Morning,
In case you missed reading the article.
Cheers
--arky
Date:09/04/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2006/04/09/stories/2006040900150200.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1]Magazine
MILESTONES
Intellectual property? Right!
T.V. MALAVIKA
The first Intellectual Property Rights legislation was enacted in India 150 years ago. A look at the progress since then.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although the concept of intellectual property was very old, there appeared the need to harmonise laws to facilitate international trade and the free flow of technology. This became necessary because it was difficult to obtain sufficient protection in other countries of the world, in view of the disparity in the laws in each country.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Early bird: George Alfred DePenning made the first application for a patent in India.
EVER since India joined the World Trade Organisation in 1995 and became a signatory to the agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS), much has been said about intellectual property, trademarks, patents, how much more expensive medicines are going to become, western exploitation of Indian traditional practices and so on, thereby leading the casual observer to imagine that this whole Intellectual Property Rights issue is a relatively recent one.
However, less well known is the fact that the Government of India has offered citizens of the country the opportunity to protect their intellectual property for exactly 150 years: the first IPR legislation was enacted in British India in 1856.
Even if the Government of India is being reticent about celebrating the achievement of this extraordinary milestone, DePenning and DePenning, a Chennai-based firm of IPR Attorneys whose history runs a close parallel with that of the IPR industry in the country and whose founder was granted the first ever patent in the country, is not (see box).
As per the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) definition, intellectual property refers to creations of the mind, inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce.
Broadly, intellectual property is divided into two categories. The first category covers industrial property, which includes patents, industrial designs and trademarks., all of which have industrial applications. The other refers to copyright laws, which are applied to such things as literary, dramatic and artistic works; rights relating to performing artists, the production of phonograms and rights of broadcasters in their radio and television programs.
The history of the development of international patent reforms makes fascinating reading. Although the concept of intellectual property was very old, there appeared the need to harmonise laws to facilitate international trade and the free flow of technology. This became necessary because it was difficult to obtain sufficient protection in other countries of the world, in view of the disparity in the laws in each country.
International impact
A prime example of this occurred, when the Empires of Austria and Hungary invited several countries to participate in an international exhibition of inventions held in Vienna in 1873. Many countries refused to display their inventions in view of inadequate legal protection.
This incident had a far-reaching impact; the Congress of Vienna for patent reforms was convened in 1873, following which an international congress on industrial property was convened in Paris in 1878.
A final draft proposing an "International" union of laws was prepared by France and sent to other countries with an invitation to attend the international conference in Paris in 1880. `The Paris Convention' as it was called concluded in 1883. Since then, the Convention has been subject to several revisions. In 1967 in Stockholm, the last revision was made to the Paris Convention by which an international organisation was formed to administer and promote intellectual property on an international level -- the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
The main principles of the Paris Convention state that nationals, of any country, which is a signatory to the convention, will enjoy the same treatment (with respect to "industrial property" laws) in other countries, as if they were and nationals of the respective countries. The Paris convention did not include the term "intellectual property" but only "industrial property". This necessitated an international Convention to curb rampant piracy in the area of literary and artistic works. The Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works was adopted in the year 1886 with an objective to facilitate uniformity in the level of protection granted in all the member countries. The Convention has since then gone through several revisions to adapt to the practical changes in the field of copyright law.
The development of the IPR legislation in our country has been in parallel with the international scenario. The Act relating to Patent Rights introduced in 1856 granted exclusive privileges to the inventor of new methods of manufacturing for a period of 14 years.
This Act was amended on the lines of the British Patent Law (1852) and re-enacted in 1859. The monopoly granted to the inventor was known as "exclusive privileges".
Subsequently, several changes to the law in this field were introduced through various enactments, which paved the way to the Indian Patents and Designs Act 1911. The realisation that the laws were not designed to motivate or protect Indian inventors led to the enactment of the more progressive Indian Patents Act of 1970.
Eventually following the TRIPS agreement, Indian Parliament passed the Patents (Amendment) Act of 2005. Similarly, the Indian Merchandise Act of 1889 that awarded exclusive rights to individuals and businesses to use their `recognised brands' and enforce their rights against other traders has, through a series of stages metamorphosed over the years into the currently active Trademarks Act of 1999. Currently the other pieces of legislation that govern IPR in the country are -- The Copyrights Act, 1957, The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and the Protection) Act, 1999 and The Designs Act, 2000.
Since most nations have their own IPR laws, the inventor who wanted to protect his invention worldwide had to go through the cumbersome procedure of applying for patents in every country where protection was sought. This led to delays, greater expense and piquant situations until, in 1978 eighteen nations got together to sign the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which has now been adopted by over 108 nations the world over.
India became a signatory state to the Treaty on December 7, 1998. The PCT is extremely facilitatory in nature and today inventors need to go through an initial rigorous examination process of their inventions only in the Patent Office they first apply to (the international phase of the application).
Following this they go through a less rigorous and more rapid screening process in each of the countries they seek protection of their patents in (the national phase of the application).
Despite the first application for a patent in India having been made as early as 1856 by George Alfred DePenning (see box) and the laws of the land in connection with IPR having been designed to encourage original inventiveness, it is a pity that Indian industry and academia have not yet risen to the challenge.
Current scene
In 2005, according to statistics put out by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, among the developing countries, Korea topped the list filing twice as many applications under the PCT as its nearest competitor China. India made third place with just a quarter of the number of applications that China made.
Also, of the applications made for patents in China in a year, approximately, half are made by local inventors, whereas, in India this figure would be less than 30 per cent. We can certainly do better than this and hopefully in the years to come, this gap will be comfortably bridged.
A punkah pulling machine
ON February 28, 1856, the Government of India promulgated legislation to grant what was then termed as "exclusive privileges for the encouragement of inventions of new manufactures". On March 3, 1856, a civil engineer, George Alfred DePenning of 7, Grant's Lane, Calcutta petitioned the Government of India for grant of exclusive privileges for his invention -- "An Efficient Punkah Pulling Machine". On September 2DePenning, submitted the Specifications for his invention along with drawings to illustrate its working. These were accepted and the invention was granted the first ever Intellectual Property protection in India. DePenning, submitted petitions for two more inventions that same year -- No. 2 and No. 4 of 1856 under the Act and in the years to follow several patents were granted by the Calcutta Patent Office to this prodigious inventor.
Having secured his place in Indian history, George Alfred DePenning could well have rested. But he did not. The entrepreneur in him saw other inventors struggling with the process involved in patenting new inventions and he saw the possibility of representing them as a Patent Agent. And so in 1856, the firm of DePenning & DePenning was born. Today, exactly 150 years on, not only does the firm continue to exist, but has grown to become one of the largest attorney firms devoted exclusively to the protection of Intellectual Property Rights with an impressive list of clients from many parts of the world. The firm has always had a member of the DePenning family at the helm. Started initially in Calcutta, the firm relocated its headquarters to Chennai in 1987 and today has branches in Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi. The firm celebrates the 150th year of its existence with a series of events that started on March 3, 2006 and will culminate in September 2006.
The writer is a Chennai-based Intellectual Property Rights Attorney.
© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu
References
Visible links 1. http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2006/04/09/index.htm