c
 






  



21) Schools and educational institutes mainly should comprise the bandwagon for
nurturing a professional's thoughts. A first tier of the recipients of such education
should be the professionals servicing the IPR industry. Lack of experience, relative
newness of the Indian Patent Act, flimsy attempts by the IPO to write and re-write
the patent manual, relatively less exposure, are some of the major stumble-blocks
in today's Indian IPR scene. As reported here, the Kerala government has initiated
a drive to introduce IPR as a compulsory subject in schools and universities. With
training at the grassroots level, the Kerala government affirmatively hopes to align
students' thought processes and attempt to solve the country's shortage of trained
professionals; thus expanding the current realm.

(2) Meticulous gardening of thoughts and weeding out the randomness in a

plausible inventor is a firm step that ought to be taken by corporates towards
training/mentoring their employees which include understanding the genesis of a
technology over the years through patents and its concurrent effects on the industry
in the progressive time scale. The strings of this causal relationship between
innovations and industry growth become visible clearly in studies undertaken by
various consultancy firms which have formulated reports stating that a large
number of foreign firms are responsible for driving the surge in technology-related
patents. Particularly, Indian SMEs currently only invest in need-based research and
development (or only when they have exhausted the option of 'not-copying'). A
recent development as reported here [2] is a definite positive step towards creating
awareness of a strong IPR regime to impress and authorize their work at the
national and international level, without trespassing each other's domains and
subsequently conform to uniform global standards. Finally, this recognition is
bound to translate into economic benefits for the company at a micro-level as well
as for the nation at a macro-level.

(3)An active lobby of current IPR professionals needs to progressively create

awareness within their sphere of influence in an unbiased manner. E.g. keeping an
inventor involved at all times, creating adequate transparency in the process,
propagating the finer points of the IPR spectrum in relation to theoretical
knowledge as well as from derived practical exposure ensures the smoothness of
the learning curve for newer professionals, and hence, aids in stimulating this
endeavor. Nipping the brain drain is just as important. Increasing off-shore activity
(i.e. foreign MNCs recruiting Indian talent, and claiming protection as a derivative
of their work for the company), relatively less stimulation in Indian companies
from an innovation point of view, and restricted resources for such innovative steps
and research hinder the innovative flow-chain and provide only for transient surges
in the patenting scenario, if any. Foreign firms have increasingly filed patents with
Indian employees as the inventors. This results in a total loss of economy for the
nation and home firms in parallel sectors.

For India to boast a comprehensive enforceable patent docket in various sectors of

technology, it needs to exhibit an un-impeded continuum of enforce-able patents;
one where the genesis is easily traceable, without gaps, and one such that
commands international value.

(4) The  Office under the Department of Secondary and Higher
Education in the Ministry of Human Resource Development has taken several
measures to strengthen the enforcement of copyright. These include setting up
of   



 Advisory Council, organization of
seminars/workshops to create greater awareness about  law among the
enforcement personnel and the general public, setting up of collective
administration societies and creation of separate cells in state police headquarters.
The States and Union Territories of Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu &
Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Orissa,
Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andaman & Nicobar Islands,
Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu have either set up copyright
enforcement cells or special cells in the Crime Branch to look after cases of
p
 offence.

In order to facilitate proper coordination between the industry and the enforcement
agencies in the matter of 
p 
p
 , the Ministry requested the
State Governments to designate nodal officers. The States of Andhra Pradesh, Goa,
Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tripura,
Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and the Union Territories of Chandigarh, Daman &
Diu, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry have designated nodal officers.

The   



  
 (CEAC) was set up on
November 6, 1991 to review the progress of enforcement of the  
 periodically and to advise the government regarding measures for improving
the enforcement of the Act. The term of 
 
p   
  is 3 years. The CEAC is reconstituted after periodically after expiry of
the term. The current CEAC has been reconstituted on 22nd February,2005 for a
period of 3 years.

2
Inorder to provide for the establishment of an effective system for protection of

plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders and to encourage the
development of new varieties of plants it has it has been considered necessary to
recognize and protect the rights of the farmers in respect of their contribution made
at any time in conserving, improving and making available plant genetic resources
for the development of the new plant varieties. Moreover to accelerate agricultural
development, it is necessary to protect plants breeders¶ rights to stimulate
investment for research and development for the development of new plant
varieties.

Such protection is likely to facilitate the growth of the seed industry which will
ensure the availability of high quality seeds and planting material to the farmers.
India having ratified the Agreement on G
Related Aspects of the


 

    has to make provision for giving effect to Agreement. To give
effect to the aforesaid objectives the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers¶
Rights Act, 2001 has been enacted in India. For the purposes of this Act, Protection
of Plant Varieties and Farmers¶ Rights Authority has been established and is
located at NASC Complex, DPS Marg, Opp- Todapur, New Delhi. The Authority
has received a total of 140 applications (uptill October 2007) for registration of
new, extant and farmers varieties for rice, wheat, millet, maize, sorghum, pigeon
pea, blackgram and green gram.

(6) The ministry of culture is slated to implement new plan schemes in the XIth
Five year Plan , including safeguarding intangible heritage and cultural diversity,
awareness creation in the area of   p 

  and setting up of
national  cell for artists and artisans, promotion and dissemination of
awareness about Indian culture and heritage, cultural heritage volunteers scheme
and a pilot scheme for cultural industries.

(7) Ministry of Tribal Affairs has prepared a draft of the  

G.
The policy provides for regulatory protection, socio-economic and political
empowerment, development of infrastructure, increased livelihood opportunities,
improved governance and administration, preservation of cultural and traditional
rights and traditional knowledge, protection of traditional knowledge in
the   p 

  regime and access to privileges and includes
measures to support and preserve the rich tribal culture, tradition heritage, arts and
crafts, dance and music through documentation and dissemination, market
linkages, cultural festivals and melas and encouragement and support of tribal
artists, and folk art performers. Efforts will be made to preserve, document and
promote traditional wisdom.

(8) The Department of Science and Technology set up the Patent Facilitating
Centre at the Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council
(TIFAC) in 1995 as a small initiative to address the need of awareness creation
among scientists, helping them to protect their inventive and original work through
IP laws and also act as a watch dog. The PFC came to be known for its capability
to raise issues and bringing new information and knowledge about IPR in public
domain. Starting with the revelation of the turmeric patent to the whole country, it
brought to notice many other patents using some of our well known plants and
traditional knowledge and, at times, claiming what is already known in India. The
days of Dunkel Draft on WTO became a history with PFC putting IPR matters in
public domain freely through its monthly IPR Bulletin since November 1995 (now
it is available on the net). The readership of these bulletins is over 10000. These
bulletins cover technical analysis of granted patents, case laws, current global
issues, IPR laws of India and other countries, international treaties, analysis of
patents tends, domestic and international news and many other items of interest to
a wide variety of readers

(9) Institutions shall be encouraged to seek protection of intellectual property rights

in respect of the results of R&D. They may retain the ownership of such IPR. Here
Institutions' mean any technical, scientific or academic establishment where
research is carried out through funding by the central and / or the state
governments.

(10) Training of various kinds can be provided directly by NPOs or training

partners. A number of different target groups are identified, since all parts of the IP
management and enforcement system could currently benefit from training on the
issues faced by SMEs in enforcing their IPR. The issues also need to be covered
more extensively in business management courses. The training may vary from
short courses of a few hours up to full-time study and may be delivered in a
conventional way or using distance learning or other flexible techniques.