Government working on IPR policy: Sitharaman

The government in the next few months will come out with a policy framework that will help protect India's interest on matters related to intellectual property rights (IPR) and deal with issues raised by developed countries, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Monday.

"We are coming up with a policy on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). We plan to put up the IPR policy online in four months and open it for public discussion," Sitharaman said, addressing a press conference here on the initiatives by her ministry in the 100 days of the NDA regime.

"Wherever IPR is an issue, policy is going to be made in a direction that protects Intellectual Property Rights," she added.

The objective is to bring in more clarity in the existing laws, the minister explained, saying that the lack of a policy had curbed the country from moving to a position to stand up for its rights.

"The whole issue of IPR is because there is no policy in the matter," Sitharaman said.

"The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will put up a consultation paper on its website and would invite comments from the public," DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant said regarding the IPR policy it is currently working on.

Kant also said the deaprtment planned to upgrade infrastructure for processing patent applications and that 1,033 posts will be created for the job.

On the issue of permitting foreign equity in multi-brand retail, Sitharaman said the government is categorically against it.

"There is no conflict in our minds. We are clear that we do want FDI in multi-brand retail. It is just that we do not see there is a need for us to come out with any notification specifying this as we are not sitting on applications," Sitharaman said.

The minister said the government's policy on FDI in e-commerce was also the same. "We do not allow FDI in e-commerce as well, as the policy is the same as that for multi-brand retail," she clarified.