Intellectual Property Rights (Part-IV : Glossary and Sources) In the first three parts of the article we have briefly covered general aspects of intellectual property rights, patent system, industrial designs, trademarks and international and regional conventions treaties. In this part we have included a list of IPR-related terms with definitions and some sources including relevant websites.

Abandonment : Dropping of an invention, a part of an invention (e.g. certain features or claims), an application or a patent.

Appeal : Legal remedy against decisions by patent examiners or courts

Applicant : Natural or legal entity in the name of which a patent application is filed e.g. an organisation or the inventor.

Assignee : Inventor(s) who legally transfer his or her or their rights (in part or whole) to the invention to another person or organisation.

Biopiracy : It means exploitation of existing genetic resources and gaining control on them through wrongfully granted patents.

Bioprospecting : The use of genetic resource as permitted by the Convention of Biodiversity through rightful material transfe agreement is known as bioprospecting.

Breeder's Privilege: Permits use of one protected variety to breed another new variety without authorisation of the original plant breeder.

Cautionary Letter : The owner of a patent can send an admonition/cautionary letter to a third party if he/she/it has realised that his/her/its patent rights are infringed.

Claim : An invention claim defines for what protection is being sought. It has a decisive impact on the material scope of a patent. Besides the main claim there may be subordinate claims.

Compulsory license : In case of insufficient working or practice of an invention the patent owner may be forced in some states to grant (subject to certain conditions) license to another who intends to make use of the invention.

Counterfeiting : It means the imitation of a product. The counterfeit is not only identical in the generic sense of the term as a bag might be but it also gives the impression of being the genuine product originating from the genuine manufacturer or trader.

Cross license : Mutual license, for example in case of selection invention.

Defendant : The person(s) being sued for infringement constitutes the "defendant".

Dependency : A patent 'A' is dependent on another patent 'B', if use of the subject of patent 'A' would infringe patent 'B'.

Dependent License : Compulsory license for the owner of younger patent, which is dependent on an elder patent for example in case of selection invention. Such license may be subject to the certain conditions.

Design or Industrial Design : As per WIPO guidelines a design or industrial design "covers any composition of lines or colours or any three dimensional form, provided that such composition or form gives a special appearance to a product of industry or handicraft and can serve as a patent."

Disclaimer : Express waiver of a part of a subject matter which is within the scope of the original patent.

Design Patent : A design patent covers the appearance of an object - new, original, ornamental and unobvious designs for articles of manufacture.

Disclosure : Illustrative description of an invention given in the patent application in such a way that a person skilled in the art would be able to understand it.

Discovery : The discovery implies only a perception, not its use. A discovery as such is not patentable.

Distinctive Signs : A sign is distinctive for the goods to which it is to be applied when it is recognised by those to whom it is addressed as identifying goods from a particular trade source, or is capable of being so recognised.

European Patent Application : Application for a European patent. The patent examination is made centrally for all designated countries by the European Patent Office which also gives out a uniform application number and a uniform filing date etc.

European Patent Convention : Multilateral treaty that provides the granting of European Patents. The treaty was signed on October 5, 1973 and it came into effect on October 7, 1977. Member states of the treaty are : States of the European Union plus Switzerland, Cyprus, Lechtenstein and Monaco.

European Patent Office : Supernational patent office which grants patents under the European Patent Convention.

European Patent : A patent granted by the European patent office. The European patent has in the designated states for which it is granted the same effect as a national patent .

Examination : Check of the field subject matter of the invention with regard to patentability especially novelty and inventiveness.

Examiner : A person having necessary qualification appointed by the patent office to examine an application in the examination (granting) procedure to decide on the patentability.

Expiry : End of the legal term of a proprietary right.

Example : Specific illustration of an invention by describing an experiment that was carried out. It is an important part of the disclosure supporting patentability.

Farmer's right : It entitles a farmer to use farm-saved seeds for growing subsequent crops on his/her own land or on leased land or for traditional exchanges in the village community.

Filing : Submissions of an application at a patent office.

Filing Date : Official date of filing of the patent application at the respective patent office.

Final Rejection : Refusal of a patent office to grant a patent for procedural reasons or if the subject of invention is unpatentable. The applicant has the right to file an appeal in High Court.

Geographical Indications : TRIPS Agreement defines geographical indications as "indications which identify a good as originating in a territory of a member, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of a good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin."

Grace Period : In patent laws of a few countries a specific period is provided before the filing of a patent application.

