According to a research, IP-intensive industries generate 72 percent more value-per-employee than non-IP-intensive industries globally. This idea of establishment of L2Pro platform and training the MSME sector already get success in many different countries like France, Germany and the UK.
On 14 October 2019 the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) launched a platform named L2Pro (Learn to Protect, Secure and Maximize your innovation) to help MSMEs sector to maximize and promote innovation after acquiring knowledge of trademark, patent and copyrights and other plethora of aspects of Intellectual property rights. The DPIIT decided to launch and establish this platform for MSMEs and to collaborate for the long run benefit in terms of economic development and enhancement in figures of National output.
This will not only promote and paves way to growth and extension in the national figure of MSMEs but also help in order to get edge in this competitive market and globalized world. With the establishment of L2Pro platform, India’s as a ground of 63 million gets enormous support in terms of learning and the platform designed in such a way that it will taught and help MSMEs to get better insight of the whole gamut of IPR.
Before the introduction of L2Pro platform, concept of IPR and its related concepts like- Copyright, trademark and patents are totally beyond the reach of MSMEs sector and they have not even the basic knowledge of it. Without acquiring sufficient knowledge and training of IPR it will act as devastating element for any sector.
IPR and its crucial role in MSMEs Sector
In this competitive driven market the one major issue faced by any smaller entities is exploitation from larger entities and same continues in case of MSMEs sector in this competitive market. MSMEs looks exploitation as a major issue and threat and to combat this problem DPIIT came up with the idea of L2Pro so that MSMEs gets training and knowledge of IPR and to deal with problem of registration of product, filing of infringement suit to get remedy and to cope up with issue of exploitation of large scale industries. In the absence of it large scale enterprises exploits MSMEs sector by copying their innovation and earns a huge profit out of that innovation and this is also a major reason behind this idea.
IPR and MSMEs Collaboration: A Global Scenario
After the globalization and interlinking of nations the market becomes more competitive and full of exploitation and threat due to which it is very much important to provide a shield to the MSMEs sector so that they can protect themselves from all exploitation and threats and largely contribute to the national figure. According to a research IP-intensive industries generates 72 percent more valueper-employee than non-IPintensive industries globally. This idea of establishment of L2Pro platform and training MSMEs sector already get success in many different countries like- France, Germany and UK.
Imparting Education and training regarding IPR to MSMEs only is not sufficient. Providing holistic views on this particular arena is required along with providing different incentives to MSMEs sector to contribute to National economy through this long-run pairing.
Online transfer or sharing of files never a debatable issue or contemporary issue before the Napster Case of P2P network comes in highlight in the year 2001 when some major companies decided to sue Napster Incorporation. Around 1990s, a network came in front of audience or consumer as a medium of peer-to-peer file sharing and soon attains popularity in the market for the sharing or transferring of music by converting it in mp3 format.
Different companies sued Napster Inc. but the case of A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster Incorporation, draws attention of people towards the illegal way of sharing music and contributory & vicarious infringement. This case when addressed by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit many issues were taken into consideration. The first and major one is Fair Use Defence, Second one is Direct Infringement and last one is Contributory Infringement and while addressing all dilemma, court came up with different reasoning with legal support.
Analysis of Case along with Legal Reasoning
A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster Inc., is considered to be a landmark judgment in IPR field for the establishment of regulation of copyright in online file sharing. The Court of Appeals agreed to the legal reasoning applied by the district court and the judgment pronounced. Three issues were addressed by the court of appeals in order to deliver the judgment with proper explanation of legal reasoning as already mentioned.
While dealing with the issue of Fair Use Defense, the court mentioned 17 U.S.C. Section 107 that talks about ‘Limitation on exclusive rights: Fair Use’ and laid down four most important factors to determine whether the use of that work falls within the ambit of Fair Use Defense or not.
1. Whether use is for commercial purpose or not?
2. Nature of the copyrighted work.
3. Amount and sustainability of the portion used of the copyrighted work.
4. What is the overall effect of the use on the copyrighted work? After analyzing and checking reasonability, the court of appeal held appropriate injunction with its opinion against any of Napster’s future infringing activities. But same peer-to-peer sharing issue again addressed by the court in the case of MGM Studious Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.
Post-related effects of Napster Case: Positive & Negative Implications
Napster case has overall mix effect on music industries as well as on different arena. Some of the major effects that faced and noted down are that peer-to-peer sharing network leads in the decline of sale of CD and contribute in generating profit in illegal way. It is not like that it leaves only negative impact but also positive impact like exposing or interaction of an individual to different artists which is never possible without this network.
So, as like everything peerto-peer file transfer has also both negative as well as positive implication and different forms of it developing with the passage of time and a remarkable and huge impact on economy’s output which also shifted the attention towards the MSMEs sector and how collaboration of IPR paves way in strengthening National output.
