Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington next month, the new IPR policy provides the much needed clarity in rules and legislation sought by several countries including the US, said Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

“A number of countries, including the US, had been seeking clarity in our IPR laws and rules. The new IPR policy brings about that clarity and is a positive development in the light of the visit of the PM to the US,” Sitharaman told journalists on Monday.

No amendment to law

The Minister, however, made it clear that India was not looking at amending any law related to intellectual property and has no intention of giving higher protection to patents beyond what has been committed under the international TRIPS Agreement.

“While the new IPR policy does provide a window for review, it does not mean we have anything specific in mind. Our laws are all TRIPS compliant. We are not going TRIPS plus,” Sitharaman said.

This means that India would retain Section 3(d) in the Indian Patent Act which disallows patents for incremental innovations to check ever-greening of patents.

The national IPR policy has proposed tax breaks to promote R&D, creation of a loan-guarantee scheme to cover risk of failure of IPRs and promotion of creation and commercialisation of IP assets.

New mechanism

It also proposed establishment of a mechanism for implementation, monitoring and review of IPR laws, financial support for sale and export of products based on IPRs generated from public funded research and a stronger enforcement regime.

On the US Special 301 investigations on other countries’ IPR regimes and India being continuously put on the `priority watch’ list of countries with ineffective IP protection, the Minister said that the US had no authority to oversee mechanism of policies of another country. “We don’t recognise any other country’s authority (over our policy),” she said.

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