License of Right: A patent may be endorsed with the words "license of right" three years after it is sealed. In such cases any person may obtain as a matter of right a license without having to establish a case for a compulsory license.

Industrial Applicability : A purely theoretical invention is not patentable. It must be of a kind which can be applied for practical purpose. If the invention is intended to be product or a part of a product then the intended product must be capable of being made in practice. And if the invention is intended to be a process or part of a process then the intended process must be capable of being carried out in practice.

Infringement of patent : Illegal use of a patented invention.

Infringement Suit : Suit of a patent owner in High Court against the unauthorised user of an invention protected by patent.

Intellectual Property : Intellectual Property means the property in intellectual creations, particularly technological invention and literary and artistic works.

Interlocutory Injunction : It means that as part of an infringement proceeding the plaintiff may pray for "interim relief" to restrain the defendant from continuing the act of infringement till the case is completely heard and disposed.

International Patent Application : A patent application filed under the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT). The application may be filed at the so-called receiving office and it will remain valid for those States party to the treaty that are wished by the applicant.

International Search Authority : There are several International Search Authorities that are listed by WIPO viz., Australian Patent Office, The Austrian Patent Office, The Chinese Patent Office, The European Patent Office, The Japanese Patent Office, The Korean Industrial Property Office, The Russian Agency for Patents and Trademarks, The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office. The Swedish Patent Office and the US patent and Trademark Office.

International Preliminary Examination Authority (IPEA): These are the patent offices that have been authorised by WIPO to function as IPEA to conduct a preliminary examination of the PCT applications. All the International Search Authorities, except 'The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, are also IPEAS.

Inventor : A person who first made the invention and filed a patent application for the same.

Lapsed Patent : To keep a patent in force the patentee needs to pay a yearly fee. In case the patentee fails to pay the renewal fee within the prescribed period the patent in question is considered lapsed.

License : A legal permit given by a patentee to one or more persons to make, use or exercise the patent owned by patentee.

Licensing Agreements : One of the most important activities of enterprises in connection with industrial property concerns the conclusion of license agreement in the framework of industrial expansion or marketing projects. Most transfer of technology agreements, joint ventures, franchise agreements and other strategic alliances included some sort of license or authorisation to use protected invention, design or distinctive signs. Confidential known-how and trade secrets are often included in such agreements.

Most-Favoured-Nation Principle (MFN) : The TRIPS Agreement contains a principle, the most-favoured-nation principle, which has not traditionally been provided for in the context of intellectual property rights at least on the multilateral level. The Principle provides that any advantage, favour, privilege or immunity granted by a Member to the nationals of any other country (whether a Member or not) shall be accorded immediately and unconditionally to the nationals of all other Members, with certain specified exemptions.

Novelty : Obligatory criteria of patentability that is the subject matter of an invention must be new or else not patentable. It must be emphasised that novelty is not something which can be proved or established, only its absence can be proved. An invention is new if (before the priority date) it has not been available to the public either by oral or written description by prior use or in any other way.

Nullity : It means invalidity of a patent after grant. If invalidity covers only a part of a patent that is called partial nullity. Reasons listed completely in a patent law due to which a patent is liable to be invalidated are known as reasons for nullity.

Nullity Action : Law suit for stating nullity (invalidity) of a patent before a court or patent office.

Patent : A patent is a property right granted by the State to a patentee, excluding others, for a fixed period, from using the patented invention without the consent of the patentee.

Patent Agent : A patent agent is someone who is qualified to act for another to obtain industrial property rights. In India a would-be patent agent has to clear the examination for patent agents which is conducted by the Patent office. In most countries the term 'patent attorney" is synonymous with "patent agent" but in a few countries for example in the USA the former term means someone who is legally qualified in general law and who has additionally passed examination set by the United Sates Patent and Trademark office (USPTO) in order to be qualified to act before it, whereas the latter term is reserved for those who are not qualified lawyers but who have passed the "registration" examination set by the USPTO.

Patentable Subject Matter : In order to be eligible for patent protection an invention must fall within the scope of patentable subject matter. Patentable subject matter is established by statute and is normally defined in terms of the exception to patentability.

Patent Categories : Patent for invention can be grouped into two main categories, namely:

a) Patent for products e.g. chemical compounds, devices etc.

b) Patents for processes (methods) such as process for manufacture or methods of use.

