The Hindu : Cell set up to look into IPR violations

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 11, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Cell set up to look into IPR violations

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Dec. 10. The Minister of State for Information Technology and Biotechnology, D.B. Inamdar, said here on Wednesday that a separate cell had been set up in the IT Department to deal with infringement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

The cell would look into all complaints of IPR violations and suggest legal remedies, he said.

"The cell has non-industry members, including academics from institutions such as the Indian Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Science," he added.

"Between the time a complaint of IPR violation is received by the department, the action taken by the Cyber Crimes Police and the matter finally coming before the special court and dealt with under the law, long delays were felt. This was the reason for forming this cell which will help in avoiding procedural delays," he explained.

Mr. Inamdar was inaugurating "TechnoLegal 2003", the national conference on legal issues in the information technology industry, organised by MAIT (Manufacturers Association for Information Technology) and sponsored by the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

The STPI Director, B.V. Naidu, recalled how 10 years ago the first MNCs in information technology were coming to Bangalore and they were worried about the lack of adequate IPR laws here. "Over the years IPR protection legislation was passed and MNC began looking more seriously at India. After the Information Technology Act 2000 was passed, the STPI has been analysing data related to IPR violations. With a second IT wave on now, the issue is becoming more complex ... U.S. hospitals want to know whether patient information with medical transcription agencies here is protected," he said.

Pravin Anand of New Delhi, a senior lawyer specialising in IPR laws, said in his keynote address that lack of awareness and lacunae in the law remained, though the number of IPR laws had doubled in recent years with nine legislations in force now.

Delays in police raids following complaints, the courts being unable to deal with copyright violations of websites and business method patents remaining excluded, were some of the drawbacks.

Changes were needed in patent laws to bring them equal to international laws and conventions, he added.

The MAIT Vice-President, Venkat Kedalaya, welcomed the guests and participants.

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