World Intellectual Property day came into force in year 2000 and is celebrated each year on 26th April, to promote the importance of intellectual property and their rights and how these rights support the youth of tomorrow to create a better future for all. The day was designated by World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). On the same day 26th April 1970 Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organisation came into force.
What is Intellectual property?
According to Investopedia, Intellectual property is a broad categorical description for the set of intangible assets owned and legally protected by a company or individual from outside use or implementation without consent. Intellectual property infringement occurs when a third party engages in the unauthorised use of the asset.
In short, intellectual property rights are the rights formed for protecting various types of intangible assets including copyrights, patents, and trademarks. The legal protections for most of them expire within some time excluding trademark, for a trademark the legal protections last forever.
The theme for Intellectual Property Day for coming year.
The theme for this day is “Intellectual property and youth: innovating for a better future”. The theme is designed to celebrate intellectual property rights and to learn how these rights play a role in encouraging innovation and creativity throughout the globe. The day recognises the huge potential among young people to find new and better solutions for a better tomorrow.
Types of Intellectual Property
The four main types of intellectual property rights are copyrights, patents,
trademarks, and trade secrets:
- COPYRIGHTS – copyrights are intellectual property that is formed to protect the authorship of original work. The author can take the copyright of tangible assets like books, blogs, movies, paintings, architectural works, etc.
- PATENTS – A patent is also intellectual property. It protects the technical invention. Patent right sanctions the use of your invention for commercial purposes without permission from the owner. Only the owner of the invention will decide that who is allowed to sell or import the invention. You can patent the invention which is solving a problem in a new and technical way.
- TRADEMARKS – A trademark is an intellectual property that is formed to distinguish one enterprise from another based on goods and services. All trademarks are protected by intellectual property rights. If someone wants to avail of the trademark protection he can obtain it through registration by filing an application form for registration with the trademark office by paying the required fees.
- TRADE SECRETS – These are the intellectual property rights on commercially valuable information (confidential information). For qualifying as a trade secret, the information should be valuable and should be known only to limited persons. This includes processes, designs, instruments, patterns, etc.
“Let the world access the promotional aspect of innovation and recognise the achievements of the promoters of intellectual property on this day”.