18th National Conference on In-House R&D in Industry
November 16-17, 2004, New Delhi

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Inaugural Address by Shri Kapil Sibal Hon'ble Minister of State for Science & Technology and Ocean Development

Dr. Mashelkar, Shri Mody, Dr. Amit Mitra, Shri Jagdish Singh, proud award winners, captains of industry, distinguished scientists and technologists, ladies and gentlemen.

I consider it an honour to be in the midst of outstanding achievers. Today's award winners have done the nation proud. I firmly believe that it is excellence in technology alone that can give India a true competitive advantage. It is a matter of concern that the number of awardees this year is smaller than in the past. The reason for this may well be the application of stricter standards by the Selection Committee. However, I believe that for a country as populous as India, the number of awardees must be larger. I hope that next year we will see a change in this regard.

We are just a few weeks away from the magic date of January 1, 2005 a date on which there will be a paradigm shift in the manner in which we consider the issue of protection of intellectual property rights. I would like to congratulate DSIR for this timely initiative for organizing this conference on 'Changes in India IPR regime - Challenges and Opportunities'. It is true that the challenge before India is daunting - but for a country like India, with its immense and talented human capital, the opportunities that have emerged and those that lie ahead are enormous.

Issues of generation, valuation, protection and exploitation of intellectual property are becoming critically important all around the world. There are several factors for this. Firstly, we have the phenomenon of increasing dominance of the new knowledge economy over the old 'brick & mortar' economy. Then there is the exponential growth of scientific knowledge. There is also an increasing demand for new forms of protections in intellectual property as well as access to IP related information. Additionally, we have also to address the complexities linked to IP in traditional knowledge, community knowledge and animate objects. All these pose a challenge in setting up the new 21st century IP agenda, especially for a country like India.

The 'new' economy depends in buying and selling ideas in conjunction with facts. The ideas may be ephemeral and the 'facts' intangible. Yet in the new economy we must recognize intellectual properties broad sweep. IP is today regarded as an important and effective policy instrument relevant to a wide range of socioeconomic, technological and political concerns. The development of skills and competence to manage IPR and leverage its influence will need increasing focus.

The proprietary nature of intellectual property, the information it generates and its impact on privacy are the triad of issues that we must grapple with. Intellectual property refers to copyrights, patents, trademarks, and similar means of marking ideas as one's own. Proprietary information is exemplified by databases of information, generally owned by firms. Privacy pertains to the control that individuals have over "their" information.

We have already made several changes in our IP Acts over the years. The nation always needs robust IP Statistics which will facilitate innovation, growth as well as development. Several amendments to the Copyright Act, 1957, the Trademarks Act, 1999, the Designs Act, 2000 and amendments to the Patent Act, 1970 show India's desire to change and adopt. New enactments covering semi-conductors and layout designs, will be of considerable importance to the electronic industry. Similarly, our Plant Varieties Protection and Farmers Rights Act, 2001 will impact on agriculture and the food industry. Geographical indications Act will protect the interests of groups in different geographical areas in our country.

Although intellectual property covers diverse aspects such as copyright, trademarks, designs, etc., it is the issue of patents that has attracted the greatest attention. Therefore, we need progressive patent laws in India. The first Patent Law in India was enacted in 1856. In the beginning of twentieth century, the Indian Patents and Designs Act 1911 was enacted. What was needed was a comprehensive law to ensure that patent rights are not worked to the detriment of the consumer or to the prejudice of trade or industrial development of India. Finally, the Patent Act, 1970 became law.

Our patent laws underwent changes in the wake of the regime established under the World Trade Organization and with the signing of the TRIPS Agreement, to which India is a Party.

Our effort should be that the amendments carried act in the Patent's Act, 1970 make it compliant with the TRIPS Agreement. We must so design it to give ourselves a world class IP regime. At the same time the Government has a duty to protect the public interest. I believe that what we will put in place will be a model Act for other developing nations to emulate.

While we pause to consider the evolution of patent laws in India, we must not assume that the enactment of the Indian Patent Act, 1970 was a historic blunder. India needed that Act given our state of scientific, technological and industrial development at that time. I do not think we could have succeeded in nurturing a drug and pharmaceutical industry that we have today without the Patent Act of 1970. Our Pharmaceutical industry has strong foundations and is at the threshold of a quantum leap which could not have been achieved in the absence of such an enactment. Yet, the context decides the content. The context of 1970 was a comprehensive law to lay the foundations of the pharmaceutical industry. In 2004, the context is to ensure that the amended law positions the industry for a competitive advantage within the context of the WTO. We must move up the innovation chain and participate in the world of discovery not only in the pharmaceutical sector but also in many other sectors of industry. We must learn to accept the challenges of the future with the conviction mat we can lead from the front.

