Intellectual Property essays

Intellectual Property essays Intellectual property rights have found themselves in an elevated position over the last decade and brought to light the ever increasing advantages to those who enjoy this form of proprietary rights, due to economic liberalisation and the growth of cut-throat trade competition. Possession of a legally recognised intellectual property gives one a head start in the business and helps him maintain the early lead. But this may not be confused with unfettered freedom to exert monopoly in a given market. A market is conceived to be one flooded with all the goods that consumers would treat as substitutes for one another. Therefore it is difficult to determine the quantum of the product which is subject matter of the intellectual property that the consumers want. No doubt, the degree of market power created by intellectual property varies from item to item. Due to socio-political and economic reasons most intellectual property has little capacity to generate market power. Development of Intellectual Property Law is strongly founded on the political history and economic development of the country. Growth of intellectual property law was a corollary to the economic development propelled by the industrial revolution. The first legislation that recognised the creation of intellectual property is the Statute of Monopolies 1624. It was enacted in England in an attempt to check the unfettered power enjoyed by the Crown in granting Letter of Patent for Trade. This was followed by the Copyright Act 1709, which conferred the author with the sole right of printing his book for a period varying from fourteen to twenty-one years. Since the earlier statutes lacked clarity, the judges had to do a lot of interpretation to give effect to them; over the centuries statutes are drafted with greater clarity of expression and organisation. During the period of Industrial Revolution and thereafter the tort of passing off was evolved to meet the immediate com ...