Framing of the new IPR policy will make the country an innovative economy according to the Secretary of DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) Amithabh Kant. The DIPP is the nodal policy for designing IPR policies. “We expect it to be a visionary document that can guide the journey of India towards becoming an innovative economy in the next 10 years,” he said here at a CII function in the capital.
Economists and policy makers now identify intellectual property including patents as the driving force behind the economic progress of most developed countries. Joseph Stiglitz’s book- ‘Creating a Learning Society’ establishes that rather than land, labour and capital, knowledge is the main factor of production in the new era.
Some of the recent developments in the global IPRs front provide a beautiful lesson for India. One such development is evolution of China as a technological super power.
According to the WTO, China is the country with largest number of patent applications since 2013, pushing the US to the second position.
China recently has signed an agreement to build bullet trains in UK.
The US Congress in its report has highlighted that most important component of US exports behind the goods is royalty payment to the US companies.
India is in the process of designing a good innovation policy to rapidly acquire excellence in science and technology. India’s technological capability in noted areas like pharmaceutical gives it an edge. But at the same time lagging behind electronics and machineries is a drawback according to experts.
According to the Secretary, India has to scale up the process of IP creation and increase commercialization of the technology. Already a draft IPR policy is prepared and is available for consultation.
An innovation ecosystem can be created and nurtured through initiatives of the government in collaboration with industry.
At the legal side, India has a nicely built framework based upon the WTO’s TRIPs. “IPR laws were amended in compliance with the WTO which has lead to a comprehensive, legislative, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard IPRs.” – says the Secretary.
India is lacking patent examiners and it became a laggard on sanctioning new patents.
Nearly 2.5 lakh patent applications and 5.30 lakh trademark registrations are pending with the government due to shortage of manpower. As per the DIPP, India has granted 3,581 patents and registered 37,799 trademarks till October 31 in the current financial year.
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