Statutes alone will not help us. We must meet the new challenges. Developing skills in filing, reading and exploiting patents will be crucial in the years to come. We must protect our inventions. We must fully understand the implications of the patents granted to our competitors. Many of the patents written by our professionals can be easily circumvented. Manpower planning for IPR protection needs priority. IPR must be made a compulsory subject in college law courses and in the Universities. Our graduates emerging from the engineering and technology streams have no idea about IPR, and yet these young people will battle in the emerging wars in the knowledge market.

A number of patent training institutes will have to be set up. China has already set up 5,000 patent training institutes. We have none. Judicious management of patent information will require well-structured functioning of information creating centres, information documenters and retrievers, information users, IPR specialists and information technology experts.

Albert Einstein had once said 'Imagination is more important that knowledge'. Abraham Lincoln had said 'the patent system added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius'. That is how the western world viewed IP. That is how US built its economy. We have been late beginners. But we will catch up fast. In this context, I am happy to see CSIR showing the way to the nation, Ten years ago, they secured only five to six US patents per year. Last year, they secured 196 US patents. They have been constantly in the top three positions amongst the top fifty PCT filing list brought out by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for developing countries. CSIR has maintained a 30% - 40% share of the US patents granted to Indians in India. Other institutions and industry need to emulate this feat of CSIR. This is true especially for our knowledge based industry.

Knowledge based industries in India, such as the IT, pharmaceuticals, are and will meet challenges presented by the new IPR regime. The IT industry has maintained an impressive growth rate. Our dream of becoming an IT super-power will hopefully be soon realized. For this we will have to reduce the content of body shopping and move on to innovative IT products, which will need IP protection. The Indian IT industry has not so far positioned itself for this.

Our pharma industry is also poised for upward growth. From an importer of formulations in the early 50s, our pharma industry has become a net exporter. But soon it will start feeling the heat of global competition. So far it has survived without discovering new molecules. Indeed, only fourteen new molecules have been developed so far in the last forty years, out of which credit for eleven goes to the CSIR. But with the advent of the new patent regime, our strategies will have to change. I strongly believe that Indian industry is poised to emerge as a global player. Indian pharma industry, apart from pursuing novel synthetic routes to known molecules must also pursue basic research for patent-worthy inventions comprising new molecules. It will have to forge partnerships with national laboratories in a Team India spirit to surge ahead.

Before we protect IP, we must generate IP which is worth protecting. Our institutions, national laboratories and industrial R&D laboratories will have to gear up for this. Nurturing a strong innovation base through a balanced system of recognition and rewards is the need of the hour. We will have to invest liberally to enhance the skills and knowledge base of scientists, through structured in-house and external professional training programmes, some even abroad, on understanding, interpreting and analyzing the techno-legal and business information contained in IP documents, and in drafting of IP documents. For this we need to avail the services of high-class national and foreign consultants and attorneys.

We need to encourage the publication of R&D results in scientific papers only after careful consideration of the consequences on IP rights. It is hard to estimate the loss of Indian intellectual property due to the inadvertent publication of usable knowledge in the last few decades. Monitoring national and international patents and other IP through access to on-line databases, to ensure effective protection and to ward off infringements and threats to India's IP portfolio will be crucial. Analyzing and assessing techno-legal and business information and market intelligence to identify strategic alliances and to exploit potential uncovered niche areas of opportunities itself will give rise to new knowledge based business.

In order to ensure that courts deliver judgments which meet the ends of justice there is a need for further exposure for those in the judiciary to deal with the evolving new developments in the Intellectual Property field. In our country delay in Courts for resolution of matters is causing great frustration to the patentee. It is desirable to have the members of the judiciary exposed to the guiding principles that emerge from monitoring an effective intellectual property regime.

What I have tried to suggest to you is that January 1,2005 is not a threat. It presents an opportunity. If we all put our act together, India has the potential to emerge as a model which links innovation, growth and development together through a strong and dynamic IP law and associated systems. The message is clear. We know which way to go. With this I am happy to inaugurate the conference.