India's ambitious National IPR Policy ready; think tank submits report to Centre

CHENNAI: India inched towards having a historic and comprehensive National IPR Policy with the Centre’s IPR Think Tank, headed by a former chairperson of IPAB, submitting a confidential first draft.
It suggests adopting a national slogan — ‘Creative India; Innovative India’ — on the lines of ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Skill India’ and ‘Smart Cities’ slogans.
The think tank, headed by former judge of the Madras high court and chairperson of Intellectual Property Rights Appellate Tribunal (IPAB) Prabha Sridevan, also proposes an IP Promotion and Development Council and talks about balancing national priorities and international obligations.
The declared mission of the think tank, according to the draft report, is to “establish a dynamic, vibrant and balanced intellectual property system in India, to foster innovation and creativity in a knowledge economy and to accelerate economic growth, employment and entrepreneurship.”
The proposed council will open IP Promotion and Development Units (IPPDU) in all states, smart cities, innovation and industrial clusters to provide one-window services to entrepreneurs, startups and manufacturing units for IP awareness, protection and utilization.
Noting that India had one of the largest pools of scientific and technological talent in the world, the report said monetization of knowledge too would be an objective.
“In order to harness the full potential of intellectual property for economic growth, it is essential to develop an increasing pool of IP professionals and experts in spheres such as policy and law, strategy development, administration and enforcement. IP expertise would also be developed and increased in industry, academia, legal practitioners, judiciary, IP users and civil society,” the report said.
It wanted IP courses/modules in all major training institutes such as judicial academies, National Academy of Administration, police and customs academies, IIFT, Institute for Foreign Service Training and Forest Training Institutes. It wanted IP to be made a compulsory subject in all legal educational institutions, NIDs, NIFTs, agricultural universities and management institutes. Value and economic reward for the owners of IPRs comes only from their commercialization, the report said, adding, “Commercialization needs to be stimulated by infrastructural and financial support, and by business-to-business and industry-academia collaborations.”
The report also envisaged a specialized patent benches in the high courts of Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Madras for speedy disposal of patent cases.
At least one court at district level could be designated as IP court, it felt, adding that regional benches of the IPAB could be created in all five regions where IPOs are located already.
“In future negotiations in international forums and with other countries, India shall continue to give precedence to its national development priorities whilst adhering to its international commitments and avoiding TRIPS plus provisions,” it said.
The think tank has justice Prabha Sridevan as its chairperson, and Prathiba M Singh, Punita Bhargava, Rajeev Srinivasan, Unnat Pandit and Narendra K Sabharwal as its members.
It has suggested annual evaluation of the overall working of and results achieved by the National IP Policy, with a provision for major policy review after three years.
Welcoming the ‘ambitious’ policy initiative of the NDA government, Intellectual Property Rights Attorneys Association (IPRAA) president and advocate P Sanjay Gandhi said the think tank should further broad-base its discussions by involving attorneys specializing in various aspects of IPR, such as copyrights, GI and trademark.