The nature of Intellectual Property Rights is such that, like
any other law, it has loopholes as well as overlaps. These overlaps
arise due to the fact that IPR protects ideas by their expressions
and expression can be in more ways than what can be imagined by one
person. There are subject matters which are eligible for the
protection of more than one kind of IP. The prime example is the
overlap between design and copyrights which has been statutorily
dealt with under the Copyrights Act.
However, the recent debate has been with regard to
Copyrights and
Patents. Now, both of these are as far apart as two IP
protection sects can be. Copyright protects literary, dramatic,
artistic, cinematographic, musical works whereas Patent grants
rights to functional inventions which are novel, useful and
non-obvious. However, these rights find a commonality in the patent
applications. It is pertinent to disclose the information relating
to the working of the invention in the
