internationally for their inventions, helps patent Offices with their patent granting decisions, and facilitates public access to a wealth of technical information relating to those inventions.  By filing one international patent application under the PCT, applicants can simultaneously seek protection for an invention in 148 countries throughout the world. 

In general terms, your international patent application, provided that it complies with the minimum requirements for obtaining an international filing date, has the effect of a national patent application in or for all PCT Contracting States. Moreover, if you comply with certain formal requirements set out in the Treaty and Regulations, which are binding on all of the PCT Contracting States, subsequent adaptation to varying national formal requirements will not be necessary.

Patent-scope•The PATENTSCOPE database provides

access to international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in full text format on the day of publication, as well as to patent documents of participating national and regional patent offices.  The information may be searched by entering keywords, names of applicants, international patent classification and many other search criteria in multiple languages.

This is an example of search in the database of the world’s total patents.

There are even several options in the search details.

Pct highlightsPCT Filings in 2014

• In 2014, PCT filings amounted to approximately 215,000, increasing by 4.5%.

This year only China saw double-digit growth while the United States remains the most-active user of the System. The top 5 countries of origin for the year were:

• United States (61,492)• Japan (42,459)• China (25,539)• Germany (18,008)• Republic of Korea (13,151 )

The PCT Applicant’s Guide is updated almost every week with information received by the International Bureau. Users of the Guide who wish to see when any individual page of the Guide was last updated, can check the date printed at the foot of that page.

The details regarding the treaty, regulations, administrative instructions, time limit calculator, the forms such as PCT/RO/101(request form), PCT/1PEA/401(demand form), fees, FAQ’s and all the latest updates are avilable in the WIPO website i.e

www.wipo.int/PCT

International trademark law

About int.trademark• Registration of trademarks in multiple jurisdictions around the world is

governed by two independent treaties – the Madrid Agreement(the Agreement) and the Madrid Protocol(the Protocol). 

• Despite its name, the Protocol is a separate treaty and not a “protocol” to the Agreement.  Together, the Agreement and the Protocol are known as the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks .

• States party to the Agreement and/or the Protocol and organizations party to the Protocol are referred to collectively as Contracting Parties.  Together, they constitute the Madrid Union, which is a Special Union under Article 19 of the Paris Convention.

• The Madrid System is a centrally administered system (WIPO) for obtaining a bundle of trademark registrations in separate jurisdictions, creating in effect a basis for an "international registration" of marks.

Madrid – The International Trademark SystemThe Madrid System is a one stop solution

for registering and managing marks worldwide.  File one application, in one language, and pay one set of fees to protect your mark in the territories of up to 96 members.  Manage your portfolio of marks through one centralized system.

Benefits of madrid system•Convenient: The Madrid System is a

centralized filing and management procedure.  Through the Madrid System you can file one international application, in one language (English,French) and pay one set of fees in Swiss francs to obtain international registration in multiple territories.

•Cost effective: Filing an international application is the equivalent of filing a bundle of national applications, effectively saving you time and money.

•Broad geographic coverage

Support to trademark law•International Center for Trade and Sustainable

Development (ICTSD) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), IPRsonline.org, General Resources on IPRs (http://www.iprsonline.org/resources/iprs.htm) includes online reports, articles, and web sites from 1989. It also subject indexing to limit searches to narrower topics, including traditional knowledge, biodiversity, and human rights.

Global Brand Database

•The Global Brand Database makes it easier to search over 19,530,000 records relating to internationally protected trademarks, appellations of origin and armorial bearings, flags and other state emblems as well as the names, abbreviations and emblems of intergovernmental organizations.

•The Global Brand database allows free of charge, simultaneous, brand-related searches across multiple collections.

Source No.of records Last updated Update frequency

Danish trademarks

280,994 2015-10-03 Daily

Combodian trademarks

65621 2015-10-03 Daily

Mexican trademarks

1,019,662 2015-10-03 Daily

Lao trademarks

35556 2015-10-02 weekly

Database contents

For new usersWIPO helps in the following way•How to search before filing•How to file an application•How to manage a registration

•The fees, fee calculator, time calculator are provided by the WIPO

Contacts•Opening hours: 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Geneva time.  Monday to Friday.•Madrid Customer Service E-mail: intreg.mail@wipo.int Tel: +41 22 338 86 86 Fax: +41 22 740 14 29

www.wipo.int/madrid

International copyright law

Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution. This is usually only for a limited time. The exclusive rights are not absolute but limited by limitations and exceptions to copyright law, including fair use.

International copyright treaties While no creative work is automatically

protected worldwide, there are international treaties which provide protection automatically for all creative works as soon as they are fixed in a medium. There are two primary international copyright agreements

Buenos aires conventionBerne convention for the artistic and

literary works

Several other treaties that support this international copyright law

UCC(universal copyright convention) GENEVAUCC(universal copyright convention) PARISTRIPS(agreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property rights)

And the final one which is the updated one that is WIPO copyright treaty.

Almost all the countries of the world has signed the treaties which include austria, algeria, bangladesh, bangladesh, bhutan and India joined in the international organization and several treaties.

International trade-secret law Most simply, a trade secret is information

that you do not want the competition to know about. The law generally protects not just secret formulas and designs, but even simple facts, such as the features that might be introduced in the next iPhone, or which country a business intends to go into next.

Trade secret law, like other forms of IP, is governed by national legal systems. However, international standards for protecting secrets (called “undisclosed information”) were established as part of the TRIPS Agreement in 1995.

Article 39 of the agreement provides that member states shall protect “undisclosed information” against unauthorized use “in a manner contrary to honest commercial practices”. The information must not be generally known or readily accessible, must have value because it is secret, and must be the subject of “reasonable steps” to keep it secret. This general formula for trade secret laws has been adopted by well over 100 of the 159 members of the World Trade Organization.

Articles 42 to 49 of the TRIPS Agreement cover enforcement, requiring that civil judicial proceedings be available to enforce all IP rights and that “confidential information” be protected from disclosure.

And for all the intellectual property protection internationally or individually the world intellectual property organization(WIPO) is responsible.

www.wipo/int

Made by vijay and pranav

Guided by Vishwanadha raju sir