The Idea behind Patent Protection In product markets, the problem of imitation poses a great problem for innovators who are deprived of enjoying economic profits fully. If imitators are able to move in rapidly and capture a substantial share of the market, the initial profits earned by innovators may not be sufficient to cover their costs and risks in the long run. However, a substantial delay between the time of innovation and successive entry by competitors may provide the pioneers with decent profits and make invention and innovation a more attractive activity. The patent system, by establishing a period of time during which the firm faces reduced competition, increases the expected return for innovative effort.     Product and Process Innovations: A nation by stimulating research and development can increase the prospects of product and process innovations. Governments can encourage such innovations by granting patents. Three criteria must be satisfied to obtain a patent: The invention must be new It must not have been known to the public before the inventor completed it for more than one year prior to a patent application It must be useful and must be non-obvious     Picture Courtesy: Basics What are Patents? Patents confer the exclusive right to the use of an idea for a long period (which varies between nations,say,in countries like India, it is seven to fourteen years, depending on the nature of the product) within which the innovator might be able to recover his initial investment. Another reason to grant patents is to provide for widespread disclosure of new ideas and techniques. The main objective of patent protection is to encourage research and development. Patents: Encourage research and invention Induce an inventor to disclose his discoveries instead of keeping them as a secret. Offer a reward for the expenses of developing inventions to the state at which they are commercially practicable; and Provide an inducement to invest capital in new lines of production Granting of Patents: The idea behind granting of patents thus is to benefit the society. Developing countries have to offer patent protection, the lack of which has made many foreign firms shy away from investing in core sectors like pharmaceuticals and biotechnology in these nations. As a result, people of these countries are forced to buy life saving drugs like those for cancer and have to pay ruinous prices. Once patent protection is available, there is a possibility for manufacturing most of the drugs that are being imported, eventually leading to a fall in the price levels.     One of the difficult aspects of patent law is the principle that, whether a patent is to be issued to the person who conceives the idea or who first files for a patent. Another international issue involving patents is that, countries allow firms to steal and copy protected ideas, due to lack of severe legal enforcements or lack of interest. Either way it proves detrimental to the interest of the patent holders and such violations have to be strictly prohibited. Note: THE PATENTS ACT, 1970: An Act to amend and consolidate the law relating to patents The Patent Amendment Act,2005 The Patent Rules,2003 and Amendment Rules,2006 are some of the laws that protect patents in...

Call Centre Challenges  The emergence of numerous “call centers” in developing countries like India and China, has posed some serious threats to the employees of these concerns. The concept of call center is a new find of the modern era, where they handle volumes of business process outsourcing for the developed countries. What are the various operations carried on in a call center? They handle inbound and outbound customer care services, telemarketing services, e-mail management services, pay roll accounting, help desk and many more back end activities. Benefits of Outsourcing: It proves to be a win-win situation for both the parties; the outsourcing company benefits from cheap labor, and the company that does the job earns good pay in the form of foreign exchange. But one has to understand the nuances of the call center operations; how it can be really worked out to one’s benefit? If you have a direct link with the outsourcing company, there is no need for you to share the profit. If the job is sublet to you, then your share gets reduced down the line. And also, the pay comes in a cycle of 45 days or so. So, it becomes mandatory that you should have the wherewithal to rotate your own funds for that 45 day period time, to fulfill establishment costs, power costs, salary and other miscellaneous expenses. What is the Pressure Situation? Let’s not get into the details of how to establish a call center and the necessary infrastructure to start one. The business has created a pressure situation, as it calls for erratic work hours and disturbed eating and sleep patterns. Definitely, it affects the youth, who form the major population of call centers, psychologically and socially as well. The erratic work schedules, (they work round the clock in shifts) the intense work pressure to achieve targets eventually leads to a pressure cooker like stress situation. Their altered sleep cycle is dangerous to both their physical and mental health. It is an evident fact that more number of persons working in this industry has started complaining about their physical and mental problems like Anxiety Depression Relationship-related problems Headaches Disturbed appetite Hearing loss Changes in thyroid and adrenaline levels Loss of weight Obesity and Smoking to reduce immense tension is also witnessed. The call center business has been a flourishing business in developing nations, though recently we tend to see a lull in the market, owing to the government regulations of the developed nations. Even the economy of developed countries, has taken a huge plunge owing to the recent economic recession. Naturally, when their financial markets have become unstable, they would not want to outsource to low-cost developing countries. The BPO’s or KPO’s (business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing), as they are called should not become a fad, instead, developing nations can also concentrate on indigenous business clients, that are in need of their services. Note: India is the leading country for offshore outsourcing. The offshore outsourcing industry started in India and it has been able to grow the IT and BPO export sector to $47 billion and capture more than half the offshore outsourcing...