National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy : GS 3 : IAS
8:41 AM
- government on Friday announced the long-pending, "all-encompassing" National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy.
- The Policy, to be reviewed every five years, aims to push IPRs as a marketable financial asset, promote innovation and entrepreneurship, while protecting public interest including ensuring the availability of essential and life-saving drugs at affordable prices
- no changes are made in that Section (which prevents ever-greening of drug patents) and the patent-disabling Compulsory Licensing regime.
- The policy comes in the backdrop of the US Trade Representative (USTR), in its annual (2016 edition) Special 301 Report (on the global state of IPR protection and enforcement) retaining India on the 'Priority Watch List' this year for "lack of sufficient measurable improvements to its IPR framework.
- India shall remain committed to the (World Trade Organisation's) Doha Declaration on (WTO's) Trade Related IPR Agreement (TRIPS) and Public Health
- India will continue to utilise the legislative space and flexibilities available in international treaties and the TRIPS Agreement
- These flexibilities include the sovereign right of countries to use provisions such as Section 3(d) and CLs for ensuring the availability of essential and life-saving drugs at affordable prices.
- The Policy says that to have strong and effective IPR laws, which balance the interests of rights owners with larger public interest, steps could be taken — including review of existing IP laws — to update and improve them or to remove anomalies and inconsistencies
- To ensure strong and effective IPR laws, the Policy states India will engage constructively in the negotiation of international treaties and agreements in consultation with stakeholders. The government will examine accession to some multilateral treaties which are in India's interest; and, become signatory to those treaties which India has de facto implemented to enable it to participate in their decision making process, it added.
- the international treaties and agreements referred to are international IP classification agreements, including the Nice and Vienna Classifications, and not pacts like the Trans Pacific Partnership, which apparently has TRIPS-plus provisions.
- The Policy also seeks to facilitate domestic IPR filings, for the entire value chain from IPR generation to commercialisation
- Besides, it also aims to promote research and development through tax benefits. Another significant measure include the proposal to create an effective loan guarantee scheme to encourage start-ups.
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