Hyderabad:Virtual summit held on promoting IPRs

Hyderabad (NSS): Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised a Virtual IP Summit, on 'Enabling Enterprises & Innovators to Strategise IP for a self-reliant India' with an objective to bring together eminent policymakers and industry leaders relevant to the context, on to a common platform to guide enterprises and innovators in their IPR plan and enable them to become a global enterprise.

Addressing the summit, O P Gupta, Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, Intellectual Property Office, India, in his inaugural address said that IPO office has been functioning 24X7 for IP filings during the Covid crisis. He added that his office is working towards expediting the grant of IPs in India along with support to startup and individual inventors.

The chief guest of the virtual summit, Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Dept of Industries & Commerce (I&C) & IT, Telangana, said that the State government always had high regards and respect for researchers, innovators and IP creators. And for that reason first of its kind Telangana State Intellectual Property Awards (TS-IPA) was launched. However, due to uncertainties in wake of Covid-19, this couldn't be finalised as many would've missed the chance to apply. He mooted the idea of forming a task force to promote and enforce IPRs in the State with CII and other stakeholders.

The summit was attended by Susumu IWASAKI, Deputy Commissioner, Japan Patent Office. He talked about the initiative of Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme between Japan Patent Office (JPO) and Indian Patent Office (IPO). With this arrangement, expedited prosecution under PPH would be allowed in India based on an allowed/granted corresponding Japanese application; or vice-versa, in Japan based on an allowed/granted corresponding India application. Dixon Soh, Head, Legal & Deputy Director, Intellectual Property Office of Singapore International appreciated the efforts being made by the Indian stakeholders towards awareness and bringing IP in limelight and talked about more collaborative initiative between IPO and Singapore Patent Offices.

Ramesh Datla, Chairman, CII National Committee on Intellectual Property & Chairman, ELICO Ltd proposed formation of State IP Policy. Krishna Bodanapu, Chairman, CII Telangana, Managing Director, Cyient Ltd in his welcome address said, we need more forums like this to share experiences, in order to create a robust IP ecosystem. (NSS)