The Centre plans to amend patent rules to speed up patent filing and approvals to give a boost to the government’s ambitious slogans of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Startup India,’ a top official said.
Apart from amending the patent rules, the Union Government is also planning to outsource the job of patent agents to about 1,000 professors in various Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country.
“India has become the centre for research and development in the last five years,” said Amitabh Kant, Secretary Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). “India needs to be made into a nation of innovation, design for which patents are important.
“The government is in the process of amending the patent rules so that Make in India and startup’s patents are put on a fast track,” he said.
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The Centre is also in the process of bringing out a new national policy for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), which will be one of the finest in the world. The new IPR policy will be placed before the cabinet for approval in a month’s time. The government had created a think tank to provide recommendations and draft the IPR Policy.
Intellectual property and patents give companies an edge to compete in the competitive global markets.