On September 08, 2014 Nirmala Sitharaman, the Minister for Commerce and Industry announced that the government was set to launch a comprehensive policy for Intellectual Property Rights within the next six months. While announcing the said move, Nirmala Sitharaman remarked “Intellectual Property Issues have been hanging in the air a long time. We want our national interest to be protected”.
The aforesaid move by the Modi Government is being viewed as a consequence of United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) 2014 Special 301 Report released in April, 2014, wherein India has been designated as a “priority foreign country” and its intellectual property regulations have been condemned as insufficient for protection of intellectual property.
Various highlights of the announcement
- New Policy on Intellectual Property Rights
- A discussion paper will be put online in two months inviting suggestions
- The Ministry will collate responses in four months
- Infra for processing Patent applications to be upgraded
- 1033 new posts to be created
- Constitution of Policy think tank on intellectual property rights consisting of experts and intellectuals
- Aim at clearing backlog of all pending applications over the next 18 months
The aforesaid move can be viewed as one of the most progressive step advanced by the government in the recent times for streamlining India’s trade with requisite policies and the successful implementation of Policy may help India secure better trade relations with the U.S.