Explain how IPR helps in development of India ?

 introduction

 Intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds and give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.

Development of Intellectual Property Law in India

Intellectual Property Right (IPR) in India was imported from the west. The Indian Trade and Merchandise Marks Act 1884, was the first  Indian  Law  regarding  IPR.  The first  Indian  Patent  Law  was enacted in 1856 followed by a series of Acts being passed.  They are Indian Patents and Designs Act in 1911 and Indian Copyright Act in 1914. Indian Trade and Merchandise Marks Act and Indian Copyright Act have been replaced by Trade and Merchandise Marks Act 1958 and Copyright Act 1957 respectively3.In 1948, the Indian Government appointed the first committee to review the prevailing Patents and Designs legislation. In 1957, Government appointed  Justice Rajagobala  Ayyangar  Committee (RAC) to revise the Patent Law. Rajagobala Ayyangar Committee submitted  its  report  on  1959,  the  report tried  to  balance  the constitutional guarantee of economic and social justice enshrined in the preamble of the constitution. This report provided the process for Patenting of  drugs.  This report outlined the policy behind the Indian Patent system.

The theory upon which the patent system is based on, i.e., an opportunity of acquiring exclusive rights in an invention, stimulates technical process in four ways.

1.  Encourages research and invention.

2.  Induces an inventor to disclose his discoveries.

3.  Offers award for the expenses of developing inventions.

4.  Provides  an inducement  to  invest  capital  in  new  lines  of production which might not appear profitable.

Based on the  Rajagobala  Ayyangar Committee report,  a  Bill was introduced in the year 1965 and the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha but it lapsed in the Rajya Sabha and once again lapsed in Lok Sabha in the year 1966 due to dissolution of Lok Sabha.  But it was reintroduced in 1967 and passed in 1970; the draft rules were incorporated in Patent Act and passed in the year

                                                    

 .1971. The  following  steps  are  being  suggested  with  particular reference  to  the  situation  in  India regarding  IPR in  the  national policy making.

  

1.      Constitute an integrated single window National IPR commission to deal with IPR policy issues

2         Integrate national technology planning with IPR and trends in international technology trade;

3         Implement a form al national IPR literacy m ission;

4         Set-up IPR training institutes to prepare technically qualified attorneys;

5        Introduce an enabling national taxation policy to encourage innovation, building of IPR portfolio and its utilization in technology transfer and trade;

6        Urgently modernize the IPR administrative structures in the country;

7         Improve infrastructure for access and effective use of IPR  information. There  is an urgent need to harmonize the patent classification system to ease and optimize processes in patent searching;

8        Re-structure the judiciary and enforcement machinery for professional and speedy response to PR issues;

9        Training of corporate and institutional managers on effective management of IPR;

10    Standardize models tor valuation and audit of IPR:

11    Evolve national taxation polices of development. use and transactions  Iinked to IPR.

Importance of IPR in Developing Countries

There has been at times considerable debate on the impact on developing countries of tightening Intellectual Property Rights .The potential significance of IPR in developing countries is according to the relative intensity of their technological activity . Developing countries went along with the TRIPS agreement for a variety of reasons, ranging from the hope of additional access to agricultural and apparel markets in rich nations, to an expectation that stronger IPR would encourage additional technology transfer and innovation. However, the promising long term benefits are uncertain and costly to achieve in many nations, especially in the poorest countries. There are reasons to believe that the enforcement of IPRs has a positive impact on growth prospects. On the domestic level, growth is spurred by higher level of innovations although this result tends to be fairly insignificant until countries move into the middle income bracket. It also notes that the growth effects of IPRs are at different times and in different   regions of the world, countries have realized high rates of growth under varying degrees of IPR protection. There are certainly short term costs for poor countries from stronger IPRs, like higher prices for technology and protected products.

                                                                    

Impact of stronger IPR in developing countries

.Society reaps the following four benefits from granting such monopoly rights to innovations:

1.      The stimulation of innovations by private agents, the primary social benefits of IPR.

2.      The use of new knowledge in productive activity.

3.      The greater dissemination of new knowledge to other agents.

4.      The stimulation of innovations by other enterprises .

The TRIPS Agreement provides for norms and standards inrespect of following areas of intellectual property:

5.      Patents

6.      Copyrights and related rights

7.      Trade Marks

8.      Geographical Indications

9.      Industrial Designs

10.  Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits

11.  Protection of Undisclosed Information (Trade Secrets)

12.  Plant varieties

Intellectual property rights are customarily divided into two main areas