REVIEW OF NATIONAL IPR POLICY

The National IPR Think Tank (NITT) was setup on 22nd October 2014 by the Department of
Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) which was engaged with National IPR Think Tank (NITT)
to draft an overarching IPR Policy and advise the government on IPR related issues. The NITT
was set up to review the existing IPR policy, make recommendations to further strengthen and
improve the same, make suggestions on increasing administrative efficiency as well as highlight
best practices related to IPR around the globe. Accordingly, the 6-member NITT chaired by Justice
Prabha Sridevan submitted the first draft of the National IPR Policy on the 19thDecember. The
draft policy touches upon various aspects of the IPR framework in the country and the need to
create an innovation ecosystem while ensuring that the policy should work in the larger public
interest.

As per the Policy, DIPP shall be the nodal point to coordinate, guide and oversee implementation
and future development of IPR in India. The responsibility for actual implementation of the plans
will remain with the Ministries/ Departments concerned in their assigned sphere of work. The
Policy has broadly enlisted 7 objectives and the steps to be undertaken therein by the department
-

1. IPR Awareness – Despite having creativity and innovation in abundance, India suffers
from lack of knowledge and awareness about IPR. This Policy aims to create awareness
amongst general public regarding the benefits and importance of

2. Generation of IPR – In furtherance to creating wide spread awareness about the relevance
of IPR, the Policy aims to enhance the overall intellectual property filings made in the

3. Legal and Legislative Framework – The Policy aims to review/ revise/ update the laws,
rules, regulations, pertaining to IPR, so as to ensure that the same are in consonance with
the national needs and priorities.

4. Administration and Management – In order to effectively implement the laws/ rules/

regulations governing IPR, it is imperative to have an efficient administrative/ governing
body. This Policy aims to ensure that operations at the IPR offices are more efficient,
streamlined and cost effective.
 5. Commercialization of IPR – The owners of IPR tend to face the challenge of being unable
to effectively capitalize the value and reward of the IPR. Thus, the Policy aims to create a
public platform to function as a common database of IPRs. Such a platform can help
creators and innovators connect to potential users, buyers and funding

6. Enforcement and Adjudication – It is the responsibility of the owner of an IPR to protect

the IPR against any infringement/ misuse/ abuse etc. The Policy aims to build respect for
IPR among the general public and to sensitize inventors and creators of IPR on measures
for protection and enforcement of their rights. Additionally, the Policy also aims at building
greater capacity of the enforcement agencies at various levels to ensure better enforcement
of the

7. Human Capital Development – The Policy envisages developing a pool of IPR

professionals and experts so that the country is able to build a national capacity for
providing thoughtful leadership in the field of IP.

A lot of critics had argued that the policy was developed due to pressures from the USA to help
their pharmaceutical industry to benefit in the Indian markets, however the policy evidently phased
that argument out by aiming to impact the national interests in the pharmaceutical sector. The
policy ensures enhanced access to affordable medicines and other drugs; make efforts to reduce
dependency on pharmaceutical imports in the country; protect the traditional knowledge in the
field of pharmacy from misappropriation; encourage public funded institutes to develop affordable
drugs to neglected diseases and provides guidance to researchers & innovators to focus on food,
security and healthcare. The policy seeks to facilitate the maximization of patent generation and
consequently its commercialization. The policy by including R&D and other institutes and
organizations in generating IPs is boosting them to innovate more. Start-ups is the most promising
sector in any economy especially the Indian economy. The policy provides for huge incentives and
ease of IP registrations to start-ups and other small and medium enterprises at a minimum possible
time. This will encourage the start-ups to innovate and create better. The policy lists out many
objectives but it fails to provide specifics for some of them. It seems vague in certain areas where
some of the points have only been named in order for them to be mentioned in the policy but no
comprehensive follow ups regarding those are provided. For example, innovation and creativity
can be called as the two pillars of this policy however in order to innovate and create, no mention
of how the knowledge can be accessed is provided in the policy. This could be one of the reasons
why the patent filings in India is very low as recognized by the policy. Similarly the policy talks
about the finance ability of IPRs in the market however it remains silent on how their evaluation
should to be done. It is hopeful that a detailed follow up regarding all the unaddressed issues of
the policy will be brought forward by the government in the form of new and updated laws and
regulations. It is hopeful that the objectives of this policy is achieved so that India can be tagged
as one of the countries with a strong and an adequate Intellectual Property Regime.