Proper exploitation of your IP can add value to your business, generate revenue streams and give you a competitive advantage in negotiations. Some specific advantages are as follows:

• Securing Intellectual property embodies a monopoly feature thatentails commercial benefits by an entity for a particular area of business by exclusion of competitors. • Besides, a business entity with IP-secured products can strategically to help exploit the protected area of business with fellow competitors. • Again, a scope exists for selling the IP-secured productsthrough assigning of rights to another party through transfer. Thus,for an invention by an entity in an area without commercial interest, selling the same to another party having operable interest can optimally exploit the invention. • The existence of an IP security enable apt monitoring of the activities of competitors. Be it, granted patents or registered designs or registered trade mark, the technical and commercial scope of a competitor can be gauged accordingly. For example, in a granted patent the technical information indicate the area of technology that the competitor is about to introduce in the market and thereupon, the business viability of the products can be accordingly gauged. In the same line, registration of a new trade mark (or tag line) indicate the focus a new line of business or the focus of the corporate identity of a company. • From an indirect perspective, there are a couple of benefits of protecting IP.While in some countries tax sops are offered on accruedprofits from products sold that are secured through registration of appropriate intellectual property , in some other countries, the cost of securing these registered IP rights is miniscule vis-à-vis the gains made by the lower tax rate. • In some businesses, a registered IP rights of products allows the investors the requisite confidence to invest in the company. Furthermore, it acts as a strong indicator to shareholders that their share-holdings are being properly protected through securing of their products.

• Global filing activity for patents and trademarks grew in 2013 with an estimated 2.6 million patent applications filed worldwide in 2013 envisaging a growth of 9 percent on 2012. Trademark filing activity rose by around 6 percent—similar to the level witnessed in the year 2012. Industrial design filing activity grew by only 2.5 percent in 2013, considerably less than the 16 percent recorded in 2012. This lower growth mainly resulted from a slowdown in the number of industrial design applications filed in China.

• IP offices of high-income countries received the largest proportion of all patent applications (60.3%) and trademark filing activity (46.4%) worldwide. Lower middle-income countries exhibited low shares of filing activity for patents (2.9%), and industrial designs (3.6%), but accounted for a higher share of global trademark application class counts (9.5%).

• IP offices in Asia received the highest numbers of applications for patents, trademarks and industrial designs. Specifically, Asian offices received a combined share of more than half (58.4%) of all patent applications worldwide. This is in contrast to the lower shares received by offices in North America (23.6%) and in Europe (13.5%).

• Of the estimated 9.45 million patents in force, 26 percent were in the United States of America (US), followed by 19 percent in Japan. For the first time, 2013 saw more than a million patents in force in China. In 2013, a total of 26.3 million trademarks were active in about 90 offices worldwide. China accounted for the most trademarks in force, with 7.2 million. The US (1.8 million) and Japan (1.7 million) had similar numbers. India, with almost 980,000, also ranks high. Almost 3 million industrial design registrations were in force, of which 1.2 million were in China alone.

• Patent applications span a wide range of technologies. At the top five offices covering the 2010–12 period, the technology field of electrical machinery, apparatus and energy was among the top three associated with published patent applications. The same is true for computer technology, except at the European Patent Office.

• Around 205,300 PCT applications were filed worldwide in 2013, up 5.1% from 2012. In 2013, Panasonic Corporation of Japan became the top PCT applicant, with 2,839 applications published. ZTE Corporation of China, which specializes in telecommunications equipment and network solutions, moved to second position with 2,309. Both remained in the top positions despite recording one-year declines in the number of published applications (-197 for Panasonic and -1,611 for ZTE).

• Using the Nice Classification, trademark applications can be attributed to ten industry sectors. Applicants filing trademark protection for research & technology is found to be the highest. Three of the ten industry sectors alone accounted for about half of all trademark filing activity at the offices of China, France and the US.

• China had the highest resident design count per GDP, followed by the Republic of Korea. They were the only East Asian countries that ranked among the top origins. Most of the remaining were in Europe, such as Italy, Germany and Ukraine.

The existence of global innovation portfolio is mostly confined to top 25 economies mostly in the high income group. China and Malaysia are the only upper-middle income countries getting closer to these ranks. Still then, Sub-Saharan Africa made the most significant improvement in securing intellectual property. The BRICS economies showed signs of divergence, with China improving at a significantly faster pace than its BRICS counterparts and India slipping back. The divergence of India from the rest of the BRICS economies is the result of the challenges it faces in integrating its efforts along the different dimensions of innovation to sustain a high level of innovation success. .

In India, the existence of intellectual property is present at statutory, administrative and judicial levels. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) in which India is an approver, contains an Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that lays down minimum standards for protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights for member trading countries in order to promote effective and adequate protection of intellectual property rights. Through these rights, these countries try to reduce distortions and impediments in international trade. The norms and standards with respect to intellectual property as practised in India are laid down in the TRIPS Agreement and are broadly in the following areas: Patents, Trade Marks, Copyrights, Geographical Indications and Industrial Designs. While through Patents, technological invention of products or processes can be secured provided these are innovative in nature and are capable of industrial application. However, as per the TRIPS Agreement, specific exclusions are permissible from the perspective of patentability of inventions, especially those which might be subjected to commercial exploitation and / or inducing negative externalities to the society and environment. In India, following the TRIPS Agreement, a patent is granted have its validity for a period of 20 years counted from the date of filing. Through Trademarks, signs or its combination are registered as protectable subject matter for distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings under the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. In India, trademarks are registered for a period of 7 years and the registration shall be renewable indefinitely. However, compulsory licensing of trade marks is not permitted. India’s copyright law, is based on the Berne Convention on Copyrights, to which India is a party. It is based on the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 as amended by Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1999. Additionally, India is also party to the Geneva Convention for the Protection of rights of Producers of Phonograms and to the Universal Copyright Convention. India is also an active member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Geneva and UNESCO. To keep pace with changing requirements, India’s copyright law have been frequently modified. The latest modification to India’s copyright law was instituted in May 1995, to inculcate the developments in satellite broadcasting, computer software and digital technology so as to protect performer’s rights as envisaged in the Rome Convention. India’s Intellectual Property law also embodies securing of the geographical typicality of goods. A law for the protection of geographical indications, viz. the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and the Protection) Act, 1999 has also been passed by the Parliament and notified on 30.12.1999 and the rules made there under notified on 8-3-2002. India also instituted a law for preserving Industrial designs that reflects the creative activity as manifested in the ornamental or formal appearance of a product. Under the TRIPS Agreement, minimum standards of protection of industrial designs have been guaranteed for all the member nations, including India’s. India’s design law promote and protect the design element of industrial production beside promoting innovative activity in the field of industries. The existing legislation on industrial designs in India is contained in the New Designs Act, 2000. In the field of industrial designs, India achieved a mature status and the present legislation is aligned with the changed technical and commercial scenario and made to conform to international trends in design administration. Unfortunately however, in the practical aspect, India’s IP scenario is far from satisfactory. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) has released its third annual international intellectual property (IP) index list in 2015. In this list India is placed at 29th rank among the 30 countries.