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The proposed new IPR policy will have to go through another round of inter-ministerial scrutiny before it is placed before the Cabinet for clearance, a move that could delay its finalisation further.
Comments would be sought again from other ministries and departments once the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) incorporates changes suggested by many following the first round of consultations, a DIPP official told BusinessLine .
“A number of ministries and departments including IT, Health, Commerce and Human Resources Development have come up with significant suggestions that we have to incorporate in our Cabinet note. After the note is finalised we would send it once more for inter-ministerial circulation for final comments as this is a process that can’t be skipped,” the official said.
Although a number of multinational companies, mostly in the pharmaceutical sector, and the US government, have sought changes in the Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act that discourages patents being granted for incremental innovations, the new IPR policy is unlikely to oblige.
Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made a number of public statements highlighting that Indian patent laws were in line with the international Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights and there was no need for changing them.
The draft submitted by the panel stressed on the need for facilitation and commercialisation of patents. It recommended that links should be forged between creators and inventors, universities, industry and financial institutions, for commercialisation of IP assets.
IP exchange It also suggested setting up of an IP exchange to stimulate trading of IP and creating a market for IP assets by industry chambers. The draft further said that micro, small and medium enterprises should be facilitated to identify, protect and commercialise their IP creations through Facilitation Centres providing a package of services needed by them.
Sitharaman had recently said that the draft policy would be placed before the Cabinet soon.
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