Boost Given By Judiciary To IPR Has Encouraged More Patents, Copyrights : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Speaking at the National Seminar on Adjudication of IPR Disputes in India, the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the idea of supporting Intellectual Property Rights in India had to be encouraged in many different ways which was duly recognised by the Government of India.

"India's jurisprudence is very evolved that today handling a complex and global matter such as Intellectual Property Rights is happening with competence and strength." Mrs Sitharaman said.

She stated that the question of wanting to give enough support to rights protection through law, was a matter on which there were lots of discussions happening.

She stated that from the year 2013-14 to the last one year, the patents which were filed and granted, increased from 4,000 to 28,000 last year, trademark numbers increased from 70,000 to 2.5 lakhs and copyrights granted increased from 4,000 to 16000 last year.

She added that the increase in numbers cannot happen unless those patent seekers have confidence that they will apply and get it in time and if there's any complexities the Judiciary is there to dispense justice.

"These aren't small numbers, this is where strength of economy in supporting such innovations and copyrights comes, all of which when scaled up will have a strong ripple effect on ecosystem and the revenue." She said.

She added that the boost which is given through the support of judiciary has encouraged more innovations, patents and copyrights etc. coming in India.

"I think boost given by Judiciary's support has encouraged more parents copyrights etc", she said.

Referring to the steps taken by the Government, she stated that the Government recognise several services which are so infused with innovation, like drone technology which has been expanded into agriculture and services and recognised the service providers of drones.

"We've come up with drones as services itself now, which is creating jobs and accommodate from commercial sense the technology happening in drone area. For R&D and defence we've said industry and start ups and academia, with 25% of all budget will be going to them now", she said

According to Mrs Sitharaman, if these steps are gradually because of support and captive nature of things being procured by the Government, these are going to be strong encouragement for greater activities generating greater intellectual property applications and that itself will have necessary impact on judiciary.

She said that the Government also wanted to engage with Judiciary and to some extent it happened over several years, resulting in last year when the Government removed the Tribunals and passed the entire load of cases which were piling up to courts themselves.

The Finance Minister was referring to the dissolution of  various tribunals, including the IPAB, and transfer of their functions to judicial bodies by the Tribunals Reforms Act 2021. 

With a word of appreciation for the Delhi High Court, Mrs Sitharaman recognised the High Court's role for having looked at that load not as challenge but as an opportunity

She stated that today we are recognising the fact that a division for Intellectual Property has been created, there are consistent efforts by having a committee looking into the framework and also setting the rules.

"I've a word of appreciation and respect for CJI for having been supportive of this entire effort, and that gives strength to judiciary all over the country to be able to see there's a well established and well thought through process to handle IPR proceedings." She said 

She further pointed out that the Government came up with a pilot scheme in 2016 for IP protection wherein cost of facilitators or payment for challenges in courts were made by government. That scheme has been extended to 2023.

"The pilot scheme has graduated & has been extended, it'll be one of most important ways for supporting technology and innovation. We need all the innovations, patents etc. as economy stands to benefit in multiplier kind of a scale" She said.

Referring to the days when she was a part of the Commerce Ministry, Mrs Sitharaman stated that those were challenging days in terms of bringing out a policy in Intellectual Property Rights, getting stakeholders to discuss with the government for making the policy and also understanding how the IPR ecosystem can be strengthened.

Mr's Sitharaman stated that India is at a stage where growth and focus on development has to be strengthened from every side, and Intellectual Property Rights plays a very important role.

She stated that when the government announced policy for startup and came out with steps for startups, the idea was to give support to startup through schemes, and support the idea of bringing in innovation. The push from the Government was to encourage startups, have a formal registration mechanism and understanding their requirements in protecting the IPR. 

"Today we are seeing many startups qualifying to become uniform, this couldn't have been possible without government giving up lot of restrictions that were there, which were becoming burdensome. So simultaneously as we were removing a lot of restrictive rules and regulations we were also making sure that there were schemes to be able to support these innovations and give a framework with which they can work." She said

With regard to research and development, Mrs Sitharaman stated that from the point of supporting R&D in this country, the R&D in this country has had steady flow of money as support from the government. 

CJI NV Ramana, Delhi High Court Chief Justice DN Patel, Justice Prathiba M Singh of Delhi High Court also spoke during the event.

Stronger Enforcement Provisions Against IPR Infringement Needed : CJI NV Ramana

Idea That Intellectual Property Is An Elitist Field Of Law Is Completely Misplaced : Justice Prathiba M Singh