The Government of India on 13th May 2016 released  the national IPR policy. The policy is in compliance with TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of IPRs) agreement. The TRIPS Agreement is a globally recognized minimum standards agreement laid down by the WTO, which allows Members to provide more extensive protection of their intellectual property if required.

What is an IPR?

An Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the intellect for which a monopoly is granted to its designated owners by law. Some of the most common Intellectual property rights are patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial design and trade secrets. Sheet music, a painting, a piece of literature, words, logos or symbols-all can be classified as intellectual property of the composer/owner.

India’s IPR Policy 2016:

The new IPR policy seeks to facilitate the ease of doing business in India. The policy aims to create strategic alliances with potential investors to encourage them to invest in India. India has been long pressurized by the USA to enforce stricter IPR protection measures in India to prevent major issues such as piracy. Piracy alone accounts for annual losses worth $7 Billion.

As per the new policy, registration of trademarks will not take more than a month and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will be in control of the copyright laws.

The new policy lays down seven objectives, which are briefly covered below.

  • Spreading awareness – The policy aims to spread awareness about the economic, social, and cultural advantages of Intellectual Property Rights. It will be introduced as a mandatory part of the curriculum in many Institutions. A national research institute for IPR has also been proposed.
  • Innovation – Innovation is the key to the growth and continued sustenance of a business. The objective behind the IPR policy is to create an environment where people can think out of the box and innovate in all fields of work. The policy will protect budding entrepreneurs and inventors to protect their Intellectual property from infringement.
  • Balanced structure of legal framework – Protection of intellectual property can happen only when there is a strong legal system of well-defined laws in place. Knowing that their intellectual property rights are protected by law is a strong motivational factor for people to create intellectual property.
  • Administration and Management– The policy seeks to bolster and deliver cutting edge service-oriented IPR administration. By next year, the government aims to drastically shorten the average time for pending IPR applications from a whopping 5-7 years to  to 18 months and trademark registration from 13 months to one month.
  • Commercialisation of IPRs – The policy aims to focus on commercializing IPRs. Most business owners are unaware about the impact of their brand on their business. After all, successful brands are nothing but intangible assets in the form of trademarks, patents etc. Also, if a brand is well protected legally, it will attract more investors. 
  • Enforcement and Adjudication – The policy seeks to enable coordination between various agencies and encouraging owners of IPs to follow the best practices to curb digital piracy.
  • Human Capital Development – Developing Human Capital is another major agenda laid down in the IPR Policy. Some of the proposed reforms are:
  1. New institutions and positions for teaching, training, research and skill building in IPRs
  2. Establishing R&D institutions
  3. Making IPR a mandatory subject  in schools and colleges.

IPR

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What does the policy have in store for Startups?

Nasscom has deemed the IPR Policy as a welcome step for the IT industry as well as Startups. As you have gathered from the objectives enlisted above, the government has finally decided to allow the commercialization of IPRs and encourage investors to invest in Indian businesses.

Support systems have been proposed for Startups and MSMEs. This combined with the provision of access to the traditional knowledge digital library is another advantage for budding businesses. At this point, nothing can be said with certainty about how this policy will affect startups in the short run. We will have to wait and watch.

What are your thoughts about the new IPR policy?


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