Protect or Perish ; in Businesses, Big or Small, Ranging From Manufacturing to Music, the Fight for Intellectual Property Is Getting Intense. Neglect It and You Could Be Out of Business.
Business Today › March 18, 2009
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Summary
A new intellectual awakening is one way to describe it. In the last five years, Indian firms have begun to realise that they simply cannot ignore issues surrounding the intellectual property rights (IPR) related to their firm. Across industries that range from Bollywood to pharmaceuticals, companies are contesting copyright, trademark or patent infringement issues in Indian courts like never before. We have always been a creative country, but along with IP awareness, there is now a passion to own and possess our own IP, says Pravin Anand, Managing Partner, Anand & Anand.
In today's ultra-competitive, globalised corporate environment, a firm's failure to adopt a comprehensive IPR strategy could prove to be a costly omission, either because its own brand or product can be infringed upon or that it might unknowingly launch a product or an idea already conceived and copyrighted by someone else. Equally important is the acknowledgement that an IPR strategy could be a crucial competitive tool for businesses today. IP provides that edge, that innovative thrust required so much in these competitive times to possibly try to stay neck and neck, if not ahead of the competition, says Rahul Chaudhry, Partner, Lall Lahiri & Salhotra.See the full content of this document
Extract
Protect or Perish ; in Businesses, Big or Small, Ranging From Manufacturing to Music, the Fight for Intellectual Property Is Getting Intense. Neglect It and You Could Be Out of Business.
How so? An IPR strategy that includes a well-recognised brand or lucrative patent owned by the company can significantly boost revenues and profits. Moreover, for firms trying to raise money in the financial markets, the number and quality of intellectual property rights that the firm owns can dramatically enhance its valuations, say industry experts.
For companies like Bharti Airtel, whose corporate mission rests on the strength of its brand, issues surrounding intellectual property are taken very seriously. IP counsel is sought in almost all marketing activity that's undertaken today by most companies. This is to not just prevent the brand from being misused. Care also has to be exercised that marketers do not infringe upon one another, says Sanjay Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel. This philosophy has even percolated down to smaller firms anxious to remain in complete control of their brand identity. Luxor Writing Instruments, a Rs 300-crore business, which owns the rights ...See the full content of this document
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