Draft IPR Policy under inter-ministerial consultation: Nirmala

The Commerce and Industry Ministry would send the draft National IPR Policy for Cabinet's approval after getting inputs from different departments, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today.
A government-appointed think-tank on IPR is preparing the draft policy, which seeks to encourage innovation by providing tax incentives and modifying intellectual property rights (IPR).
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said different people, countries and organisations have already given their inputs on the draft policy.
"After adopting a transparent process of drafting this policy, it is now being with the government for a month or two. It has gone to all the ministries, which is a necessary process, for inter-ministerial consultation.

"We shall take inputs from various ministries and post that, (we) will give the final version to the Cabinet," she said.
The minister was speaking at a seminar on Protecting Brands Abroad with the Madrid System and felicitation of 1.25 th million international trademark to Micromax. It was organised by FICCI.

The National IPR Policy has been formulated with the mission to foster innovation, accelerate economic growth, employment and entrepreneurship besides protecting public health, food security and environment, among other areas of socio-economic importance.
Further, she said that the country's IPR regime is compliant to international laws and norms.
"Indian patent rights, GIs (geographical indicators), copyrights... Everything we are doing, the Acts which we have in front of us are TRIPS compliant, so there is no need for apprehension in any corner of the world as to what is India's patent regime like. Lets be sure, we are TRIPS compliant," she said.

Developed countries like the US have raised concerns over India's IPR laws particularly related for solar and pharmaceutical sector.
The minister said that the ministry is also engaged in several things in order to reduce pendency of applications and improve functioning of patent offices.
She said that 459 patent examiners have being already recruited to fast track the process of patent.
"We are trying to get enough qualified people. We will train them so that applications do not have to wait for years to get cleared. Government is working on that.
"We are also ensuring that patent offices are updated with new technologies so that they are not going to sit on tonnes of paper. Most of the offices are non-manual in nature of functioning. Everything happening online like payment and queries too are answered online. It will help in reducing manual interface," she added.