IPR policy to help India become innovative economy

New Delhi: The national Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy being prepared by government will help India become an innovative economy over the next 10 years, a top official said Wednesday.

Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Amitabh Kant said that recognising the need to scale up the process of IP creation and increase commercialisation of the technology, the government has embarked on the process of preparing a national IPR Policy.

"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.

A draft policy, which is in the public domain, seeks to encourage innovation by providing tax incentives and modifying intellectual property rights.

Kant said it has been formulated with a mission to foster innovation, accelerate economic growth, employment and entrepreneurship besides protecting public health, food security and environment.

However, he added that it is important to have an innovative ecosystem which supports translation of inventions into commercial use.

This ecosystem can only be created and nurtured through initiatives of the government in collaboration with industry, Kant said while seeking specific inputs in improving overall environment to facilitate commercialisation of inventions.

Further expressing concern over less numbers of patent applications filed by domestic companies, Kant said considering that the country has one of the largest reservoirs of scientists and technologists, it was extremely unjustified that the levels of patent filings are still "fairly low".

There is a need to improve the level of IP awareness across all sectors and it is critical that the need for IP creation and protection percolates down across industries, institutions and PSUs, he said.

He also urged businesses and organisations to protect their trademarks as it will help them leverage their brand value towards development of their business.

IPR is widely recognised as a key component for a company's growth and in improving its competitiveness.

Kant said Indian IPR laws were amended in compliance with the WTO which has lead to a comprehensive, legislative, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard IPRs.

He also said that the government has taken several measures to improve the delivery of services provided by IP office such as processing of IP applications.

"I am concerned about the fact that domestic filings of patent applications have remained static in the past few years at about 20 per cent of the overall filings," he said.

About 2.46 lakh patent applications and 5.32 lakh trademark registrations are pending with the government due to shortage of manpower.

India has granted 3,581 patents and registered 37,799 trademarks till October 31 in the current financial year.