Registration and Protection of Intellectual Properties (IP) of IT and IT Enabled Services: Best FDI Attorney Advice in India

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“The first step for commencing FDI in India or Foreign Direct Investment in India is to register a company in India or register a corporation in India. The same is followed by registration of brand name, registration of logo, registration of mark, registration of trademark. Thereafter, in case of product registration of design is mandatory. In case of any innovation registration of patent is mandatory. The protection of Intellectual Properties or IP is only possible if the corporation has a valid registration or must have at least applied for registration of IP in India. A proper online legal consultation should be obtained from the best FDI attorney in India.”

Timely intellectual property (IP) audits are critical while working on new designs, software, research, and other projects. To avoid infringement, it’s critical to register the appropriate trademark, patent, and copyright claims. Because IPRs are country-specific, it is critical in a global economy to examine and determine the kind and degree of protection provided to them. India has fulfilled its responsibilities under the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”) by revising existing statutes and introducing appropriate legislation. Some laws which Some laws which govern the IP laws in India are The Copyright Act, 1957, The Design Act, 2000, TRIPS, The Trade Marks Act, 1999.

Need for Registration of Intellectual Property in IT Companies
IT regulations include e-contracts and digital signatures. The usage of cloud computing services and proprietary technology collects a large amount of consumer data, which necessitates the protection of client privacy from hackers. All of the IP created may be integrated in the IT utilised at times. As a result, safeguarding against infringers becomes critical. Knowledge of IT legislation can save your company money.

Copyright on Software of IT Companies
Copyright aims to safeguard unique works, as well as creativity and the presentation of an idea. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on TRIPS introduced copyright protection for software worldwide. According to Article 10 of the TRIPS agreement, computer programmes are dealt with by WTO members. The software code is likewise protected by copyright, but it must be written down and recorded. These copyright holders have the power to prevent anyone from using or selling illegal copies of the material. A computer programme or software can be classified as a “literary work.” “Literary work” encompasses computer programmes, tables, and summaries, including computer databases, according to Section 2 (o) of the Copyright Act of 1957. Along with the request for protection of copyright for software goods, “Source Code” and “Object Code” must also be provided.
The examples of copyright rights in a computer programme are:
• Rights to produce copies of a computer programme for public distribution by selling the goods of ownership, or via renting, leasing, or loan;
• The right to make a computer programme derivative;
• The right to operate the computer programme in public; or
• The right to exhibit the computer software in public.
In this case, a person receives practically all of the rights to the computer software, rather than only the ability to use it for personal purposes.

Patents of Software of IT Companies
In India, computer programmes are not patentable in and of themselves. India, on the other hand, grants patents to inventions that make use of software. These patents are more appropriately described as hardware patents than software patents. A patent holder can choose to keep the patent for the whole 20-year term or to stop to pay the patent maintenance costs if the software gets outdated, allowing the innovation to be released from patent protection. There is no reason to restrict software patent protection to individuals who just seek it for the full 20-year duration just because most software patent holders will likely abandon their patents before the term ends.

Trade Secrets on Softwares of IT Companies
The functional aspects of software could be registered as Trade Secrets in an IT or IT enabled sector. This could include any designs, ideas and structure of a company. This mode of protection would include certain types of limitations as well. If any person who is able to reverse engineer the secret of the software from publicly available information, the owner shall have no proper recourse against that person. Java codes or codes which gas been interpreted language can be easily reversed engineered. India is a party to the TRIPs Agreement, and as such, it has the authority to enact legislation that protects trade secrets, as described above, by restricting illegal information disclosure. Despite the fact that India lacks a particular trade trade secret legislation or statute, Indian courts and tribunals have supported trade secret protections under other laws such as copyright law, contact law, equity principles, and common law breach of confidence actions . In addition to the foregoing, the Information Technology Act of 2000 establishes legal safeguards for sensitive data in the form of electronic records.

Protection of trade secrets, data privacy and data protection should be the primary concern for any corporation. The IP laws in India lay down a strict se of rules and regulations which have to be duly complied with.

Conclusion
Intellectual property plays a major role in IT and Tech companies in order to protect its uniqueness and to keep the company stand out from the rest of the company. However, it can be understood that software can be registered as copyright but there are other limitation when it comes to other intellectual property rights. Mostly computer Software’s are protected under the armpit of Copyrights but when it comes to other literary works the other types of intellectual property come into play.
Authored By: Adv. Anant Sharma & Afsana Khan