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CS Professional · Intellectual Property Rights - Law and Practice · Introduction to Intellectual Property

Sunrise Foods of Indore owns a trade mark whose registration is valid and renewed. A rival uses a confusingly similar mark on identical goods. Sunrise argues its IP is a negative right as well as a positive right. Which statement reflects the correct understanding?

Intellectual property gives the owner both the right to exploit the asset by using, licensing or assigning it, and the right to prevent unauthorised use. Sunrise Foods can therefore license its mark and also seek remedies such as an injunction against the rival's confusingly similar use.

  1. AIP gives only a positive right to use, with no power to exclude others
  2. BIP gives the owner the right to use, license or assign the asset and also the right to prevent others from unauthorised use, so Sunrise can seek remedies against the rivalCorrect
  3. CIP gives only a right to exclude, and the owner cannot license it
  4. DThe right to exclude exists only if the owner has never licensed the mark

Explanation

IP rights combine the right to exploit (use, license, assign) with the right to exclude others, enforced through remedies such as injunction and damages. Option C is wrong because licensing is a core way to exploit IP. Licensing does not remove the right to exclude unauthorised users.

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