National IPR strategy authority sought

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham)  on Friday demanded establishment of National Intellectual Property Right (IPR) Strategy Authority in the context of fast changing trade environment driven by global competition, innovation risks, short product life cycle, and rapid changes in technology involving huge investments in research and development and human resource.

Assocham secretary general, DS Rawat, stated the proposed authority should be functionally autonomous and financially independent and be made responsible and accountable to look into several existing policies, statutes, and regulations of the government aligned to the stated objectives of the National IPR Strategy.

The proposed authority should aim at achieving a target of filing 50,000 patent applications in the country in 2015 and 1,50,000 in 2020. Similar targets should also be set for filing of design and trade mark applications. In this context, the chamber said the US had 30 applications, China 40 and Japan had 80 applications but India had only 10 applications per billion dollars of GDP.

It said granting or registration of IPRs, including trademarks, design and patent, be made time-bound and efficient by streamlining the procedure by which any application for any of the IPRs is processed.