The Government has constituted an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) think-tank to help draft a new National IPR Policy and to advice it on issues related to intellectual property.

The think-tank, headed by Justice Prabha Sridevan, will highlight anomalies in the present IPR legislations and advice the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) on possible solutions, according to an official release.

It will also provide views on the possible implications of demands placed by negotiating partners of proposed free trade pacts and other regional arrangements.

With several developed countries criticising India’s IP regime on grounds of laxity and the US carrying out a review to see if it should be black-listed as a `priority country’ for giving insufficient IP protection to its companies, the think-tank is expected to play an important role in helping the Government deal with international pressure.

Other members of the IPR think-tank include Narendra K Sabarwal, former Deputy Director General of World Intellectual Property Organisation, Rajeev Srinivasan, Director, Asian School of Business, Advocate Pratibha Singh, Advocate Punita Bhargava and Cadila Pharma’s Unnat Pandit.

The DIPP, which constituted the think-tank of Friday, will co-ordinate with it to identify areas in intellectual property where study needs to be conducted, an official release said.

It will also take inputs from it on the new IPR policy which has been proposed to bring clarity in existing laws and safeguard interests of Indian industry.

An inter-ministerial group, with representatives from Ministries and Departments including Commerce & Industry, Health, Information & Broadcasting and Telecom, will soon meet to discuss the new policy for India’s IPR. 

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