GI Website & Tutorial Video on IPR

• 09 Mar 2019

The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry has launched a tutorial video on “Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)” for school students and the Geographical Indications (GI) website.

• India is already a signatory to WTO’s TRIPS Agreement and has enacted or amended the laws in harmony with the agreement.

GI Website

• The website showcases Indian GIs products, classified state wise as well as product category wise.
• It includes specific and comprehensive details of geographical area, description of product, uniqueness, history, product process/ processing in addition to enlisting GI authorized users.
• The website aims to promote creativity and motivate more of India’s skilled artisans to apply for GI registration.

Tutorial Video on IPR

• A 20-minute tutorial video created by the Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in collaboration with Qualcomm deals with fundamentals of IPRs such as Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks.
• ‘IP Nani’, India’s first IP Mascot features in the video that aims to spread awareness about the importance of IPRs amongst children.
• The tutorial video can be used in schools without any external intervention from teachers or experts and will aid in reaching a large number of schools and students, thereby overcoming issues of bandwidth and limited resources.
• The video is available on CIPAM’s YouTube Channel and will form part of the existing resource pool on CIPAM’s official website www.cipam.gov.in which is freely available for public.

Intellectual Property Rights

• These are the rights that are given to persons/agencies for their creativity/innovations.
• The laws that govern IPRs in India are : The Copyright Act, 1957, Patents Act,1970, Trade Mark Act, 1999, The Designs Act, 2000, The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection ) Act, 1999, The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 and The SemiConductor Integrated Circuits Layout Design Act, 2000.

IP Nani

• IP Nani was launched by Ministry of Commerce and Industry in 2018.
• It is a tech-savvy grandmother who helps the government and enforcement agencies in combating IP crimes with the help of her grandson “Chhotu” aka Aditya.
• The IP mascot will spread awareness about the importance of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) among people, especially children, in an interesting manner.

WTO’s TRIPS Agreement:

• The agreement that came into force from January 1, 1995 lays down minimum standards for protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in WTO member countries with a view to reduce distortions and impediments to international trade.
• The Agreement provides for norms and standards in respect of following areas of intellectual property: Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Geographical Indications, and Industrial Designs.

Cell for IPR Promotion and Management

• The Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) was created in 2016 under the aegis of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industry to take forward the implementation of the National IPR Policy.
• Since then, CIPAM is working towards creating public awareness about IPRs in the country, promoting the filing of IPRs through facilitation, providing inventors with a platform to commercialize their IP assets and coordinating the implementation of the National IPR Policy in collaboration with Government Ministries/Departments and other stakeholders.

Trademark	Patent	Copyright
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. The term "trademark" is often used to refer to both trademarks and service marks. Unlike patents and copyrights, trademarks do not expire after a set term of years. Instead, a trademark can last forever, so long as the owner continues to use the mark in commerce to indicate the source of goods and services.	A patent is a limited duration property right relating to an invention, granted by Trademark Office in exchange for public disclosure of the invention. Patentable materials include machines, manufactured articles, industrial processes, and chemical compositions. The duration of patent protection is 20 years in case of India.	A copyright protects works of authorship that have been tangibly expressed in a physical form. Example - songs, books, movies, and works of art.