Objective
The graduating student must have knowledge and skills in the area of his study.
However, he must also have broad understanding of society and relationships. Character
needs to be nurtured as an essential quality by which he would understand and fulfill his
responsibility as an engineer, a citizen and a human being. Besides the above, several
meta-skills are needed. The underlying values which are important for the learning process
are critical because without them, the learning process itself would be hampered.
The graduating student must have knowledge, meta-skills and values related to
his/her profession as an engineer, as a citizen, and as a human being. Most students,
who get demotivated to study engineering or their branch, lose interest in learning.
Outcomes
To bring about a change, four sets of recommendations are given here on (1)
academics, (2) developing broad outlook, (3) a strong induction program, and
(4) steps to improve verbal ability.
The first recommendation is that academics be made more project oriented with
greater flexibility in curriculum. Projects may relate to research, innovation,
system building, etc. At the same time, there is a need to connect projects to real
life, so that your college also delivers new products, and processes for the nation.
To develop a broad outlook towards life as a whole, curriculum should include a
significant component of humanities and social science (HSS). An important aspect
of this is Human Values, through which the students look at their self, and are
able to set their goals related to their family, society and nature. As the students
develop a better understanding of these areas, it will result in their being better
engineers and communicators, and would be able to see their larger role in society.
A strong induction program is needed to orient the incoming UG students to the goals of
the institute, and inculcate in them the institutional ethos, and to put them at ease on entry.
AN INTRODUCTION TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERPETY RIGHTS
Aim
The existence of IPRs is very old. The basic aim of conferring an IPR upon the person
owning the same is to give a social recognition to its holder. This social recognition
can further bring economic benefits to its holders. It is just and reasonable to award
a person an IPR in the form of “ Limited monopolistic rights” for his/her labor and
efforts. At the same time, exceptions in the form of various licenses are also made so
that public intrest cannot be compromised. The public interest and personal intresets
are thus reconciled in the form of limited period duration of these rights and their abuses
can be tacked stringently, especially when public interest demands so. Thus, the TRIPS
Agrrement was formulate to bring basic leve harmonsation in IPR laws all over the world.
The provision of the TRIPs Agreement are the most extensive and rgorous in nature. They
protect all forms of IPRs collectively. The protective umbrella of TRIPS covers the following IRPs:
Copyright and Related Rights,
Trademarks,
Geographical Indications,
Industrial Designs
Patents,
Layout designs of Integrated Circuits, and
Projection of Undisclosed Information
Its must be noted that by virtue of Article 1 (2) of the TRIPS Agreementas 1,
the Control of Anti-Competitive Practives in Contractual Licences has been excluded
form the difinition of “ intellecual property”. Thus, the TRIPS Agreement covers virtually
the entire gamut of IPRs. The Government has approved the National IPR Policy on 12th May 2016.
The policy lays down the following seven objectives:
IPR Awareness: Outreach and Promotion- Generation of IPRs: To create public awareness
about the economic, social and cultural benefits of IPRs among all sections of society
Generation of IPRs- To stimulate the generation of IPRs
Legal and Legislative Framework: To have strong and effective IPR laws, which balance the
interests of rights owners with larger public interest
Administration and Management: To modernize and strengthen service-oriented IPR administration
Commercialization of IPR: Get value for IPRs through commercialization
Enforcement and Adjudication: To strengthen the enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms for combating IPR infringements
Human Capital Development: To strengthen and expand human resources, institutions and
capacities for teaching, training, research and skill building in IPRs
The policy is a vision document that lays the roadmap for future development in the field
of IPRs. It is comprehensive and holistic, and cannot be said to lack specifics. It lists
specific action points to be implemented towards fulfillment of the aforementioned objectives.
These action points have been assigned to specific nodal departments for implementation. Already,
certain points like transfer of Copyright and Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-Design to
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion have been acted upon and the Government of India
(Allocation of Business) Rules accordingly changed. Similarly, augmentation of manpower, including
recruitment of 458 Patent Examiners, has been done.
IPR Awareness
As it was seen, a major part of the society was unaware about the existence and benefits of
IPR. Under this objective, the policy seeks to create awareness amongst all the sectors of the
society, treating rural and urban population alike. It also furthers that IPR should be made a
compulsory part of the curriculum in major institutions of the country.
Generation Of IPRs
Considering the vide talent pool that India has, it should be made use of.
Based on the same statement, the policy tries to promote innovation and indigenous
products. Especially when a large chunk of our companies belong to either MSMEs or
start ups, it becomes important to not only safeguard the rights/creations of these
companies but also to boost them to further creativity.
Legal And Legislative Framework
It is the need of the hour to safeguard India's interest to hold a strong ground in the world of
competition. The policy therefore seeks to strengthen the existing laws and provides for an effective
legal system for the protection and promotion of IPRs.
Administration And Management
The Policy seeks to change the cumbersome process of filing/granting of IPRs. It
furthers that modernization of laws is required for an effective IPR regime. To achieve
the same, it aims to lower the average time for pending Patent applications to 18 months
down from 5-7 years and trademark registration to one month down from 13 months. An important
administrative change includes the administration of the Copyright Act, 1957 and the Semiconductor
Integrated Circuits Layout-Design Act, 2000 being brought under the aegis of DIPP, besides
constituting a Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM).
