India’s National IPR Policy Released

May 13, 2016  18:40 IST

On 13 May 2016, the Cabinet approved the final draft of India’s first National IPR Policy. This is a major step from the Government to protect and encourage creativity and innovation in the country. The final approved version of the policy, retains the slogan ‘Creative India, Innovative India’ and begins with a vision of India where where creativity and innovation are stimulated by Intellectual Property for the benefit of all. The document in whole, thanks to the IPR Think Tank, maintains a clear balance between innovators interest and public interest. This is noticeable from the mission statement of the policy to foster creativity and innovation & to focus on enhancing access to healthcare, food security and environmental protection. The policy lays down seven elaborate objectives with action plans that needs to be undertaken by the concerned nodal ministry/department to achieve the vision. 

The policy, once again, reiterates that the country will keep on using all the TRIPS flexibilities and shall remain committed to the Doha Declaration on public health. To bring administration of all IP rights under one umbrella department, the Copyright Office and the Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-Design Registry are going to be brought under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). In the light of increasing number of trademark applications being filed by Indian applicants, the policy proposes to carry out a comprehensive IP audit and undertake studies to ascertain measures that can contribute to increase the domestic filing of patent, design and geographical indication applications. The policy also provides for introducing special incentives for the creation of IPR in green technologies. Other major objectives formulated under the policy is to;

• Authorise the Controller General to develop and adhere to timelines for all administrative steps involved in IP registrations and to take measures to make the IP offices more user friendly.
• Review existing IP laws, after consultation with the stakeholders, to enhance efficiency and transparency in the administration & to keep the laws updated in line with the national needs and priorities.
• Review existing IP rules and guidelines to improve the quality, facilitate simplified and time bound registration process.
• Establish a Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) under the DIPP to facilitate promotion, creation and commercialisation of IP rights & to examine the practicability of an IPR exchange.
• Encourage open source based research and development like Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) to create new inventions in the fields related to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of life threatening diseases.
• Take strict measures to prevent misleading attempts to treat generic drugs as fake drugs and take measures to block adulterated and spurious drugs.
• Expand the scope of TKDL to include fields other than Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani and Siddha (for e.g. naturopathy, sowa-rigpa, homeopathy).
• Create end-to-end support system for MSMEs and start-ups to reduce expenses associated with IP creation, filing and commercialisation.
• Introduce different incentives for research and development institutions including; tax benefits, limited period financial assistance and simple loan guarantee scheme.
• Include IPR as a part of curriculum from the school level, create awareness programs at the industry level, and create events, campaigns & engage media to promote IP strength of the country.
• Introduce IP courses in training institutes like judicial academies, police, administration and customs academies & make IP a compulsory subject in all legal, technical, medical, agricultural and management institutions. Create new IPR cells in agricultural, technology and management institutions.

The DIPP shall be the nodal agency responsible for coordinating tasks and overseeing implementation of the objectives under the National IPR Policy.

Objectives Achieved / in Pipeline

Apart from the above, the government has already taken steps to implement the following objectives of the final approved version;

• Explore the possibility of expedited examination of patent applications – Draft Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2015 which was published on 26 October 2015 has provisions for introducing expedited examination of patent applications on the fulfilment of the certain conditions related to manufacturing the invention in India.
• Enable online search and filing facility for Design Office – IP India has launched online search tool and e-filing systems for Designs in the months of January and March 2015 respectively.
• Augment manpower at IP India – Recruitment for 459 posts of Examiner of Patents & Designs (Regular) and 100 posts of Examiner of Trademarks and Geographical Indications (on Contact) were completed in 2015-16. Recruitment for 263 posts of Examiner of Patents & Designs (on Contact), 58 posts of Examiner of Trademarks and Geographical Indications (Regular) and 4 posts of Senior Examiner of Trademarks and Geographical Indications (Regular) is in progress.
• Introduce Start-up IP support system – With the launch of Start-up India campaign, a scheme for Start-ups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) has been introduced, on pilot basis for 1 year, to facilitate registration of Start-up intellectual properties.

Omitted Proposals:

Following are few proposals under the first draft of the National IPR Policy that have not been considered in the final approved version;

• Enactment of new law on utility models for promoting creation of small/petty inventions among MSMEs and informal sectors.
• Establishing regional benches of Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad to promote alternative dispute resolutions in IP cases.
• Designation of speacialised patent benches in the High Courts of four major cities and one IP court at the district level. In the final draft, this objective has been revised to take measures to adjudicate IP disputes through Commercial Courts at appropriate level.

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