IP body seeks separate centre in Ahmedabad

Rapid growth of industries has created a need for an intellectual property (IP) centre in Ahmedabad with a large number of business houses patenting their products in order to protect intellectual property rights in Gujarat.

On Tuesday, the Intellectual Property Practitioner's Association (IPPA) of Ahmedabad demanded a separate IP building here for efficient handling of various aspects of IP rights.

There is a huge demand for registering intellectual property rights due to the increase in product discovery and invention among the industry, said Jatin Trivedi, member of IPPA.

"The rise in special economic zones (SEZ) in Gujarat is expected to further add to new product discoveries and inventions as multinational companies with research facility here will need to register the products in the country of origin," said R J Trivedi, another member and trademark attorney, JT Trivedi & Associates.

Sujay Upalkar, vice-president, legal and intellectual property affairs, Cadila Pharmaceutical Ltd, said in order to sustain the inflow of discovery and invention of product along with providing due protections, there was a need to create a full-fledge facility in Ahmedabad that can cater to the requirement of the industry.

"We have submitted a memorandum to the parliamentary standing committee demanding a full-fledge infrastructure IP building to be set up in Ahmedabad," said Trivedi, adding that the move was justified considering the kind of revenue generated by the IPPA's Ahmedabad branch, on the basis of trademark registrations alone.

The IPPA's Ahmedabad branch for trademark registrations generated Rs 1.96 crore as revenue from the registration fees till October 2006. The Ahmedabad branch ranks fourth in procedure filing for trademarks in the country with 6,326 registrations after Delhi and Mumbai. Kolkata stands third in trademark filing with 6,175 registrations.

The IPPA was formed in 1992, comprising leading Intellectual Property, Trademark, and patent practitioners of Gujarat. However, the state has a trademark centre only in Ahmedabad with the jurisdiction of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Diu, Daman and Dadra Nagar Haveli for trademark registration.

The city branch only caters to the trademark applications, while for the patents, designs and geographical indication registration, the industry has to move to the Mumbai centre.