SPPU Solved Question Papers
Intellectual Property Rights
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 5
Oct 2025 Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 5 Intellectual Property Rights Oct 2025 Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 6 November 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Savitribai Phule Pune University set it at the Oct 2025 examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the Oct 2025 examination, reproduced as Savitribai Phule Pune University set them, in the order it set them. Nothing has been reworded, added or left out. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 70 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
SECTION I
PART A
Answer any two · 30 Marks
Q1)What is intellectual property? Discuss the theories justifying protection of intellectual property.[15]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the meaning of intellectual property (WIPO Convention Article 2(viii); TRIPS Article 1(2) and its seven categories); why it needs legal protection; its main characteristics; the theories that justify protection: natural rights, labour (Locke), personality (Hegel), and utilitarian or incentive theory with the reward variant; the economic analysis (public goods, free riders, the cost of monopoly and the balance); how Indian law reflects the theories; Eastern Book Company and Biswanath Prasad; a table; and a conclusion.
1. What is intellectual property?
Intellectual property means legal rights over creations of the mind in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Inventions, books, music, brand names, designs and trade secrets are examples.
The WIPO definition. Article 2(viii) of the Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization gives the widest definition. It lists rights in literary, artistic and scientific works, performances, inventions, scientific discoveries, industrial designs, trade marks and protection against unfair competition. It ends with "all other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields". This makes the category open-ended.
The TRIPS categories. Article 1(2) of the TRIPS Agreement defines intellectual property by the categories in Part II. There are seven: copyright and related rights, trade marks, geographical indications, industrial designs, patents, layout-designs of integrated circuits, and undisclosed information (trade secrets).
One product, many rights. A single product can carry several rights at once. A medicine may be covered by a patent, a trade mark, a design for its pack and copyright in its leaflet. Each right comes from a different law, with a different term.
The Indian statutes. Each kind of intellectual property has its own Act in India:
| Right | Indian Act |
|---|---|
| Patents | Patents Act 1970 |
| Copyright | Copyright Act 1957 |
| Trade marks | Trade Marks Act 1999 |
| Industrial designs | Designs Act 2000 |
| Geographical indications | Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999 |
| Layout-designs | Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-Design Act 2000 |
| Plant varieties | Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act 2001 |
| Trade secrets | No statute; protected by contract and the law of confidence |
2. Why creations of the mind need legal protection
A house or a car can be fenced and locked. An idea cannot. Once a book or an invention is made public, anyone can copy it at little cost, and many can use it at once. Without a legal right, the creator may never recover the cost of creating. Intellectual property law gives him a right to exclude others for a time.
3. The main characteristics
- Intangible: the right is in the idea or expression, not in any physical copy.
- Statutory: most rights exist only under statute (Copyright Act s.16), passing off and confidence apart.
- Exclusive and negative: the owner can prevent others from using it (Patents Act s.48).
- Territorial: a right granted in India operates only in India.
- Limited in time: a patent lasts twenty years (s.53); copyright lasts for the author's life and sixty years (s.22). Afterwards the work enters the public domain.
- Assignable and licensable.
- Limited from within: by compulsory licences (Patents Act s.84) and exceptions such as fair dealing (Copyright Act s.52).
4. The theories justifying protection
(a) Natural rights theory. A person has a natural right to what his mind creates, as he has to his body. Article 27(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises such a right. It protects the moral and material interests resulting from one's scientific, literary or artistic production. Weakness: a natural right would never expire, yet intellectual property rights are limited in time.
(b) Labour theory (John Locke). A person who mixes his labour with something in the common becomes its owner. So the creator who labours to produce a work deserves to own it. Locke added a proviso: the taking must leave "enough and as good" for others. Weakness: the law does not reward effort alone. It rewards originality and inventive step.
Eastern Book Company v. D.B. Modak, AIR 2008 SC 809. A law publisher claimed copyright in its reports of Supreme Court judgments. The Supreme Court rejected the pure "sweat of the brow" test, which rewards labour alone. It required skill and judgment of more than a trivial kind. So the raw text of a judgment carried no copyright for the publisher. Its paragraph numbering and editorial additions, which needed skill and judgment, did. The case shows the limit of the labour theory in Indian law.
(c) Personality theory (Hegel). A work is an extension of its author's personality. The author therefore has a continuing interest in its integrity. This theory explains moral rights: the right to be named as author and to object to distortion. They appear in Article 6bis of the Berne Convention and section 57 of the Copyright Act 1957.
(d) Utilitarian or incentive theory. The law grants exclusive rights to give people an incentive to create and invent, for the benefit of society as a whole. The right is a means to an end: more inventions, books and products. A reward variant says the creator deserves a reward for his contribution to society, and the market measures it.
Biswanath Prasad Radhey Shyam v. Hindustan Metal Industries, (1979) 2 SCC 511. The Supreme Court said the object of patent law is to encourage scientific research and industrial progress. The price of the monopoly is disclosure, after which the invention passes into the public domain. This is the utilitarian bargain in its clearest form.
5. The economic analysis
- Public goods. Knowledge is non-rival (one person's use does not reduce another's) and non-excludable (it is hard to stop others using it). Markets under-produce such goods, because free riders copy without paying.
- Incentive. The exclusive right lets the creator charge for use and recover his investment.
- Cost. The right also creates a monopoly price and reduces access. Economists call the lost benefit a deadweight loss.
- Balance. The law therefore limits the right. It does so by a fixed term and by requiring disclosure (Patents Act s.10). It also uses compulsory licences (s.84) and exceptions (Copyright Act s.52).
- Trade marks. Marks are justified differently. They lower consumers' search costs and encourage firms to maintain quality.
6. How Indian law reflects the theories
- Mainly utilitarian. Section 83 of the Patents Act says patents are granted to encourage inventions and their working in India, not to enable importation. It stresses public health and affordable prices. Section 3(d), compulsory licences and fair dealing all limit rights for the public good.
- TRIPS Articles 7 and 8. These speak of the balance of rights and obligations, social and economic welfare, public health and the prevention of abuse.
- A personalist corner. Section 57 of the Copyright Act protects the author's moral rights, even after assignment.
7. Which theory fits which right
No single theory explains every right. The incentive theory fits patents best, since inventions are costly and easily copied. The personality theory fits copyright in art and literature, through moral rights. Trade marks rest on the economic idea of reducing consumers' search costs and preventing confusion. A sound answer uses all the theories, and notes that each justifies a limited right, not an absolute one.
8. At a glance
| Theory | Core idea | Where seen in law | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural rights | A creator owns his creation | UDHR Art. 27(2) | Rights would never expire |
| Labour (Locke) | Labour earns ownership | Originality requirement | Law rewards originality, not effort (EBC) |
| Personality (Hegel) | Work expresses the author | Moral rights, s.57; Berne Art. 6bis | Fits art, not patents |
| Utilitarian | Incentive for social benefit | Patents Act s.83; TRIPS Arts. 7, 8 | Hard to measure the right incentive |
Conclusion
Conclusion. Intellectual property is the set of legal rights over creations of the mind. It runs from patents and copyright to trade marks, designs, geographical indications and trade secrets. It needs legal protection because ideas, once public, are easily copied. Four theories justify it: natural rights, Locke's labour theory, Hegel's personality theory and the utilitarian incentive theory. The economic analysis shows both the need for incentives and the cost of monopoly, which is why rights are limited. Indian law is mainly utilitarian, as Biswanath Prasad shows, while Eastern Book Company confirms that labour alone does not earn protection.
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