High Court Test 13
10 min40 WPM required422 words
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Intellectual property law in India has developed considerably in recent decades to meet the requirements of international agreements to which India is a party, particularly the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights negotiated under the Uruguay Round and forming part of the World Trade Organisation framework to which India became a signatory. The four main categories of intellectual property protected under Indian law are patents, trademarks, copyrights, and designs, each governed by a distinct statute and administered by a separate registry. A patent is a statutory right granted to an inventor for a limited period, typically twenty years from the date of filing the patent application, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention, conferring on the patentee the exclusive right to make, use, sell, import, or offer for sale the patented product or process in India. The Patents Act, 1970 as amended, defines patentable subject matter and excludes from patentability certain categories including discoveries of naturally occurring substances, mathematical methods, business methods, computer programmes per se, and inventions contrary to public order or morality. The controversial Section 3(d) of the Patents Act, which prohibits the grant of patents for new forms of known substances unless the new form results in enhanced efficacy, has been upheld by the Supreme Court in the Novartis case and represents India's distinctive approach to balancing intellectual property protection with public health access to medicines. Trademarks are distinctive signs â words, names, logos, shapes, colours, or combinations thereof â used by traders to identify and distinguish their goods and services from those of competitors, and are protected under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 which provides for their registration, use, and enforcement. Registration of a trademark gives the proprietor the exclusive right to use it in relation to the goods or services for which it is registered and to sue for infringement. Copyright under the Copyright Act, 1957 protects original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, cinematograph films, and sound recordings, conferring on the creator the exclusive rights to reproduce, communicate, adapt, and translate the work for the statutory period of sixty years from the death of the author in most cases. The Copyright Act contains important exceptions to copyright including fair dealing for purposes of private use, research, criticism, review, and reporting of current events. The Designs Act, 2000 protects the aesthetic features of the shape, pattern, ornamentation, or composition of lines or colours applied to an article in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional form that appeal to and are judged solely by the eye.