Friday 7 September 2012

Draft of National Intellectual Property Rights Strategy prepared

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the Industry Ministry has prepared a draft National IPR Strategy. The Sectorial Innovation Council on IPRs had given its recommendations. It may be mentioned here that this council was set up in April, earlier this year to come up with a national IPR strategy. 

Based on the recommendations, this draft has been prepared.  However, the draft has not yet been circulated for inter-Ministerial consultation, Minister of State of Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said in a written reply to  Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

In accordance with TRIPS Agreement India’s IP laws were amended to incorporate  provisions of the said Agreement and in 2010, the Trademark Act was  amended to enable accession to the Madrid Protocol which is a filing treaty and will allow companies to register their trademark in the Member-countries of the Protocol through a single application. Similarly, the Copyright Act, 1957 was amended in 2012. 

The amended Act which came into force on 21st June 2012, inter alia includes provisions of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT). 


 It is a welcome step on part of the government as it would give a boost to the creation of new ideas with industrial applications.

Contributed by: Abhishek Kukreti

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