Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre set up in Guwahati

Industry body Ficci has set up an Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre (IPFC) here to encourage innovation and help protect intellectual property rights (IPR).
Set up with the support of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the IPFC would facilitate the MSMEs to identify, protect, maintain, enforce and commercialise intellectual property by helping innovators address their IPR requirements, Ficci Head-North East Council Biswajit Chakrabarty said today.
The Centre would also provide services like patent searches, patent drafting, patent prosecution, facilitation in commercialisation of inventions, trademark prosecution matters etc.
The IPFC would assist MSMEs of the region to be able to understand, identify and use Intellectual Property for competitive advantage, Chakrabarty said.

The IPFC will help the MSMEs to get their intellectual property for innovations and inventions, original designs, brand names etc., protected through patents, trademarks, copyrights and other such instruments conveniently, he said.
Stating that majority of the countries today have a strong IPR regime to power their industries, Chakrabarty said it was for the MSMEs in India to reap the benefits accruing from IPR system and survive the competition at international market.
The MSMEs constitute India's economic backbone, contributing more than 50 per cent of the country's manufacturing output and employ nearly 90 per cent of the manufacturing workforce, Chakrabarty said.

They also account for nearly 40 per cent of the country's GDP and 45 per cent of total exports, he added.