Commercialization Of IPR
Policy tries to reward the owners of these rights and emphasizes on the importance
of valuation of IP and its assessment to promote & market it. It proposes to create
a platform where creators and innovators can meet the potential buyers, users and funding institutions
Enforcement And Adjudication
It was felt that there is lack of enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms for
combating IPR infringements; the policy therefore seeks to ensure legal remedies to IPR
owners seeking enforcement of their rights in the matters relating to infringement.
Human Capital Development
To increase the potential of IPRs for their economic growth, the need was felt to
lay more emphasis on increasing the pool of the IP assets, which can be done only
when there is strengthening and expansion of the existing human resource and institutions pertaining to IPR.
Conclusion
Although the policy seeks to promote & develop the IP field to ensure commercialization
and expansion but it does not address the specifics. It does not address the present
condition of patent filing in the country and how do we improve that, while it does
mention that most of the patents in the country are filed by foreign companies/investors.
The policy recommends recognition to petty patents or utility models as a form of IP and
enactment of a new law on utility models so as to facilitate protection of small inventions.
The policy suggests various changes to the existing mechanisms for broadening the IP prospects
and facilitating regulatory and administrative changes. With the advancement of science &
technology, changing nature of international commitments (covenants and treaties), laws need
to keep pace and therefore the policy suggests that we need to improve/amend our laws and keep
in mind that the sole motive of granting IP protection is twofold (benefit to the innovator/creator
and benefit to the consumer), and that both of them have to happen simultaneously.
IPR ON TRADE MARKET & TRADE SECRETS
Objective
Trade marketing is a discipline of marketing that relates to increasing the demand
at wholesaler, retailer, or distributor level rather than at the consumer level. However,
there is a need to continue with Brand Management strategies to sustain the need at the
consumer end. A shopper, who may be the consumer him/herself, is the one who identifies
and purchases a product from a retailer. To ensure that a retailer promotes a company's
product against competitors', that company must market its product to the retailers as
well. Trade marketing might also include offering various tangible/intangible benefits to
retailers. The alignment of sales and marketing discipline to profitability can be another
explanation for trade marketing
Trade marketing is the basic idea of marketing your products through the value
chain and at the point of sale i.e. the store. Consider it the idea of creating a
demand for your products across the channel and before it reaches the consumer.
This traditionally exists in a brick and mortar environment and can be argued to
be one of the oldest forms of marketing.
70 percent of shopping decisions are now made at the trade or what marketing practitioners
refer to as "point-of-purchase". This new trend leads to the greater importance of merchandising
and shopper promotions than consumer directed programs.
Methods Of Trade Marketing
Basic method of trade marketing is focusing on sales fundamentals,
such as Distribution, Display, Promotion and Price. With data and knowledge
of sales fundamentals, trade marketing develops market strategy aligned with
brand strategy. In order to deliver sales volume and value, trade marketing support
sales forces with well-designed fundamental enhancement plans.
Current Trends In Trade Marketing
Shopkeepers and retailers are becoming more and more profit margin
oriented. They seek to extract maximum margins from one company, by quoting higher
margins being given to a competitor company.
Objective Of 'Trade Secret
Any practice or process of a company that is generally not
known outside of the company. Information considered a trade secret gives
the company an economic advantage over its competitors, and is often associated
with internal research and development. In order to be legally considered a trade
secret in the United States, a company must take a reasonable effort in concealing
the information from the public, the secret must intrinsically have economic value and
the trade secret must contain information
There are some things you don’t want your competitors to know about
your business: customer lists, sales data, secret formulas for your products.
As you now know by reading our guides, copyright protection doesn’t extend to
lists/data, and although trademark law may prevent others from labeling their
competing products in certain ways, it does little to prevent your competitors
from misappropriating your formulas to create knock off products.
Enter trade secrets: the fourth major area of intellectual property which protects
the public disclosure of your closely-guarded non-public information. Trade secret’s
closest cousin in the IP world is patent law. In fact, since getting trade secret
protection doesn’t require the expensive and time-consuming formal registration of
patent law, some companies/inventors choose to forgo patent registration entirely
and protect their products exclusively through trade secret before going to market.
That said, even though patents and trade secrets can potentially protect similar
information, trade secrets are distinct from patents for a huge variety of reasons.
The most significant reason, of course, is that patented processes are granted protection
only after the inventor publicly discloses the invention whereas trade secrets are only protected
until the information is made public.
Ensuring that your trade secrets are protected may be the only way to secure
your competitive advantage in the marketplace. Conversely, ensuring that you
don’t mistakenly disclose other’s trade secrets will keep you away from legal
liability if you are a consultant, sales person, or just an employee entrusted
with sensitive, confidential information.
Outcomes
what trade secrets protect;
how trade secret protection is granted;
whether registration is required, and if you’ll need help from an attorney to protect your trade secrets;
how long trade secret protection lasts;
what rights you are granted if you do qualify for trade secret protection.
........
