Intellectual Property Rights and Threats of Hacking

Introduction:

When anything is made with the application of one's brain, intellectual property rights are the sole legal permission granted to the creator or to a company for that use. Several sorts of intellectual property rights are protected, including industrial designs, trademarks, geographical indications, copyrights, and trade secrets. The protection of intellectual property encourages innovation and development. It acknowledges innovators and inventors for their innovations. Also, it discourages rivals from stealing ideas. Intellectual property rights have a significant impact on the nation's economic development in addition to protecting enterprises.

Why do we need to protect Intellectual property?

Intellectual property is an example of an asset that, like tangible assets, is protected by the law. Protecting the creator's intellectual property rights is essential to preventing the loss of the company's competitive advantage and market value. The act of stealing someone else's ideas and innovations for personal gain is known as intellectual property theft.

Companies may lose their customers' trust as a result of intellectual property theft. It occasionally even threatens a company's future and damages its reputation. According to estimates, the United States lost over USD 225 billion to intellectual property theft in 2017. Intellectual property is now under threat as a result of the increased usage of technology. Throughout the epidemic, the demand for pirated content has also surged in India. Not only has it affected India's status in the world's IP rankings, but it also puts authors' inventions and concepts in danger. Even though India's IP score has increased by 13%, it still ranks 43rd out of 55 countries on the International IP Index, 2022.

Common Ways of Intellectual Property Theft:

Intellectual property can be stolen in a number of ways, including through hacking, privilege abuse, and human error. Hackers are cybercriminals who get access to a company's confidential information and intellectual property using nefarious software and other tools. Hacking can be done in many different methods, such as using a keylogger, spear phishing, cross-site scripting, or password-spraying. Employees who abuse their access privileges to the company's confidential information and intellectual property sometimes want to sell it to rivals or launch their own businesses. When sensitive firm data is exposed as a result of a careless employee-caused data breach, human error has occurred.

Cases of Intellectual Property Theft:

It was discovered that hackers just grab the blueprints and designs rather than copying the inventions. Australia's top intelligence agency's new headquarters allegedly had its blueprints illegally accessed and taken by Chinese hackers in 2013. In another instance, when Chinese hackers stole the company's designs to sell them for cheap in Africa, the prices of the Australian metal detection and mining technology firm "Codan" plummeted. Law enforcement officials then discovered that one of the staff members had used the hotel's WiFi while on a business trip to China.

In 2014, Tata Consultancy Services was charged with stealing intellectual property by US software company Epic Systems. According to Epic System, TCS employees took approximately 6000 pieces of data by creating a phony user account that appeared to be a member of the medical staff. TCS argued, however, that it had not been abused or unfairly benefited from.

Solutions:

India created a National IPR policy in 2016 to guarantee an efficient structure for facilitating Intellectual Property and its rights. If a corporation has a robust protection policy, it will be less susceptible to IP theft. The notion must be original, it must be ensured. For the sake of preventing infringement and duplication, the invention must be patentable without unnecessary delay. Also, businesses need reliable encryption technology to combat intellectual property theft. It is necessary to raise public awareness of IPR regulations

It is necessary to apply a digital watermark that enables owners to monitor the distribution and copying of their work. Employees must receive enough training on intellectual property protection and other data breaches. The company's gadget needs to be connected to a secure network. Also, for maximum security, the device's password must be reset every two to three months. Secure anti-virus software must be installed on the system to guard against intrusions from outside sources..

Conclusion:

The legal rights granted to innovators for their original ideas are known as intellectual property rights. Patents, trademarks, geographic indications, and designs all serve to safeguard intellectual property rights. The risk of intellectual property theft has increased with the development of the digital world. Companies should, in my opinion, adopt suitable rules for the

protection of intellectual property. Strong encryption technology, staying away from public Wi-Fi, and setting up the most secure anti-virus software for the PC are some answers.