Internet poses challenge to IPR protection: US expert

The Internet poses a big challenge to the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), as it allows people to copy and make money by hosting the contents on different sites, a US expert said.

Christine Haight Farley, an American expert on IPR and Copyright Law, said efforts were underway to harmonise the difference in standards in intellectual property rights protection across various countries.

"Internet poses a lot of challenges for IPR protection of creative contents. It allows people to copy freely and make money out of it," she said.

Farley said that such free usage should be protected for which IPR plays an important role.

The expert said that IPR laws differ in countries but those who are signatory to the TRIPS agreement, are needed to maintain minimum standards.

"However, there are differences in standards in countries. There is a move to harmonise these differences in standards which will make IPR protection easier," she added.

Referring to India, Farley said that there has been a lot of interest generated on IPR protection in the country. "In a short time, India has made rapid progress (on IPR protection).