On May 12, 2016 India published its National Intellectual Property Rights Policy (National IPR Policy) to raise awareness about the importance of IPR’s as a tool for financial and economic advancement. The mission of the National IPR Policy is to support innovation and creativity as a way of augmenting socio-economic and cultural development leading to the promotion of entrepreneurship as well as access to areas of economic, technological and social importance such as environmental protection, food security and healthcare.

The policy sets out seven objectives to achieve this mission, summarized as follows:

Objective 1:  IPR Awareness-Outreach and Promotion

• Create a national program to raise awareness about the benefits and value of IPR to rights-holders and the public at large.
• Create a climate that inspires creativity and innovation in research and development (R&D), industry, the public and private sectors, educational community and the more rural areas of India in order to help generate intellectual property that would become marketable and thereby profitable.
• Promote an outreach program with the slogan: “Creative India, Innovative India.”

Objective 2:  Generation of IPRs

• Utilize the large supply of talent in science and technology, by conducting a survey to assess and evaluate the potential talent in specific sectors where targeted programs could be put into effect.
• Extra attention will be placed on helping innovators and researchers in areas of national interest.
• Utilization and generation of IPRs by India’s corporate world will be encouraged.
• Devise steps to ensure that the IPR regime reaches a broad base of inventors and start-ups.

Objective 3: Legal and Legislative Framework

• IP laws in India previous to the TRIPS agreement have since been amended or enacted and are in full compliance. This along with other legal decisions provide a secure and efficient legal environment for the marketing and protection of IPRs
• Continue the commitment to the DOHA Declaration on TRIPS Agreement and Public Health and protect the diverse mix of traditional medical knowledge from exploitation.

Objective 4: Administration and Management

• Establish a cost conscious and efficient environment for which to manage IPRs, by tasking the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to administer the Copyright Act of 1957, the Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout Design Act of 2000 as well as create a Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM).

Objective 5: Commercialization of IPR

• Create a program for the purpose of bringing together designers and innovators with investors, funding institutions and users so that the financial value of IPRs could be realized.

Objective 6: Enforcement and Adjudication

• Protect IP by fostering reverence for IP laws amongst society. Educate inventors and producers of IP as to their rights and the means to protect those rights.
• Build up enforcement agencies and bolster IPR cells within police forces.
• Create methods of identifying counterfeiting and piracy. Hold IP rights educational seminars for judges to help expedite the determination in IPR disputes. Explore an Alternative Dispute Resolution system and the creation of special courts for the sole purpose of adjudicating IP disputes.

Objective 7: Human Capital Development

• Increase the supply of IPR experts in the areas of strategic development, administration, policy, law and enforcement and by that increase the creation of IP and economic prosperity.