Press Information Bureau English Releases

Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, today inaugurated India’s first state-of-the-art integrated Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Office building at Dwarka (New Delhi) symbolizing substantial completion of the government’s Rs.124 crore project for the modernisation and strengthening of IPR/patent offices in India. This is the first in a series of four virtually interlinked IPR buildings in the metro cities, while the three others are coming up in Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai.

On the special features of the Delhi IPR Office, Shri Kamal Nath said: “the facilities provided here are state-of-the-art and comparable to the best in the world. Not only Patents, but Trademarks, Copyright and Geographical Indications are all housed here. This modern integrated building complex fulfils a long-felt need. From scattered, old, dingy premises a few years ago, we have now graduated to this modern integrated complex. IP officials must now ensure delivery of services in an equally efficient and transparent manner, befitting the working environment”. Terming intellectual property as the foundation of a knowledge-based economy, he said intellectual property, be it in the form of patents, design, trademarks or geographical indications, was becoming increasingly important not only for wealth creation, but for providing employment and improved living standards for the masses.

The growing importance of IPR is seen from the fact that “patent application filings in India have gone up almost four-fold in the last 5 years (from 5000 in 1999-2000 to 17,000 last year). In the last two years alone, we have issued about 200,000 trademark certificates, and another 100,000 certificated are going to be issued in the current year”, the Minister said.

Stating that the government had provided an appropriate legislative framework for registration and protection of IPRs, he emphasised that “our legislations are well calibrated to meet our domestic requirements while fulfilling our international obligations. While amending the Patents Act to meet our obligations under TRIPS, the government has ensured sufficient public safeguards to protect not only the domestic industry but the common man also”.

Shri E.V.K.S. Elangovan, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, outlined the modernisation initiatives of the government, to enable all IP related services to be provided at ease, to the user sitting at home, via internet on real time basis. “ The mark of international leadership, the guarantee of innovation and global leap-frogging, is a flourishing IPR system. We are moving towards making India a land of intellectual property producers and today’s inauguration is the first milestone in that effort”, Shri Kamal Nath said.

SB/MRS
(Release ID :11664)