India as an emerging powerhouse in the area of knowledge based industries, it is time for the country to realise the importance of having a strict IPR protection regime. Unless the country provides adequate protection to intellectual property, no novel technology and innovative products will be available to the benefit of the industry and the society here, say the US based industry experts. A team of industry and IPR experts who visited India recently as part of a workshop on “Intellectual Property Rights Driving Business: Perspective and Experiences” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), underlined that the experiences in the developed world are evidences for the fact that a well defined IPR regime has lead to better technology innovations and thereby to economic prosperity.

However, in order to ensure a conducive atmosphere to adopt a strong IPR regime, a country should be open to a transparent and proper understanding of the IPR law and should ward off the misconceptions about the same. While speaking at the Editors’ Conference organised in concurrence with the Workshop, Judge Randall Rader, a circuit judge on the US Court of Appeals for Federal circuit said that the IPRs are such assets which are already being used very effectively by industrialized countries like USA and European countries as a business tool. “It is now critical for the Indian industry to understand the implications of IP protection- both legal and economic to protect its own business interests in Indian and abroad,” he added.

The other members in the delegation, who also emphasized the relevance of a competent IP protection in a country like India, includes Martin Adelman, professor of law and director of Dean Dinwoody Center for IPR studies, Washington, Raj S Dave, counsel, Morrison & Foerster, North Virginia, Paul A Stone, vice president and chief patent counsel, Symeyx Technologies, Santa Clara, R Minisandram, senior director, intellectual Property, Seagate Technology, USA & board member, Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), Rita Khanna, head, International Technology Transfer Management Inc, USA, Marck Adler, chief intellectual property counsel, Rohm & Haas Co., Maryland, Stephan C Durant, partner, Morrison & Foerster, Joseph Anderson, Managing director Morrison &Foerster and Dr Hiten Ghosh, vice president PanIIT Corp, North America.

Representing Indian industry and IPR experts, Ranjit R Shahani, president, Organoisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) and vice chairman and managing director, Novartis India and Prof. Prabudha Ganguli, CEO, Vision IPR, also participated in the discussion that touched upon various topics like the Indian Patent Bill, experiences of countries that have implemented patent regimes in the recent past, compulsory licensing, restrictive provisions in the Indian Patent Act and its effectiveness in promoting R&D and increasing the flow of FDIs and data protection.