Final draft of the National IPR Policy has been circulated for inter-ministerial consultation and will be put up to the Union Cabinet for approval
Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Commerce & Industry Minister, has said that the final draft of the National IPR Policy has been circulated for inter-ministerial consultation and will be put up to the Union Cabinet for approval after getting the comments.
According to a PIB release, Sitharaman was speaking while inaugurating a seminar on ‘Protecting Brands Abroad with the Madrid System’ organized by FICCI, in association with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and DIPP. She said that India’s IPR Policy shall fully protect patent, GI and copyrights.
The draft policy, she said, focuses on stronger enforcement of IPR by increasing the manpower strength in IP offices and reducing the pendency of IPR filings. Most of the offices have done away with manual interface as all applications, queries and decisions are made online.
She sought to allay apprehensions in the minds of foreign investors about the strength of the Indian IPR regime, stating that final draft of the National IPR Policy has been arrived at through a transparent process with inputs from all stakeholders.
Speaking on the Madrid Protocol on registering and managing Trade Marks worldwide, the minister said that the system allows an applicant to file one application, in one language and pay one set of fees to protect the Trademark in all WIPO member countries.
Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in his address, said that the key challenge before the country was to attain growth rates of 9-10 per cent year after year for 30 years. “We need to be a nation of job creators where innovation and creativity will be the key driving forces,” he added.