In a globalized world, Intellectual Property Rights assume significance and are a source of litigation.…

Question

In a globalized world, Intellectual Property Rights assume significance and are a source of litigation. Broadly distinguish between the terms—Copyrights, Patents and Trade Secrets.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Copyright protects original expression automatically, a patent protects a disclosed invention after examination, and a trade secret protects confidential information only while it stays secret. Copyright lasts life plus 60 years, a patent 20 years, and a trade secret indefinitely until it leaks.

**Introduction**

Since TRIPS (1995) made intellectual property enforceable through WTO rules, IPR disputes have multiplied, from Novartis (2013) to the Delhi University photocopy case (2016). The three rights protect different assets in different ways.

**What Copyrights, Patents and Trade Secrets Protect**

1. **Copyright**: Original expression, such as books, music, films and software code, not the idea itself; it arises automatically under the Copyright Act, 1957.
2. **Patent**: A new, inventive, industrially applicable product or process, granted after examination under the Patents Act, 1970 in exchange for public disclosure.
3. **Trade secret**: Confidential business information, such as Coca-Cola's formula, protected only through contracts, breach of confidence and Article 39 of TRIPS, as India has no statute.

SKETCH: matrix | IPR by Object and Disclosure
cols: Disclosed | Kept secret
rows: Technical idea | Creative expression
tl: Patent, 20 years
tr: Trade secret, unlimited
bl: Copyright, life plus 60
br: Unpublished work, copyright

**How They Differ in Term, Strength and Enforcement**

1. **Duration**: Life plus 60 years for copyright, 20 years for a patent, and indefinitely for a trade secret until it leaks.
2. **Strength**: A patent bars even independent inventors, copyright bars only copying, and a trade secret falls to independent discovery or reverse engineering.
3. **Limits and disputes**: Fair dealing (the DU case), compulsory licensing (Natco v Bayer, 2012) and section 27 of the Contract Act, which voids non-competes, limit each right; the Law Commission's 289th Report (2024) proposed a dedicated trade secrets law.

**Conclusion**

Firms choose between disclosure for a short, strong monopoly, publication with long but thin protection, and secrecy. Clear law for each, including on trade secrets, would reduce litigation and support the National IPR Policy, 2016.

In a globalized world, Intellectual Property Rights assume significance and are a source of litigation. Broadly distinguish between the terms—Copyrights, Patents and Trade Secrets.

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