REFORMS IN THE INDIAN IP SYSTEM AND ITS IMPACT

  Trademark   Oct 21, 2022   0  Add to Reading List
REFORMS IN THE INDIAN IP SYSTEM AND ITS IMPACT

IP RIGHTS IN INDIA 

IP Rights are basically those rights which are provided to persons over the creation of their minds. It usually gives the inventor an exclusive right over the use of his/her invention for a particular period of time.

In the year 1994, the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) signed the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, popularly known as the TRIPS agreement, which established the global standards for Intellectual Property Rights. However, India’s reputation with regards to recognition and enforcement of IPRs has been highly unsatisfactory, with the country languishing in the generation of IPR assets with regards to registered patents, industrial design, and trademarks among others. Also, it is still far behind in the race for research and development (R&D) and the same can be deduced from the data that the Patents granted in India were in total 13908 in 2018 (as per the WIPO Report of 2019), which is pretty less as compared to the other top ten tech giant nations such as United States, China, Japan, etc. Also, it is worth mentioning that India spent only 0.7% of its GDP in 2018 on research and development (R&D) as per the OECD Report which is way too small as compared to the other comparable economies. It ranked at 14th, 9th, and 13th position in patents, marks, and designs respectively based on a total of resident and abroad IP filing activity by origin in the year 2014 as per the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) Report, 2014 and ranked 81st in the year 2015 in the Global Innovative Index report. Also, the US Chamber of Commerce released the GIPC International IP Index Second Edition for January 2014, in which India scored a poor 6.95 points out of the maximum 30 points and was awarded the last rank with regards to the protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property practices out of 25 countries in total.

The country continued to have the weakest IP environment as compared to all other nations included in the GIPC Index for the second consecutive year as well as per the GIPC Report of 2014. The Indian IPR regime had always been designed to strike a balance between protecting IPRs to support the commercialization of innovation as well as catering to the societal needs. This resulted in a relatively weaker IPR regime of the country in addition to a lower tendency of filing patents in India as per The Global Innovation Index Report, 2015.

 

REFORMS IN INDIAN IPR SYSTEM

With India having the weakest IP environment in the past decade, the same presented the country with an even tougher challenge to fasten the process of IPs and capture the value from the scientific and technological creations to propel the country within the ranks of the most innovative and developed nations of the world. To overcome this challenge, a think tank especially for IPR was constituted which conducted intensive consultations with the stakeholders with around 300 organizations and individuals including 31 departments of the Government of India (GOI). Such efforts led to the formulation of the National IPR Policy of India, the need for which was recognized due to many reasons which included the following-

  • Lack of Education on IP: Indian researchers and innovators were needed to be made aware of basic safeguards that were to be exercised. Such a form of education was needed to be ramped up across the country, and the feasibility of introducing this in schools had to be explored. 

  • Lack of incentives for generation of IPRs: Incentives were needed to encourage the MSMEs, startups, talented scientists, as well as engineers to create IP. 

  • Need for facilitation of innovations at the grassroot level 

  • Much better enforcement and settlement of IPRs 

  • Reducing pendency & strengthening the Institutional Mechanism: It means streamlining IP Procurement as well as Prosecution and bringing transparency & efficiency in the process by introducing digitization, modernization as well as integration of the IP offices in the whole country. 

  • Expanding International collaborations and adopting best practices in the particular field of IPR.

 

The Indian Patent Office adopted numerous measures for the betterment of Intellectual Property Rights in the country to stand firmly with the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and in other jurisdictions such as the United States as well as the European Patent Office. 

Some of the exceptional reforms in the Indian IPR policy are as follows-

  • Strengthening the institutional mechanisms: The first step to strengthen the mechanism was that the administration of Copyright Act, 1957 and Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-Design Act, 2000 was transferred to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). This had resulted in an integrated approach and synergy between different IP offices and acts as well. Creation of a single Appellate Board Under the Finance Act 2017, the Copyright Board has now been merged with the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). Also, creation of a Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM), which is a professional body under the backing of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) would ensure priority action on issues related to IPRs including assistance in simplifying and streamlining of IP processes.

  • Ensuring International Co-operation: Under this, International programs for the Asia Pacific and BRICS countries were organized. A bilateral meeting was held between Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks and the Japan Patent Office Commissioner. Further Members of the Chinese IP office had also visited India as well. An MoU was signed by The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom (UK) and the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP). Every year IP Day is celebrated on 26th April, the theme for the year 2022 being “IP and Youth innovating for a better future.”

  • Empowerment of Start-ups: In order to facilitate the implementation of the Startup India scheme, 80% fee concession in patent and 50% in trademark has been provided through the Patents and Trademarks Amendment Rules. The Amendment in the Patent Rules, 2003, notified in 2016, has also provided for the faster examination of patent applications filed by the start-ups.

  • Expansion of Technical Manpower: For reducing the pendency in IP applications, around 459 new technically competent Patent Examiners in various fields of technology have been appointed on a continous basis in addition to the existing 130 of them. Also, around 27 posts of Deputy Controllers and approx. 49 posts of Assistant Controllers in the Patent Office have been filled up with the help of promotions.

  • Introduction of IPR in School Syllabus: Writings on IPRs have been included in the NCERT curriculum of Commerce stream to increase awareness among the students. A chapter on “IPR, Innovation & Creative Works‟ is also being included in NCERT’s “Handbook on Entrepreneurship for Northeast Region” (NER). Further works are ongoing to include IPRs in other academic streams as well.

 

IMPACT OF REFORMS

The major impact has been in the filing of applications for protection of various Intellectual Property rights in IP offices under the administrative control of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDTM), which has been showing consistent growth over the years, in general. The overall filing of applications for various IP rights for the year 2017-18 (3,50,546) was almost same as compared to the previous year 2016-17 (3,50,467). The increasing trend in filing of applications for Patents, Designs, Geographical indications and Copyright was observed except for Trademarks where there was a slight decrease as compared to 2016-17. 

Apart from this, the period of examination of new trademark applications has now reduced from 13 months to less than 30 days and the trademark is being registered in just about 6 months, in case there is no objection or opposition filed by the person, as compared to 3-5 years required previously. Also, the examination of Patent applications has increased more than two times between the years 2019-20 as compared to 2016-17. The time required for Patent examination has reduced from an average of 72 months in 2015 to 12-30 months at present, depending upon the technological fields. The fastest granted patent is one which was granted within a period of 41 days after filing a request for an expedited examination. 

India’s rank in the Global Innovation Index (GII) Report issued by WIPO has improved from 81st in 2015 to 46th rank in the year 2021. India has retained the top rank in terms Information and Communication Technology Service Export for the last four years. The country is the top-ranked economy in Central and Southern Asia and has now outperformed on innovation relative to its GDP per capita for seven years in a row.

 

CONCLUSION

To conclude, it could simply be said that India’s Intellectual Property environment has definitely experienced commendable results due to laudable reforms in the IPR framework. The various reforms and initiatives taken by the Indian government in order to enhance efficiency, uniformity and consistency in processing of IP applications, providing balanced and transparent IPR framework, disseminating IP related information, nurturing cooperation at the international level and creating IP awareness in the country have led to significant results in intellectual property. The future of Indian IPR system looks really bright which is clearly evident from the giant leap in the Global Innovation Index Report.

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