The concept of Intellectual Property Rights goes (IPR) back to late 19th Century when the constitution of the newly-founded North German Confederation conferred legislative powers over the protection of Intellectual Property.
Much has changed since the 19th Century, however.
IPR has evolved into many new domains and the whole intellectual property landscape has now turned into a viciously contested corporate battlefield where preemption and safeguarding your intellectual properties such as patents, designs, trademarks, copyrights hold reign over many other business interests.
The flip side is that even in the times of such cutthroat competition, many professionals are still not cognizant of this side of the business.
Anurag K. Agarwal’s “Business and Intellectual Property: Protect your Ideas” is a great desk reference book in this regard. I found the language and the delivery of content very comprehensible.
He intentionally refrains from using inscrutable legal jargon since the idea is to have even non-academic audience lap up this book.
As a result, even if you are a layman or someone who is only tangentially knowledgeable about the IPR domain, you would benefit considerably from this book. He has broken down each category of intellectual property such as patents, copyrights, Geographic Indications, etc. into the overview, salient features, appropriate case studies (mostly court judgments), food for thought (challenging the reader to figure out the solution) and Q&As.
I was mighty impressed with the way the author has used case-studies in the book. As a reader, you look forward to the case studies in each chapter buttress your concepts.
All in all, while reading the book, you won’t reminisce about the boring B-school lecture you had to undergo in order to secure your credits, courtesy author’s uncomplicated approach to the subject.
For those who have just started up a business and those who already have been running one with little knowledge of IPR, this book could be an indispensable proposition. I said ‘indispensable’ because I haven’t learned about any other primers available on the IPR subject. So, unless you are looking for a consultation manual, this book would do the job for you.
At the same time, you don’t have to have an established business to imbibe the contents of this book. It always helps to have an understanding of design patents, let’s say when you are a budding fashion designer.
In the same vein, aspiring writers, film-makers and musicians should know how a copyright can help obviate the misuse by others of what is the creation of their mind. Finally, you are not expected to know everything about copyrights or patents after reading ‘Business and Intellectual Property’ but you would definitely know more than an average person.
It’s a fantastic book since it achieves the purpose it was written for: to educate laymen and to make them curious to know more about the different branches of IPR.
I would recommend ‘Business and Intellectual Property’ to the MBA students and professionals alike. If you want to kick-start your knowledge-engine on Intellectual property, this is the book.