The government today announced a comprehensive National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy, in a move to incentivise entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation and curb manufacturing and sale of counterfeits.
The policy, with a tagline of 'Creative India: Innovative India', also calls for updating various intellectual property laws, including the Indian Cinematography Act, to remove anomalies and inconsistencies in consultation with stakeholders.
"The aim is to create awareness about economic, social and cultural benefits of IPRs among all sections of society... The policy aims to create and exploit synergies between all forms of IP, statutes concerned and agencies," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said while briefing reporters about the yesterday's Cabinet decision.
On trademark, Jaitley said the registration process will be reduced to one month by 2017.
The seven objectives of the policy, he said, include IPR awareness, stimulation of generation of IPRs, need for strong and effective laws and strengthening enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms to combat infringements.
The policy seeks to promote R&D through tax benefits available under various laws and simplification of procedures for availing of direct and indirect tax benefits.
It also called for providing financial support to the less empowered groups of IP owners or creators such as farmers, weavers and artisans through financial institutions like rural banks or co-operative banks offering IP-friendly loans.
For supporting financial aspects of IPR commercialisation, it asked for financial support to develop IP assets through links with financial institutions, including banks, VC funds, angel funds and crowd-funding mechanisms.
To achieve the objective of strengthening enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms to combat IPR infringements, it called for taking actions against attempts to treat generic drugs as spurious or counterfeit and undertake stringent measures to curb manufacture and sale of misbranded, adulterated and spurious drugs.
"The Indian Cinematography Act, 1952, may be suitably amended to provide for penal provisions for illegal duplication of films," the policy said.
The policy called for promotion of licensing, technology
transfer, formulation of suitable guidelines to enable commercialisation of IPRs, patent pooling and cross-licensing for products and services.
It also suggested examining the feasibility of an IPR exchange, besides incentivising Indian inventors, MSMEs and start-ups to acquire and commercialise IPRs in other countries and make efforts to reduce dependency on API imports.
Commenting on the policy, Dev Robinson - National Practice Head-IPR and Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, said: "We hope that the new policy will provide the necessary platform for innovation. Easier registration and better enforcement of IPRs would be key to such fostering."
P K Vijay, founder of Corporate Professionals, sees the policy improving ease of doing business in India for foreign companies due to "its robust IPR process".
According to the policy, the government needs to take stock of all IP funding by the Centre and suggest measures to consolidate with a view to scaling up funding, avoiding duplication, enhancing visibility of IP and innovation related funds so that utilisation goes up.
Further, the administration of the Copyright Act and the Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-Design Act will now be under the administrative control of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
It will lead to synergetic linkage between various IP offices under one umbrella, streamlining of processes and ensuring better services to users.
To facilitate promotion, creation and commercialisation of IP assets, a Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) should be constituted under the aegis of DIPP, it suggested.
The policy will be reviewed after every five years.
On the apprehensions that the government may yield to the pressure of developed countries with regard to its IR regime, an official said: "India will never go beyond its current commitments in TRIPS. Section 3 (d), patent linkage, data exclusivity and compulsory licensing are red lines.
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The policy clearly said India will continue to utilise the legislative space and flexibilities available in international treaties and the TRIPS agreement even as it continues to engage constructively in the negotiation of such international treaties and agreements.
"India shall remain committed to the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS agreement and public health," it said.
The IPR policy favoured the government considering financial support for a limited period on sale and export of products based on IPRs generated from public-funded research.
It called for creation of an effective and simple loan guarantee scheme in order to encourage start-ups and cover the risk of genuine failures in commercialisation based on IPRs as mortgage-able assets.
Besides, it seeks promotion of "infusion of funds to public R&D units" as part of corporate social responsibility to foster a culture of open innovation and provide special incentives for creation of IPRs in green technologies and manufacturing of energy efficient equipment.
To increase public awareness, it said a nation-wide programme of promotion should be launched about benefits of IPRs and their value to rights-holders and the public.
"Adopt the national slogan Creative India; Innovative India' and launch an associated campaign on electronic, print and social media, including linking the campaign with other national initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India, and Start up India in future," it said.
As per the blueprint, the ambit of Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) should also be expanded while the possibility of using it for further R&D shall be explored.
To modernise and strengthen service-oriented IPR administration, the policy pitched for augmentation of manpower after analysing projected workload and speedy liquidation of backlog.
It also made out a case for measures to check counterfeiting and piracy.
"It would be desirable to adjudicate on IPR disputes through specialised commercial courts. Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism may also be explored," the policy road map said.
It has also made out a strong case for progressive introduction of IP teaching in schools, colleges and other educational institutions and centres of skill development.
