The core idea behind Intellectual Property Rights is that ‘your ideas are your property and you have every right to benefit from it'. One may or may not believe in this philosophy but there is no getting away from an engagement with IPRs in knowledge-based economies. Businesses and individuals wishing to protect their innovations, brands and designs in a challenging environment take recourse to protection by law.
Common forms of Intellectual property are patents, trademarks, industrial designs, copyrights and related rights, geographical indications, lay out designs of integrated circuits. But not everyone understands the fine print of these laws governing the world of design.
In order to demystify the myths surrounding IPR, the National Institute of Design is organising awareness programmes. With an idea to facilitate and sensitise the design fraternity about IPRs on ‘Industrial Design registration and Protection', NID is holding one-day awareness programmes in Coimbatore and Kochi. The programmes will be organised along with office of the Controller General Patents, Designs & Trademarks for design professionals and innovators. A comprehensive introduction to the fundamental areas of intellectual property, with specific reference to registration and protection of industrial designs under the Design Act, 2002 will be provided. IPR help desks will be set up and a specific IPR clinic will answer IP related queries. NID defines IPR as ‘original creation of human mind and an intangible asset having tangible expression.' IP rights are territorial and give legal rights to the creator, inventor or innovator of the property. Beginning this year, NID has been conducting similar programmes in Ahmedabad, Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi. Apart from working with design aspects of the Indian Railways, NID has also been credited with designing the first ever Rupee symbol for the country. In order to give a collective identity to handloom products and protect the interests of weavers, the government has developed the ‘Handloom Mark', the logo for which was designed by NID. The form of the logo has been derived from the interlocking of the warp and the weft. These threads stand for the collaborative institutes giving their inputs and the weavers their skills.
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