(Image source from: business-standard.com)

On Friday, the Indian government said in Rajya Sabha that it is trying to set up a fully computerised Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) office in the country which is similar to the US model and where everything is done online.

Responding during Question Hour, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said, “All of these are synergised into one office now. We are in the process of computerising every process so that people don’t have to go to any IPR office whatsoever”. he also said that the government has brought a lot of “sanity” to the working of eight areas of IPR, be it patent, copyrights or trademark.

He stated that there exists only one IPR office in the whole of the US and everybody works online. He also added, “ I am trying to develop that module here.” With smart phones increasing rapidly all over India, the government wants to ensure rural artisans and craftsmen engage directly online through video conferencing and get advise on patent related issues free of cost, he added to it.

He stated that the government has already reduced charges for start-ups, artisans and women entrepreneurs. Goyal said it is not only related to traditional medicine but also traditional cultural expression on protection of traditional knowledge under India’s IPR policy.

He said that an initial study has been conducted to get a feel of how a road map on this issue should be and added that the government is now in the process of working out a more detailed analysis in preparing a road map.

The minister said that the 13 patent offices across the worlds are provided with the 3.6 lakh formulations which were part of the traditional knowledge. “Due to which, we were able to save about 236 cases which otherwise would have got patented somewhere else. They were able to deny the patent in different geographies because of our effort to make the world aware that India has lot of traditional knowledge.” he said.

The minister assured that the government will consider protecting “traditional culture” in the IPR policy to the BJP member. He added saying that, the government is very committed when it comes to the country’s traditional knowledge and culture that the rural India is engaged with the world.

By Shrithika Kushangi