Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is confident that the new policy on intellectual property rights (IPR) will increase domestic applications to the Indian patents office.
"I am concerned that domestic filings of patent applications have remained static in the past few years at about 20 per cent of total filings," said Kant. Domestic filing had remained low at about one-fifth of the total filings.
He mentioned that the government is taking steps to further streamline the patent examination process at the Intellectual Property Office in order to bring it at par with the standards of US and UK by ensuring that the pendency of cases does not exceed three months.
He informed that these changes can be expected within the next 18 months and steps are being taken on a war footing to recruit 1000 examiners and outsource work to institutions such as IITs.
Nearly 250,000 patent applications and 532,000 trademark registrations are pending with the government owing to shortage of manpower.
Kant informed that a draft policy has been placed in the public domain, inviting comments and suggestions from stakeholders.
He stressed the importance of creating an innovative ecosystem which would support translation of inventions into commercial use. "This innovation ecosystem can only be created and nurtured through initiatives of the government in collaboration with industry," the secretary said.
He also urged organisations to protect their trademarks as it would help them leverage their brand value towards development of the business.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
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