'Industries must set up IPR cells to tackle post-2005 scenario'

Industrialists must gear up to tackle the issues concerning intellectual property rights (IPR) and patent, B P Acharya, secretary (industries and commerce), Government of Andhra Pradesh, said here today.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day training programme 'Patenting in India and abroad', organised by Andhra Pradesh Technology Development and Promotion Centre of CII.

Acharya asked industrialists to set up separate IPR cells in their organisations so that they could face the challenges arising in the post-2005 scenario.

The state government, which had already helped set up an IPR facilitation cell at ICICI Knowledge Park, would extend any help over these issues, he assured.

Acharya said the state government's move to set up an IPR cell followed the chief minister's interaction with investors abroad during the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet in New York in 2002. The investors, though keen on setting up ventures in the country, expressed their concerns over a lack of proper legislation to protect their IPRs, he said.

S Chakravarthy, former additional chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh and author of Competition Act, said that there existed several challenges to IPR both in developing and developed countries.

The developing countries, which need to be flexible on TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) agreement, should nevertheless negotiate on certain issues of public health concern.

The Doha declaration enabled these nations to cover any disease at their own discretion to permit compulsory licensing so as to ensure that drugs would not become unaffordable for the common people. India was yet to pass a legislation to permit such licensing, Chakravarthy said.

S D Tase, the director of Mumbai-based Tase Enterprise for Creativity and Innovation, called for greater awareness of patent filing among the industrialists. As against 12,000 patents filed in the country, a small nation like Japan had a huge base of 4,50,00, he cited an example.

However, he pointed to the growing pro-active nature of the government, stating that the patent examination which used to take three years not long ago was taking only a month now.

Even the duration of patent holding had been increased to 20 years from 14 years with an enactment in 2003, he said. At present, around 44,000 patent applications were pending at the four patent offices in the country, he said.

Earlier welcoming the gathering, D N Gauri, the chairman and managing director of Salzgitter Hydraulics Private Limited, said continuous innovation and improvement of products with proper protection in the form of patents was key to the growth of the Indian companies in the post-2005 scenario.