Fisheries Administration and Lagislation

Unit 4 - General background on law

4.3. Legislations covering IPRs in India
Patents
The Patents Act, 1970. The act was amended in March 1999
Design
The Designs Act, 1911. A new Design Act 2000 has been enacted superseding the earlier Designs Act 1911.
Trade mark
The Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958. A new Trade-marks Act, 1999 has been enacted superseding the earlier Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958. (Enforcement pending).
Copyright
The Copyright Act 1957 as amended in 1983, 1984 and 1992, 1994, 1999 and the Copyright Rules, 1958.
Layout Design of Integrated Circuits
The Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Layout Design Act 2000. (Enforcement pending) Protection of Undisclosed Information: No exclusive legislation exists but the matter would be generally covered under the Contract Act, 1872.
Geographical Indications
The geographical indication of goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999.
Contracts
A contract is a promise to perform, to do something.
The vast majority of contracts in the real world don’t need to be thought of in terms of promises – they are instantaneous and finished. They are simultaneous and so don’t really need a contract.
However, there are times when the action by one party is later than the promised reciprocal action by the other party. There is a potential for opportunistic behavior – so you need a method of enforcing the performance of the person who is supposed to perform first.

Indian Contracts Act 1872
It extends to the whole of India [except the State of Jammu and Kashmir] and it shall come into force on the first day of September, 1872. Nothing herein contained shall affect the provisions of any Statute, Act or Regulation not hereby expressly repealed, nor any usage or custom of trade, nor any incident of any contract, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act.
In this Act the following words and expressions are used in the following senses, unless a contrary intention appears from the context:-

• When one person signifies to another his willingness to do or to abstain from doing anything, with a view to obtaining the assent of that other to such act or abstinence, he is said to make a proposal
• When the person to whom the proposal is made signifies his assent thereto, the proposal is said to be accepted. A proposal, when accepted, becomes a promise
• The person making the proposal is called the "promisor and the person accepting the proposal is called the It promise"
• When, at the desire of the promisor, the promisee or any other person has clone or abstained from doing, or does or abstains from doing, or promises to do or to abstain from doing, something, such Act or abstinence or promise is called a consideration for the promise
• Every promise and every set of promises, forming the consideration for each other, is an agreement
• Promises which form the consideration or part, of the. Considerations for each other are called reciprocal promises
• An agreement not enforceable by law is said to be void
• An agreement enforceable by law is a contract
• An agreement which is enforceable by law at the option of one or more of the parties- thereto, but not at the option of the other or others, is an avoidable contract
• A contract which ceases to be enforceable by law becomes void when it ceases to be enforceable.