Balancing Innovation and Public Health: Landmark Cases and Global Patent Standards

16th December, 2024 - 7:26 am Categories: Patent Rule Amendment Patents 0 Comments

INTRODUCTION

A huge transforming shift is in the combination that brings virtual reality, innovations around the current software that keep rolling on each day of our lives together. But, however, the above paradigm acquires deep meaning all of a sudden concerning all walks that range to entertainment, schooling, as well as various business-related social interaction ways.

The metaverse has been described to be a collective and virtually shared space, further emerging as the next level of internet experience. It has also broken through the limits of conventional boundaries and established immersive, interconnected digital spaces where users can further engage with one another and with digital content in real time. This is an extension of the internet beyond vision, which envisions the seamless blending of physical and virtual realities. The need in reengineering the way of work, socializing, and getting information has to be kept in mind here.

Virtual reality, indeed, is a great part of the metaverse. Amplifying this change, virtual reality introduces users to computer-generated environments; it provides them with a highly increased feeling of presence and interaction. This is no longer an application in gaming; it now gains more applications in education, health care, training simulation, and many more. The value of importance of VR is in the creation of experiential learning environments, therapeutic interventions, and realistic simulations unachievable before.

Other streams of continuous software innovation underlie these developments. The metaverse is based on complex architectures allowing smooth, natural interaction and immersion in information with safety and security. At the heart of realizing the kinds of realistic simulations in space and haptic systems for feedback for the VR community lie the innovations in software. Here it is possible to watch how such software serves to build the basis of the plots the stories and raises the bar set for further possibilities.

IMPORTANCE OF METAVERSE, VIRTUAL REALITY AND SOFTWARE INNOVATIONS

The metaverse, VR, and software inventions’ relevance falls within many of the vital spheres:

1. Social Interaction and Collaboration: Shared digital space would be a result of social interaction in the metaverse, but virtual gathering, meeting, or events could take place much more interactively and presentially when interacting remotely. This would be the most significant consequence for future remote work and global collaboration.
2. Education and Training: With the advent of virtual reality, so do new aspects of education and training in the metaverse. Students learn historical events. Scientists do experiments in virtual labs and professionals go through realistic simulations. The catch is that such learning is available and experiential.
3. Health and Therapy: VR in the field of health is used to realize real-life simulation for medical training, so telemedicine can be practiced; it is very immersive for consultation. It may even allow technologies that help develop capacity to enhance patient care and medicine training.
4. Business and Commerce: Virtual Metaverse offers a new ground for virtual commercial and business to business communication: allowing people to have virtual showrooms, conference platforms, malls that redefine the outlook for e-commerce in the future; software has to be utilized here to secure transactions.
5. Innovation Ecosystem: It all sits on top of software innovations for the metaverse and VR-from development of lifelike avatars and spatial computing to securing data privacy and security-from, literally, “all that is possible.”.

In a nutshell, innovation with the metaverse, virtual reality, and other related software combines ideas about how it will change entirely new ways of interaction in the digital world. It is not about separate trends but interlinked and dependent on parts of a different paradigm regarding how we relate, connect, or cooperate with information by means of new innovations toward open frontiers for experiences of humankind.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

This landscape of software innovations, Metaverse, and Virtual Reality (VR) patentability is dynamic and changes with the interconnection of various technologies. Originally designed to cover conventional inventions, the Indian Patent Act now struggles to address the nuances of patenting discoveries in the context of the Metaverse. Since Metaverse technology is so global, the patents falling under the Indian Patent Act must come to know how they comply with or diverge from foreign regulations. International legal norms should be harmonized in such a manner as to promote technological innovation, achieve fair competition, and also provide inventors with a shelter in which they may discover protection for their inventions.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

• Understand the Legal framework in respect of AI innovation and software development.
• Global Approaches Evaluate Global Approaches in the realm of software patenting
• Current Trends in Metaverse, VR, and software technologies.
• Changes in terms of the new patent system concerning Metaverse, VR, and innovation related to software.
• Suggest policy recommendations
• Explore International Collaboration Opportunities

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• How do the Indians have a standpoint on patentable inventions for software, virtual reality, and all the metaverse innovations?
• How do the provisions of India Patent Act relate to or differ from other patent laws of other countries, so far as Metaverse and VR inventions are concerned?
• India as a software development country, especially with virtual reality and its impact on the patent landscape of India.
• What are the implications of these technologies on the examination process and how they complement or differ from conventional patent categories.

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Intellectual Property Rights in India: Historical Development

The intellectual property rights in India trace back their history to a number of legal and administrative measures that evolved with time passing and new things coming into the picture. In India, in terms of Intellectual Property Rights, copyrights, trademarks, patents, and designs are covered mainly. The origins of intellectual property laws in India, chronologically speaking, go as far back as the 19th century British colonial rule. The earliest legislative measures date back to the Copyright Act of 1847, which was meant to protect literary and artistic works in India.

This Act of 1847 was further replaced by the Act of 1914 that gives statutory protection to literary, dramatic and musical works. This also was one significant development that took place regarding the protection of intellectual property rights in India. The Act of Trade Marks of the year 1940 is also included here, through which legal protection was offered to brand names, logos, and symbols that differentiate one’s goods from the others.

The Indian Patent Act of 1970 was one of the most important developments in the intellectual property landscape of India. When the time came, it had to change its approach towards embracing and satisfying each segment of society with a willingness to protect those rights that came with innovation.

It replaced the 1911 Act and brought along a few radical amendments, among which were restrictions on the granting of product patents in the sector of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Thus, the core ambition of the 1970 Act was to encourage internal innovation and access to essential medicines.

When in 1995, India became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), that necessitated India to conform to the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights TRIPS) Agreement. Further TRIPS necessitated major overhauling of the intellectual property laws of India which insisted on product patents in all fields of technology.

Author: Vikram Choudhary, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email to chhavi@khuranaandkhurana.com or at Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorney.

REFERENCES

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2. Bahirat, T. (2022) What is metaverse? – everything you need to know, Great Learning Blog: Free Resources what Matters to shape your Career! Available at: https://www.mygreatlearning.com/blog/what-is-metaverse/ (Accessed: 10 November 2023).
3. Sheldon, R. (2022) What is virtual reality?, com. Available at: https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/virtual-reality (Accessed: 10 November 2023).
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5. Ravindra Bhat and Abstract The present article provides an overview of the various laws dealing with innovation and intellectual property rights in India. In India (2017) Innovation and intellectual property rights law-an overview of the Indian law, IIMB Management Review. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0970389617305864 (Accessed: 11 November 2023).
6. IPR Law-History (no date) Legal Service India – Law, Lawyers and Legal Resources. Available at: https://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-3581-ipr-law-history.html#:~:text=Origin%20In%20India%3A,as%20Act%20XV%20of%201859. (Accessed: 11 November 2023).
8. WTO: Intellectual property (TRIPS) – gateway (no date) WTO. Available at: https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/trips_e.htm (Accessed: 11 November 2023).