Patent Globalisation Index : The concept of Patent Globalisation Index (PGI) is viewed as a measure of globalisation of patent activity. It is the effective number of corresponding patent application filings in various countries per 'first patent filings' of an invention.

Patentee : The owner of a patent as shown in the Registrar of patents maintained by the Patent Head Office. In India the Patent Head Office is situated at Kolkata.

Patent information : Patent documents provide three different types of interrelated information namely

* technical information

* legal information

* commercial information

Patent laws demand that the inventor disclose the invention clearly and completely so that a person skilled in the art may carry out the invention. At least one mode has to be described and whenever possible drawings to be added for better understanding. In some countries the inventor is required to describe the best known mode for the invention. Patent documents bear the name and address of the inventor and the applicant. This helps to identify who worked on the technology in question and where the invention was made and their interrelations can be ascertained. A patent document is more them a technical publication. A patent or a published patent application has a legal dimension. The legal information conveyed by patent documents is of particular importance for the business policy of any enterprise. A patent document also gives information on the direction of a competitor's R&D activity. A continuous survey of patent activity can offer certain commercial information.

Patent office : A government or international administrative body which is authorised to receive or examine patent application and grant patents. Indian Patent Office has its headquarters at Kolkata and it functions under Controller General of Patents. Designs and Trademarks (CGPTT). It has three branch offices at Mumbai, Chenai and New Delhi.

Patent Publication: Advertisement/notification of the patent; patent publication is different from publication of the patent application.

Patent Specification : Publication of the patent invention usually edited in printed form by the patent offices.

Phonogram : Phonogram means an exclusively aural fixation (that is it does not include for example, the sound tracks of films or video cassettes), whatever be its form (disc, tape or other).

Pipeline protection : A provision under the GATT in which countries that have no provision for product patent are required to create an intermediate provision of exclusive marketing rights for five years based on product patent granted in any of the member states.

Plaintiff : The patentee or his assignee can file a suit in the High Court for infringement of his patent. They constitute the "plaintiff

Prior Art : Knowledge that is available in the public domain. This becomes very important for the assessment of novelty and inventive step. Prior art may be in the form of lectures, broadcasts, newsletters, magazines, research journal, books, patent specification, instances of public use etc.

Priority Application : First deposition (filing) of a patent application at a patent office for a certain subject matter. Product Patent : A product patent provides exclusive rights to the product manufactured by any process.

Process Patent : A process patent only protects one process and the product can be manufactured by an alternative process. Process patent provides scope for innovation to develop alternative process.

Protection of Equivalents : The fact that infringement is not only the execution of the literal teaching of a patent claim by a third party but also execution of modifications thereof, for the person having ordinary skill in the art, had been readily accessible at the beginning of the infringing action, the so-called equivalents such as chlorine (Cl) subsistent instead of bromine (Br) in the claim.

Priority Date : The date on which the first patent application is made in India or in other country among the countries notified as "convention countries " by the Government. Many patent related issues are decided based on the Priority Date.

Reference : Written publication (e.g. patent specification, books etc), cited by the patent examiner for denying the existence of an invention.

Revocation : The validity of a patent granted by a Patent office after examining it within the framework of the Patents Act can be challenged. There are prescribed grounds for challenging a patent. When a challenge is upheld by the High Court, the patent becomes "invalid" and is "revoked". The entire process of challenging a patent which leads to making the patent invalid is known as revocation.

Register of Patents : A register maintained by the Patent Head Office. In contains all the information related to the propriety/validity of the patent. Besides it contains name and addresses of the inventor, patent number, date of sealing, all details of assignment, transmission, amendments, revocation and licenses.

Royalty : Payment of the license to the licenser as quid pro quo (one thing in return for another) for the concession of a licenses.

Search : It means making a survey for identifying the state of the art for a patent application.

Sealing of Patents : A patent is considered sealed when its details are entered in the Register of Patents maintained by the Patent Head Office.

Selection Invention : A selection invention is an invention, the subject of which is contained in the prior art by a more general teaching, for example, a generic term but which has not been specifically described. For example methyl is contained generically by alkyl.

Sui Generis : Literally it means of his or her or its own kind without a counterpart or equal. It has been used as an option given in TRIPs to the member countries of WTO to evolve their own system for protection within the GATT framework.

Supplementary Protection Certificate : It proceeds limited possibility for the extension of the duration of patent protection for a pharmaceutical in the European Union and some other European countries.

