Trade secret is one of the most difficult concepts of IP.
But we have come up with a simple way to
explain what a trade secret is? We all are aware of the Coca-Cola Company and its popular drink “Coke.” The ingredient or the formula that the company *uses to make the drink is locked up in the company headquarters in the U.S. and nobody except the top management knows about the ingredients used to make the drink. This ingredient used by Coca- Cola is a trade secret (see Table 1.4 for an overview on trade secrets).
Trade secret is a legal term for confidential business information. It is an intangible asset of which the organization is the solelawful owner. No other organization or individual can use the trade secret without the prior permission of the sole legal owner. A trade secret may consist of a formula, a pattern or a device, confidential data of an organization’s customers, and so on. A trade
Protectable Subject Matter
Information that has commercial value and is not generally known or readily accessible in the trade, for which there is evidence of efforts to protect secrecy (product formulas, chemical compounds, blueprints, dimensions, tolerances, customer lists, suppliers, financial information, so on and so forth).
Government Registration: Generally none available.
Scope of Rights
Prevent disclosure or acquisition by dishonest means, or use of the secret or confidential
information without permission.
Duration Legal Basis
As long as information remains secret (potentially forever). National Laws (Rights under Common Law), consistent with TRIPS Section 8, Article 39.
In India, protected by common law rights, principles of express or implied contracts, laws relating to unfair competition and in some instances, criminal law.
secret is a form of IP that the organization wants to protect from being stolen or copied by its competitors.
Tips and Techniques
The criteria for determining a trade secret are as follows:
1. The information must not be generally known or ascertained through proper means.
2. The information must have an independent economic value due to its secrecy.
3. The right holder must use proper means to protect the secrecy of the information Protection in India
The protection of trade secrets in India is based on Common Law principles. However, if we look at the Indian Contract Law, some sort of protection has been given to trade secrets. Section 27 of the
NTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND BUSINESS
Indian Contract Act provides that in the eventuality of a contract, a person is barred from isclosing any information that may be privileged to him during course of employment with a particular organization.
Domain Names: Trademarks on the Internet
We have addresses for our homes and offices, the same way domain names are nothing but simple forms of addresses on the Internet. These addresses enable users to locate web sites on the Internet in an easy manner. Domain names correspond to various Internet Protocol numbers, which connect various computers and enable direct-network routing system to direct data requests to the correct addressee. In other words, a domain name is a “uniform source locator.” Domain names are of two types. Figure 1.7 would give a better idea.
Besides locating sites, domain names also have a function of identifying businesses and their goods and services on the Internet, which gives them an edge over their competitors. The Internet landscape has recently undergone considerable change with respect to both the identifiers that are used upon it (including multilingual domain names and keywords), as well as issues related to the organization, management, and coordination of the domain naming system (DNS) including the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), emergence of multiple roots, and the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) reform THE INTANGIBLE LANDSCAPE 57
The introduction of new gTLDs to complement those already existing (.com, .org, .net, .edu, .gov, .mil, and .int) has been the subject of intense debate for a number of years. The ICANN has played a very important role in getting these new domain names passed. The domain names can be registered by approaching any ICANN accredited registrar.
In the recent past, there have been developments to allow the registration of domain names Written in non-ASCII characters such as Arabic, Chinese, and so on.
Domain Names in India
It is a general practice where companies desire to obtain such domain names, which can be easily identified with their established trademarks. This helps the public to identify the company, as there is no physical contact between the two of them.
Domain names and trademarks are connected with each other. Under Indian law, domain names are entitled to trademark protection.
Registration of a Domain Name
It is very simple to register a domain name. To obtain a domain name, an organization or an
individual has to approach a registrar of domain names and buy the domain name from it. There is no criterion for registering a domain name.
MARKING AND NOTICES
A common feature of IP regimes is to notify the world at large of the ownership of those intellectual property rights (IPR). Generally this is for the purposes of ensuring that any alleged infringer of the IPRs has constructive “notice,” which may enable the organization to overcome any defense of innocent infringement. This is the case
NTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND BUSINESS
with respect to patents (Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act of the Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act) as well as circuit layouts. With respect of trademarks, there are a number of defenses that require the defendant to establish that the trademark was used in good faith (Section 122 of the Trade Marks Act). With respect to copyright, the use of the relevant marking also enables reciprocal rights to be exercised in foreign jurisdictions.
Table 1.5 sets out the nature of the markings that should be applied in respect of each form of IP.
It is optional and a sound practice when dealing with a copyright work to insert “all rights Reserved” on the article to designate that no license is implied by the publication or provision of the IPR. Care should be taken in using the above markings. Some of the IP statutes have specific provisions making it an offence for persons to represent that they are the owners of a registered form of IP when they are not, or that the IP is registered (for example, the Indian Trade Marks Act, 1999). Such conduct may also amount to misleading or deceptive conduct contrary to the Competition Act.
Form of IP Marking or Notice
Patents “Indian Patent Number xxx”
“Patent pending” for applications for patents filed with
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