The Modi government has prepared India's first intellectual property rights policy that suggests a series of tax sops and other incentives to promote research and development and patents, besides providing support to small and medium enterprises and start-ups. In a host of measures, it is looking at a loan guarantee scheme that would treat a patent as a mortgageable asset that can be used to raise funds. The policy is expected to encourage start ups and others to cover the risk of failure during commercialisation of a patent.
At the same time, the cabinet note moved by the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), has said the government would use the legislative space and flexibility available under international treaties such as TRIPs to protect its interests. Activists had feared that the government could dilute some of the provisions of the existing law, which allowed the patent office to reject frivolous applications or invoke special provisions to waive patent rights in case of an emergency or for providing access to medicines. “The idea is to have a legal framework that promotes strong and effective IPR laws and yet balances the interests of the right holders with larger public interest,” said a source.
The policy was in the pipeline for the past few months and the notion is to lessen the number of pending applications to global levels and expedite processing of applications. Sources said the government is boosting the manpower capability at the patent office by hiring 500 examiners and outsourcing work to 300 people, including at IITs.
While a mega awareness programme has been chalked out, the policy has suggested tax benefits to promote R&D with indirect tax sops to expand coverage to include spending on creating, developing, protecting and commercialising IPRs. DIPP has also proposed that there may be tax incentives for a limited period on the sales and exports of products using IPRs that are generated from pubic-funded research. Further, companies that pump in money into public R&D units could treat it as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending. Move is also afoot to support SMEs, start ups and grassroot innovators through tax concessions.
Sources said that apart from strengthening the patent, trademarks and copyright offices, the government is also looking at a host of measures to strengthen action in case of infringement and has proposed amendments to the Cinematography Act to provide for penal provisions for illegal duplication of films. In addition, the entire, IPR activity, which is spread across ministries, is proposed to be handled by DIPP .
