Instrumental gains in India’s IP framework seem to be lost on authorities ranking India’s performance.
The past few years have seen plentiful developments in the Indian IP regime. The judiciary has consistently delivered landmark decisions in every field of IP, be it patents, copyright or trade marks, and the government has gained widespread global appreciation for its numerous initiatives to strengthen IP, while the legislature has passed new laws that not only prioritise IP disputes (due to their commercial importance), but ensure that they are adjudicated swiftly through specialised forums.
However, these instrumental gains seem to have been lost on authorities ranking India’s performance in comparison with other nations. Although India does have ground to cover before it can be said to have one of the strongest IP regimes in the world, even with the current IP infrastructure, there are no such glaring drawbacks to deserve such a ranking. In fact, certain facets of legislation, policy and the practice of IP law in India are so unique that they are unmatched anywhere else.
Authored by Pravin Anand and Vaishali Mittal.
The article was published in Asian-Mena Counsel March 2017.