There is good news for India as the number of examined patent applications quadrupled from 2014 to 2020. From only 22.6 thousand patent applications reviewed during 2014-15, it reached 85.4 thousand in 2018-2019. It is because of the many amendments in the Indian patent laws of Patents Act 1970 and Patent Rules, 2003. The Patent (Amendment) Act, 2005, and further in 2016, 2017, and 2019 helped to bring changes to the patent system in India. Also, the publishing laws in India safeguard the right of the writers and publishers of their literary and other works. But before publishing, their non-scientific should ensure thorough reading of their work to avoid copyright and other issues.
This article will discuss the many changes in the Indian patent laws and how to safeguard the publishers’ rights and avoid legal issues.
How do publishing laws in India protect intellectual property rights?
India’s publishing sector is the third big English language market worldwide to advance the Indian community. This sector enriches its knowledge with creative fiction, relevant information, and crucial data for improvement. But this growing sector faces many challenges, like plagiarism, falsification, and data fabrication. It is because of the reducing lack of guidance on the publication ethics to act as checkpoints. But there are publishing laws in India that lay down the rule for the publishers of newspapers, books, magazines, journals, and others to follow.
The Press and Registration of Books Act 1867 laid down many such rules. The Delivery of Books and Newspapers (Public Libraries) Act, 1954, and the Copyright Act, 1957, offer many intellectual property rights to the publishers. These laws govern publishing issues like sedition, defamation, outraging religious faith, unrest among sections, promoting communal harmony, intellectual or copyrighted property rights violation, etc. Hence publishers should be careful to avoid such issues by using the best copyright lawyers to read their manuscripts before publishing
non-fiction books, among others.
How are the Indian patent laws increasing the number of patents rapidly?
Recent Indian government data confirms the increase in IP-related applications, such as patents, trademarks, etc. It also establishes the quick disposal of the applications to increase the number of patents. The many amendments made by the government in the last two decades have enabled efficient procedures for filing applications, reviewing them, and disposing of them fast. It is because of modernizing the IP offices augmented with IT and increasing the patent examiners from 183 in 2014 to 610 in 2020. Since patents enable inventors and their companies to market their innovative products in the market, fast processing of them has increased business and economy in India.
The best lawyers, experts, and experienced in the Indian patent laws will help inventors get patents fast, help publish books and others without issues, and safeguard their intellectual property rights.
