National Intellectual Property Awareness Mission (NIPAM)

The National Intellectual Property Understanding Mission (NIPAM), which was established in 2021, has succeeded in reaching its goal of providing 1 million students with fundamental training and awareness of intellectual property (IP).

The goal was accomplished before the deadline, which was the 15th of August 2022.

About NIPAM:

• A million children are expected to learn about intellectual property and their rights thanks to a pan-Indian mission.
• It aims to ignite and motivate college/university students to develop and preserve their creations, as well as to instil the spirit of creativity and innovation in students in higher education (classes 8 through 12).

Executing organization:

• The Intellectual Property Office, the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM), and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry are carrying out the program.

Goal attained:

• The following milestones were attained between 8 December 2021 and 7 July 2022:
• 10,05,272 individuals (students/faculty) were trained on IP.
• 3,662 educational institutions are included.
• Geographical coverage: 7 Union Territories and 28 States

About Intellectual Property Rights:

• The rights that people have over the works of their imaginations are known as intellectual property rights (IPR).
• The creations like symbols, names, and images are utilized in business as well as literary and artistic works.
• Typically, they grant the inventor a time-limited, exclusive right to utilize his or her creation.
• These rights are detailed in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which grants the right to gain pecuniary and moral interests protection as a result of authorship of works of science, literature, or the arts.
• The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was the first agreements to acknowledge the significance of intellectual property (1886).
• The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) oversees both accords.

Types of IPR

• Copyrights: For a minimum of 50 years after the author's passing, copyright protects the rights of authors of literary and artistic works (such as books and other publications, musical compositions, paintings, sculptures, computer programs, and films).

• Industrial property
• Trademarks
• Geographical indications (GIs)
• Trade secrets and industrial designs
• The main purpose of protecting other kinds of industrial property is to promote invention, design, and technological development.

Need for IPR

Promotes Innovation:

• The legal protection of original works promotes the earmarking of additional funds for additional research and development.

Economic expansion:

• The promotion and protection of intellectual property fuel economic expansion, develop new markets and businesses and improve people's quality of life.
• IPR is essential to protect the rights of inventors and other producers of their intellectual property by giving them certain time-limited rights to regulate how the manufactured goods are used.

Ease of Doing Business:

• It encourages creativity and innovation while ensuring business ease.

Transfer of Technology:

• It facilitates the transfer of technology in the form of foreign direct investment, joint ventures, and licensing.

Treaties and Conventions related to IPR

India adheres to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property and is a member of the World Trade Organization (TRIPS Agreement).

• India is a part of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a group tasked with promoting the global protection of intellectual property rights.

India is a signatory to the following significant IPR-related international treaties and conventions that are overseen by the WIPO:

• The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure.
• For the Protection of Industrial Property, the Paris Convention.

• Literary and artistic works are protected under the Berne Convention.

National effort for Patent Protection:

Indian Patent Act 1970:

• This primary statute governing India's patenting system went into effect in 1972. The Indian Patents and Designs Act of 1911 was replaced by it.
• The Patents (Amendment) Act of 2005 changed the law by extending the application of product patents to all areas of technology, including food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and microbes.

The 2016 National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy

• In May 2016, the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy 2016 was approved as a vision statement to direct the country's future IPR growth.

Creative India; Innovative India

• It establishes a formal system for implementation, oversight, and evaluation.
• It tries to adapt and modify best practices from around the world for the Indian context.

Also, Read - the Essential Commodities Act of 1955