The Hindu Business Line : Demand for IP driven by global trade, tech advance

Demand for protection of intellectual property is increasing significantly. With the World Intellectual Property Day falling on April 26, several concerns continue to dog our system.

Mr Zaheer Khan, CMD of Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights (EIPR), a company that helps in IP protection, in an e-mail interaction said demand for IP protection is increasingly driven by search for protection over broader geographical markets.

Backlogs are accumulating and processing times lengthening. At risk is the cost and resource-effectiveness of the system and its integrity. According to Mr Khan, the growth of fakes can be attributed to a range of factors including overall expansion of global and cross border trade, development of new information and communications technologies like the Internet.

Intellectual property laws in the country are among the best in the world. The real problem is the implementation.

The enforcement machinery is inadequate and the judicial process is slow. There have been changes in IP rights lately. Some lacunae need to be plugged, he said.

The IP law is expanding to cover new areas such as databases and there is effort to regulate new categories the subject matter already protected, and to increase the duration of individual rights and removal of restrictions and limitations on these rights.

India needs stringent cross border checks and agreements to keep counterfeits out.

The issue of counterfeiting can never be totally solved but can be curtailed to acceptable limits, he said.

According to Mr Mandar Thakur, General Manager, Soundbuzz India, "Web sites that offer copyrighted music for free are the sources for illegal downloading. It is peer-to-peer networks and illegal sites are involved in this business."

The copyright law interpretation and implementation is quite slow and weak. The Indian music industry has been strict in enforcing regulations on pirated music and have caused these sites to close down.

The Government is getting very active in enforcing cyber crime laws.