Do heroes have it easy...

Perhaps the oldest example of protection of IPR that one can come across is the famous story of Eklavya and Dronacharya from the epic Mahabharata. Eklavya was refused admission to Dronacharya’s ashram. Determined as Eklavya was, he resumed aggressive archery practice under the idol of Dronacharya. Once travelling with Arjuna, his favourite disciple, Dronacharya heard a dog barking in the forest and on finding it, they saw that its mouth had been pierced with arrows. Seeing such an extraordinary exhibition of archery, the two went in search of the archer and found out that it was Eklavya. Dronacharya demanded gurudakshina from Eklavya in exchange of the art he had learned from him. Eklavya had to part with his right thumb as the fees and an outstanding archer got incapacitated for the rest of his life. This can safely be taken as an example of protection of business, which was archery in the above mentioned case and was supposed to be limited only to the royal scions. Though independently developed, knowledge was taxed even then.

The next example that comes to my mind is of the famous Taj Mahal. The eighth wonder of the world can only be described as exquisite and beautiful. But few of us know that the hands of the workers involved in the monument’s construction were cut so that such a work of art could never be recreated.

Thus, the legal attribution to IPR is more of a recent phenomenon.

When we consider the case of Indian cricketers, more than 90% of the cricketing revenues come from the sub-continent with BCCI being the richest cricketing body in the world. Indian cricketers, as has already been mentioned in the previous posts, enjoy demigod status in the country. With so much money riding on a few individuals, the cricketers had immense bargaining power and hence refused to sign the contract. Also, it is not difficult to imagine the mayhem it would have caused had India not participated in the championship.

Now consider the case of a certain Mr. X working in an organization who has developed a new product which has immense potential. The organization claims to the first right of refusal to commercialize the product as it was developed using its resources. Could an individual stand against the norms that have for so long been governed by the society and have now adopted a legal angle? Does he enjoy the same bargaining power as our cricketers?