Global legal experts urge Indian government to strongly protect IPR

A few days after India got its new National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy to safeguard commercial interests arising from creativity, legal experts urged the government to fortify obligations to protect IPR and strengthen commitments to enforce laws against counterfeiting and piracy.

The appeal was made by the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), an initiative of the International Chamber of Commerce.

The BASCAP called upon the government to strengthen commitments to ensure adherence to all international IPR treaties, to abolish all known counterfeit and pirate markets, and to step up efforts to protect and inform consumers about the harms of purchasing (economic) and consuming (health and safety) counterfeit and pirate products.

The BASCAP has suggested 25 best practices for IPR enforcement.

Regarding enforcement in the digital environment, BASCAP said: "Promote more effective prevention measures by encouraging the development and adoption of standards including those for the appropriate use of advanced technologies, such as automated tools for rapid notice and takedown, filtering and redress and the use of risk scoring services."

For better customs enforcement, it suggested: "Empower customs authorities to take enforcement action against goods which are suspected of infringing IPRs when they are imported, exported, in-transit and in all situations where the goods are under customs supervision including in free trade zones."

To promote better civil enforcement, it suggested that the government should permit right holders to obtain a court order requiring disclosure of the origin and distribution networks of infringing goods, "both from an infringer and from others who are shown to be involved in the production , manufacture, distribution or provision of the infringing goods."

--IANS

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