INTRODUCTION

The Union Budget of 2020 came with some brilliant features for India’s new economy in Intellectual Property (IP), healthcare and infrastructure sectors. The feature which was common to all these sectors during the Budget presentation was the technological twist which were part of them. The Presentation made by the Finance Minister in respect of creating and protecting IP has been lauded by India Inc. The proposed digital framework for capturing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and to establish an Institute of Excellence to work ‘on the complexity, challenging nature and innovation in the field of IP’ have been a hit for the people working in IT, product and associated legal industries.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY BUDGET

India is the holder of the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world which is a direct result of stronger Intellectual Property (IP) laws which promotes, provides safety and security, and incentivize innovation. IP laws works as a crucial tool to encourage economic growth and individual effort which are nothing else but a set of rules that provide legal protection to an investor and inventor’s labour alike. Stronger IP laws Provides a good partnership between an investor and the government to build trust, strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises, and produce greater FDI.

Through various programs like “Start-up India” launched by government of India, a corpus of 10,000 crores was initially instituted to raise seed funding for start-ups. The National Intellectual Property Rights policy is well formed on the basis after recognizing the abundance of creative and innovative opportunities and energies within the citizens that flow in India and the emerging need to step up and channelize these opportunities and energies towards a better and brighter future for all. The government must strengthen the initiatives in the budget to support start-ups and different businesses in India and their IP the govt should consider the following: 

• A National Intellectual Property Rights policy should be made to stimulate innovation and creativity across sectors;
• A redressal and helping Cell for Intellectual Property Rights Promotion and Management (CIPAM) should be established to ensure effective working and implementation of the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy,
• Intellectual Property Rights Awareness Programmes must be initiated.

Recently, the Government of India has emphasised that the National Intellectual Property rights Policy should work strictly on the ways to strengthen intellectual property rights in India. The government claimed that the share of domestic filings for patents in India has increased from 22% in 2013-14 to 34% in 2018-19. The number of applications filled for the protection of the intellectual property in India has grown up-to 18% for patents and 69% for trademarks from 2013-14 to 2018-19 and the number of cases of enforcing  in case of any infringement of Intellectual Property Right applications in India has grown 353% for patents and 395% for trademark from 2013-14 to 2018-19.

To ensure more patents and trademarks are promoted and registered in India, the ministry of industry and commerce recommended that fees for micro, small and medium enterprises and start-ups to apply for patent applications was deducted up to 60% from rupees 4000 (for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) to rupees 1,600 and rupees 4400 (for start-ups) to rupees 1,750. The budget given by the government was intended to be proposed so as to set up a digital framework for a platform for easy and helpful application system to cover large scope and variety Intellectual Property Rights. This will promote and safeguard patents at a time when protecting Intellectual Property Right will be assumed globally very significant, as it has become one of the major talk points in the ongoing US-China trade negotiations nowadays.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN DEVELOPMENT

Intellectual property is the most valuable asset that any person possesses and should be managed with utmost care and sense of responsibility. An Intellectual property strategy focuses on proper protection and use of Research and Development, Intellectual property, and Business strategies and builds the basic foundation for development of the upcoming Patent, Trademark and Copyright Portfolio of the person. For Intellectual Property management teams, most of the assessment of assets includes aligning, filing and strategizing business plans and client demand, recruiting and sourcing specialized talent and assessing operational infrastructure to evaluate where it’s productivity and incurring unnecessary costs.

TIPS FOR ADDRESSING IP BUDGETING CHALLENGES

For every budget govt faces few challenges for which they should keep in mind necessary steps which need to be followed for creating a budget. In general, there are some practical criteria and approaches to controlling and consider Intellectual Property budget which are:

1. Closely Manage Attorney Spending:

For every asset in Intellectual Property portfolio of a person, there will always be related legal costs all along its lifecycle from inception to protection to ongoing maintenance and management. Legal services will always play an important role in Intellectual Property budget, regular evaluation of dimensions of legal spend by law firm, attorney, asset, and results will always help the holder in containing and controlling those costs.

2. Establishing a Regular "Audit" Routine:

Regularly assessing, evaluating and auditing intellectual property portfolio which includes innovation activities and pending invention disclosures helps the holder weigh their costs and opportunities. Maintaining awareness of Intellectual Property ownership in one of them.

3. Consider Streamlined Early Applications

There are various benefits of filing patent applications. Although these are interim steps and not fully matured “nonprovisional” applications, they consist of significant appeal for businesses managing a budget for Intellectual Property.

4. Maintain an Organized Portfolio

It is very important for better overall performance, and more specifically for managing an Intellectual Property budget, to maintain an organized Intellectual property portfolio. There’s always a need for knowing where the tipping point is, but there generally comes a point where spreadsheets, file folders are no longer sufficient for organizing and cataloguing a company’s intellectual property and innovation activities where maintaining these portfolio plays an important role.

5. How to Keep an Eye on Intellectual Property Budget?

A lack of coordination and co-operation among departments to find Intellectual property portfolio information results in disorganization, overlooked details, and misinformed decisions. These decisions can cost hundreds of thousands of losses due to poor protection and missing out on potential revenue sources. Instead of relying on disconnected internal processes, participants and stakeholders, the holder can equip their team with Intellectual Property management software.

BY- GAURAV GUPTA