Advocate Abbas Askari

Questions Answered by Advocate Abbas Askari

Q: How to get patent for a business idea for a startup

Hello I have some queries related to my startup. How do I patent my idea of business as I heard about the term intellectual property protection? and also How would I know that is there any pre-existing startup of the same idea? Can a business idea be patented? Although I do not have any product or something, I just have a business idea related to e-commerce? Is there any legalized process require to hire a lawyer to go for such processing?

Advocate Abbas Askari answered
Please be advised that ideas per se cannot be protected. Intellectual property rights render protection to the expression of the idea. A novel product or invention can be protected by patents. A work of art for example literary work, art etc can be protected by copyright. Product names can be protected by trademarks. With regard to a business idea, if the same is expressed as computer program or even if the idea is expressed on paper, it may be eligible for protection under copyright law. Lastly, start ups get special privileges from Intellectual Property Office India, which include subsidized filing fee, hiring a lawyer etc.Trust the above is responsive to your queries.Best regards

Q: Copyright infringement on a website to review colleges

I am planning to start a portal where students can review their school/ colleges and give recommendations. I plan to use the publicly available laundry list of these institutions and also from some platforms, including the logo and website link. Do I need to take consent from the platforms and the institutions? I don't intend to make a profit out of it. It will just be a platform for reviews.

Advocate Abbas Askari answered
As such no consent would be required for information, which is already available in the public domain. You would in any case be using the website link merely for reference. It is advisable not to use logos, since the names of institutions/ college name would suffice for this purpose. Further, to ensure authenticity of the information such as website details etc. please collate these details from the official website of such institutions/ colleges included in your list.Trust the above is responsive to your query.