“ On IPR India stands firm and clear” – Nirmala Sitharaman
India recognizes and rewards India’s Finest Brains
9th National Intellectual Property (IP) Awards
Conferring the awards on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day celebrations here on Thursday, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Commerce and Industry mentioned that India has got very robust framework to deal with IP matters. On IPRs, India stands firm and clear. India being a leading nation has a robust well consulted policy. India is very forward looking in IPRs and will be moving from strength to further strength.
Hon’ble Minister mentioned that she committed last year that India will learn to be more efficient and match international standards. As Mr. Gupta already informed that the pendency in trade mark examination has been brought to one month. On patents there has been an augmentation of manpower with more efficient and qualified people and we are now targetting to reduce the pendency to 18 months by March 2018.
Hon’ble Minister said that the Police unit in Chandigarh deserve a special mention on their accomplishment and hope that police units of other states will follow this trend. We believe that the National IPR Policy is a truly dynamic and vibrant which will guide India to a path of innovation and research for the next decade. Cell for IPR Promotion and Management has already started functioning and in fact started promoting awareness on IPR from schools. We are starting to promote an IP driven culture at school level which will lead to more innovation and spur the start-up movement.
Hon’ble Minister mentioned that efforts to sensitize the Judiciary on IPRs are already underway so as to speed up disputes on commercial matters. It is pertinent to point out that India has only one case on compulsory license being granted on patents Thus, it is wrong to stumble a dialogue on this pretext even though the case is now part of the history books.
Hon’ble Minister expressed that it is a sense of great pride and distinct satisfaction that with every year, more and more number of people are coming in and competition is actually getting acute. This is the ninth year of the celebration of National IP Awards.
This year, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, TVS Motors, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Tejas Networks Limited, Allinnov Research & Development Pvt Ltd, Biocon Ltd,Human Welfare Association, Crime Branch, Chandigarh were among the winners of 9th National IP Awards.
Mr. K Ravindra Shetty won the award for the Top Individual for Patents & Commercialization as well as the WIPO Medal for Inventors. The award for Top R & D institution/organisation for Patents & Commercialization was won by Indian Agricultural Research Institute. TVS Motors was felicitated the award for Top Public Limited Company / Private Limited Company for Patents & Commercialization in India (Indian) as well as the WIPO IP Enterprise Trophy.
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd was conferred the honors in Top Public Limited Company / Private Limited Company for Patents & Commercialization in India (Foreign) and Top Indian Company /Organization for Designs.
The winner in the category of Top Indian Private Company (MSME) for Patents & Commercialization was Tejas Networks Limited while Allinnov Research & Development Pvt Ltdwon the award for Top Start-up for IP Commercialization. On the other hand Biocon Ltd was awarded in the category of Top Indian Company for creating Global brand. He was also honored with the WIPO Users’ Trophy while Human Welfare Association was awarded in the category of Top organisation for Top Individual / organization for Best facilitation of Registration of GI and Promotion of registered GI in India and Crime Branch, Chandigarh received awards in the category of Best Police Unit (District / zone in a commissionarate) for enforcement of IP in the Country.
Constituted jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) , Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the Indian Patents Office (IPO), the National Intellectual Property Awards are given every year since 2009 recognizing the use of IPRs as a strategic tool in commerce and industry. Comprising a winning amount of Rs 1 lakh in cash and a citation, the awards are evaluated on the basis of number of IPRs granted / registered, growth in IPR portfolio in the last three calendar years, leveraging of IPRs for achieving commercial goals (manufacturing, licensing, launching of new products / processes associated with granted / registered IPRs marketing / export etc.), For Enforcement of IPR by police, actions such as IPR- related FIR filed, raids/seizures made, and charge-sheets filed for IP infringements. In case of Top Indian Company for creating Global Brand (s), brand value, turnover outside India under the brand where it has worked, number of such global brands and global acceptance will be the parameters for the award.
While welcoming the awardees and participants to the awards ceremony, Mr Rajiv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion stated that the theme for this year is Innovation and with the National IPR Policy in place, lots of initiatives are being taken up. Mr. Aggarwal also mentioned that DIPP looks forward to build relationship with all countries in IP for the betterment of society and World at large.
While giving a brief context on the conception of World IP Day, Mr O P Gupta, Controller General of, Patents, Designs and Trademarks Government of India stated that the idea of conferring the awards was conceptualized nine years back by CGPTDM and DIPP to recognize the best achievers of IP in that year. Government of India imparts great importance to IPR. Mr. Gupta stated that pendency of trademark examination at Indian Patent Office has been reduced to 30 days. Output of Indian Patent Examination has now reached to 4000 applications per month. DIPP is committed to bring the pendency down even further by next year. Mr. Gupta stated that Indian Patent Office, DIPP and Government is committed to improving IP ecosystem in the country.
Dr Naushad Forbes, President, Confederation of Indian while delivering his address pointed towards two components of R & D. Indian industry’s R&D spend has been around 0.3% of GDP as against global average of 1.5% of GDP. CII has been working to stimulate industry’s investment through multiple ways. CII is also instrumental in attracting industry’s R&D investment through its unique PPP Joint Venture Company, Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) that has been showing success with DST, MeitY, DHI as the partners. Dr. Forbes mentioned that CII looks forward to work across different ministries to encourage this.
Dr. Forbes pointed out that Indian Government’s current expenditure in R&D is around 0.65-0.7% of GDP which is very close to global average. The concern is that in India, only 0.04% of GDP is spent on R&D at the academic institutions whereas the global average is 10 times more – 0.4% of GDP. This is a serious issue for government to address immediately by re-allocating its R&D budget more towards academic institutions. Dr. Forbes urged Madam Minister to champion this transition and CII would be happy to partnering this and it will be a game changer.
Dr. Forbes also stated that the potential for design to contribute in Industry Make in India is huge. Dr. Forbes congratulated Madam Minister, for DIPP constituting India Design Council for providing a boost to design in industry. Make in India will be sustainable when Design in India gets its due support and attention. And to achieve such a goal, he strongly recommend Institutionalization of India Design Council and offered CII being the secretariat of the council.
The award Ceremony was preceded by National IPR Conference jointly organized by CII, Indian Patent Office and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion with the theme of “Expanding IP ecosystem in Industry”. The Conference brought together an eminent set of speakers from Government bodies, IP Lawyers & Attorneys, Legal counsels, Industry and Academics from India and abroad. The speakers shared their knowledge & experiences through examples and case studies in the area of Intellectual Property with over 250 delegates.
