INDIA : THE ISSUE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
Making use of knowledge

A recent survey by a European law firm, Taylor Wessing, revealed that India along with other BRIC economies ranked in the bottom half of the list in protecting and enforcing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). While India is ranked at a poor 19th; Brazil, Russia and China ranked 20th, 21st and 22nd respectively. Though, there are varied lists by different firms, but one thing is common to all and that is developed countries like the UK, US and Germany rank in the first positions and BRIC economies continue to remain in the bottom of the chart.

Well, the issue of IPR is not as easy as can be gauged. To put it in simpler fashion, IPR is a way of protecting someone’s ideas or innovations. In the 21st century, when knowledge is considered to be the driving force of evolution, intellectuals have all the rights to protect their ideas and innovations. Though to many, it seemed that protecting rights means encouraging monopoly indirectly, widespread practices of copyrights, trademarks and patents in successful capitalist economies reflect that IPR does not necessarily act against competition. The issue of IPR is very important especially for drugs and technology innovations. A drug manufacturer invests about $1.4 billion to launch a new drug in the market. Thus, it is very important for him to protect his innovations. Similarly, technology is getting obsolete in a shorter span of time than it did ever before while substantial investments is needed to discover new technology. Thus protecting innovations for even mere commercial reasons is all the more important to entrepreneurs or investors today than ever before. Moreover, data reveals that 93 per cent - 94 per cent of the cases, patents fail which means that hardly 6 per cent - 7 per cent of the patents successfully work out. In addition, while the issue of IPR remains important to promote ideas, complications are looming large, arising out of changes in trends and business environments, especially in the era of globalisation. Outsourcing is a global trend. Even big multinationals are outsourcing R&D from Third World countries for economic benefits. None of the BMW, GM or Ford, manufactures every part for their cars they sell. They just put their logos in the cars made of outsourced parts, manufactured in different parts of the world. It is just their brands that sell. Thus, international firms need potential partners in these developing countries who can be trusted.

To conclude, developing countries like India have a lot more to do to nurture, promote and protect knowledge and innovations. And for this national universities should have been able to play crucial role which they have so far not been able to do successfully. It is important to realise that ideas are generated in university classrooms and libraries, but they are needed in headquarters of big multinationals. As long as, there is a gap between the two, ideas cannot be converted into actions. Fortunately, thirteen or fourteen Indian universities have included IPR in their curriculums but it is a long way to go, unless UGC drafts and incorporates proper IPR policy framework and universities to create technology transfer offices. As India aspires to be the knowledge hub, it is all the more important for her to take up the issue seriously. Hope that our policymakers and bureaucrats will understand the grievances and act swiftly unlike in most other cases! A hope can fail, but shouldn't be let down.