<div><strong>C H Unnikrishnan</strong></div><div> </div><div>Commerce and Industries Minister Nirmala Sitaraman on Thursday (October 15) said India’s first Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy will go for cabinet approval shortly (apparently in the next 30 to 45 days) and the final draft, which was submitted by an IP Think Tank constituted for the purpose, was only an input for the policy.</div><div> </div><div>The minister said this while responding to media queries on the leaked policy draft,<a href="http://www.businessworld.in/policy-healthcare-pharma/final-draft-national-ipr-policy-leaked-stresses-stricter-patents"> first reported by www.BW|Businessworld.in on October 13</a>.</div><div> </div><div>The final draft of the IPR policy was prepared by a team of experts from the field of judiciary, industry, IP legal and others. This IP Think Tank was chaired by Justice Prabha Sridevan, who was the chairperson of India’s Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) wherein she delivered laser sharp and accurate decisions and rulings on many of India’s complicated IP disputes. The team submitted its final draft of the policy to the ministry of commerce and industry in April after incorporating comments and suggestions received from public and other stakeholders after keeping the primary draft for their scrutiny. </div><div> </div><div>The minister‘s statement now makes it obvious that the final policy will be significantly different from what was prepared by the Think Tank.</div><div> </div><div><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" style="width: 200px"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/unni-small.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 1px;"></td></tr><tr><td><strong>C H Unnikrishnan</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>Now, there are two key questions that the ministry, which is responsible for formulation and implementation of IP related legislation in the country, needs to answer. One; what are the changes that the government is going to make in the final draft in the next one month before announcing it? Two; why was the final draft not made available to the public nsince April forcing someone to leak it?</div><div> </div><div>These questions are key in the current context of India, which is under tremendous pressure from the developed economies to change its existing IPR regime that doesn’t allow frivolous or unsubstantiated monopolies in the domestic market. </div><div> </div><div>One wouldn’t know at this juncture that whether the government will heed to this pressure. But, going by the recent commitments (open as well as not very open) that the government has expressed on it to those developed countries just to gain the notional prestige of being the “most investor friendly nation”, it looks that the government may do so.</div><div> </div><div>The international pressure to “upgrade” India’s IPR law to global compliance were quite prominent in almost all the bilateral trade talks that India had with the US, European Union and other developed economies in the last few years. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, had also recently emphasised this point by saying, “India’s patent laws should be brought on par with global standards to make Asia’s third largest economy a hub for outsourced creative services.” </div><div> </div><div>IP rights are good to encourage research and innovation and thereby support the social progress and the overall economic growth of the country. But, it can also destroy the progress and growth if the rights are not granted fairly and judiciously. Especially, when it comes to essential products and services such as life saving drugs, food and healthcare in a developing economy like India where at least 70 per cent of the population still can’t access modern healthcare and 80 per cent of the population who has access are still not covered by any insurance and poverty death is still a reality. </div><div> </div><div>The country’s existing IPR law was formulated some years ago by great visionaries taking all these into consideration. The leaked version of the final draft of the policy has again put enough caution against likely abuse of IP Rights in the Indian context. The so-called global standard, which (to me and any other informed person) is Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and it has also allowed enough provisions to safeguard the members’ rights. And, we also know that India’s existing IP regime is fully complaint to this standard.</div><div> </div><div>So, it’s curious to see what shape India’s first IPR Policy will take now after the secret inter-ministerial scrutiny. TRIPS or TRIPS Plus? </div>
