Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asserted that India will not yield to external pressure on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and said the proposed National IPR Policy — fully compliant with the international Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IPR (TRIPS) — will soon be taken up by the Cabinet for approval.
The minister’s comments on Tuesday at a CII event come a day after her statement in Lok Sabha where she pointed out that India continues to be placed on the Priority Watch List under the US Special 301 (Report) on account of the US’s assessment of Indian IPR protection being inadequate.
However, she termed the US’ Special 301 Report as a unilateral measure to create pressure on countries to enhance IPR protection beyond the TRIPS agreement. “Special 301, which is an extra territorial application of the domestic law of a country (the US), is inconsistent with the established norms of the World Trade Organisation (WTO),” she had stated in Lok Sabha.
Ms. Sitharaman, who is also the minister in charge of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), also said at the CII event that in order to create more synergies and for greater empowerment of the DIPP, the government has decided to shift the Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout Design related matters from the purview of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology to the DIPP. Also, the copyrights related issues will soon come under the DIPP’s ambit from that of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, she added. The DIPP is already the nodal agency for IPRs including patents, designs, trademarks and geographical indications.
Speaking on the occasion, the DIPP secretary Ramesh Abhishek said the government will soon help compile a list of expired patents to help entrepreneurs use them for commercial purposes.
Later, speaking to reporters on other issues, Ms. Sitharaman said her ministry was looking into the issue of the Footwear Design and Development Institute’s (FDDI) MoU inked with Mewar University of Rajasthan being declared invalid. The minister said discussions are on with the University Grants Commission and the HRD Ministry on the proposal of giving the FDDI the status of either a ‘Deemed University’ or a full-fledged university.
Solar case
On disputes with the US on solar policies, Ms. Sitharaman said India has filed an appeal before the WTO on the case that it lost to the US regarding local content norms in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission for solar cells/modules. The minister also said India was considering moving the WTO regarding renewable energy policies of many State governments in the US “violating” the WTO’s norms. On Foreign Direct Investment policy relating to the food processing sector, Ms. Sitharaman said the matter will soon be taken up by the Cabinet.