Territoriality Principle : Patent protection is always only available for the territory of that state or those states for which the patent has been granted.

Unobviousness : An invention has unobviousness or inventive step if the modification or improvement or state of the art provided is not obvious for the average person having skill in the art, but it appears to be unexpected and surprising.

Working of a patent : When a patent is put to use for commercial purpose.

"Wrongful Obtaining" : A term used when the invention is obtained (fully or partially) buy someone by wrong or unfair means from the inventors/assignees.

Trademark : Trademarks are visible signs which serve to identify the goods and services of an enterprise and to distinguish them from those of another. The term "visible sign" is very broad in scope and includes any of the following or combination thereof : arbitrary or fanciful designation, names, slogans, devices, numbers, letters, pictures or symbols, labels, combinations or arrangements of colours and shapes of containers of the goods themselves.

Trademark Piracy : It means the registration or use of generally well-known trademark that is not registered in the country or is invalid as a result of non-use.

Traditional Knowledge : The term traditional knowledge included innovations and the volume of knowledge continually developed, acquired, used, practised, transmitted and sustained by communities through generations supported by their ecology, environment, life styles, attitudes, societies and culture. Categories of traditional knowledge include: agricultural knowledge, scientific knowledge, technical knowledge, ecological knowledge, medicinal knowledge including related medicines and remedies, bio-diversity related knowledge, expression of folk in the form of music, dance, song, handicraft designs, stories, artworks; elements of languages such as names, geographical indications and symbols and movable cultural properties.

Trade Secrets and Undisclosed Information : A provision for providing protection to individuals/institutions on information, which is lawfully under their control from being disclosed to, acquired by or used by others without their consent or in a manner contrary to commercial practices so long as the information is secret and has commercial value because it is secret and that the individual/institution has taken reasonable steps to keep the information secret.

Unfair Competition : Acts of unfair competition are those which are contrary to honest practices, whether or not specifically prohibited by law for example statement or allegations which, in the course of trade are liable to mislead the public as to the nature characteristics, suitability for their purposes etc., of the goods or services in question or false allegations which in the course of trade, or liable to discredit the goods or services of a competitor. Protection against unfair competition has been recognised as forming part of industrial property protection for little over a century. It was in 1900, at the Brussels Diplomatic Conference for the Revision of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, that this clause was added.

Unity of Invention : An invention may well be defined by different claim categories. However, no distinct inventions may be collected in one and the same patent application, that is, the inventions would show unity. In the absence of unity the distinct subject matter must be made part of divisional application.

Utility Model System : It offers `protection' of innovation which are new and useful but fail to qualify for grant of a patent as per the patent laws. The purpose of the system is to foster "small innovation" of demonstrable practicability. It is operative only in few countries like France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Philippines, Korea Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil. The system does not exist in India.

Withdrawal: Protective rights can be actively withdrawn. Withdrawal is distinctly different from the case of being allowed to become abandoned by not fulfilling a necessary duty say, payment of a fee.

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1. http://www.wto.org : This is the official site of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)

2. http://ipdl.wipo.int : It provides access to various intellectual property data collections currently hosted by the International Bureau of WIPO. It also provide a selection of other sites providing access to intellectual property information.

3. http://pctgazette.wipo.int (PCT database) : It contains the first page data of published PCT applications.

4. http://www.cas.org/ONLINE/CATALOG/inpadoc.html: The International Patent Documentation file contains data for patent documents and utility models of 56 patent-issuing organisations, including the European Patent Office and the WIPO.

5. http://dopales.wipo.int : The Dopales Patent Database contains the first page data of patent documents of 19 Latin American Countries.

6. http://indpat.wipo.int: It contains the first page data of Indian patents.

7. http://chinpat.wipo.int : It provides access to Chinese patent.

8. http://patents1.ic.gc.ca : It provides access to over 75 years of data on Canadian patents.

9. http://www.ipdl.jpo-miti.go.jp/homepg-e.ipdl : It is searcheable database of patent and trademark information held by the Japanese Patent office.

10. http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html: It provides comprehensive, searcheable access to United States Patent bibliographic data and abstracts.

11. http://www.cordis.in/ipr-helpdeskenh_001_en_htm :The multilingnae IPR-Helpdesk established by the European Commission provides a wealth of information for visitors from diverse backgrounds and with varied interests.

12. http://www.patents.ibm.com : It provide free access to over four million patents granted by various patent offices.