IPR and Innovation 27, India strengthening its IP protection

There are a number of positive news in India recently regarding strengthening its intellectual property right (IPR) protection. Among the most recent was the article at The Hill by Mark Elliot, the EVP of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC). He wrote,

The ultimate goal – both for India and for all nations striving to foster economic growth and global competitiveness – is to put in place policies which lay the groundwork for the creation of a true knowledge-based economy.  For that to happen, the government must create guidelines which provide greater legal certainty for private sector investors, create a viable technology transfer mechanism, and foster greater enforcement of legislation aimed at protecting IP-intensive industries in India. Each of these factors, in turn, will support the creation of a robust innovation ecosystem, one from which India surely has the most to gain.

Then a report from NDTV, India to protect intellectual property rights, PM Modi  tells media heads,

"This is a technology driven era. We are a technology driven society... We are committed to protecting IPR which is essential to fostering creativity," PM Modi said. In May, the US had kept India and China on its Priority Watch List of trading partners that fail to protect intellectual property rights of its enterprises that invest in India, hurting the economy.

And this news from The Hindu,

Thanks to those pieces of good news. It is not possible to have more revolutionary and costly innovations in many sectors and sub-sectors of an economy if the inventors and innovators cannot internalize the rewards of success and the losses of failures, simply because a horde of copy-catters are just milling around to say later on, "we also invented that" and do good business even if they contributed nothing to the discovery of new molecules, industrial and circuit designs, new songs and books, and so on.

Meanwhile, Pugatch-Consilium released its new report, the Biopharmaceutical Competitiveness and Investment (BCI) Survey 2015. From the few selected countries covered by the report, here is the summary of BCI scores and ranking. India ranked 11th out of the 15 countries surveyed.

For India in particular, a score below 60 means that it is non-competitive in biopharmaceutical research, clinical trials and investments.

The US Chambers' GIPC also released the supplementary statistical charts and analysis, Unlimited Potential, also prepared by Pugatch-Consilium. Below, the report plotted the data of the GIPC Index Score and the Global Innovation Index 2014.

While Singapore, S. Korea and Japan scored high, India and Indonesia scored low, though not as low as Nigeria's.

Also a plot of GIPC index score and Online creativity score, and India and Indonesia scored low, though not as low as Nigeria's.

Hence, the recent pronouncements by PM Modi. He needs to counter the low or negative image of India when it comes to respecting and protecting the various products of the mind and intellectual entrepreneurship.

The main role of government in this case is to lay down rules that are fair and transparent to all players, to protect private property whether they are physical or non-physical/intellectual.
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See also:
IPR and Innovation 23, Letter to WIPO by 85 think tank leaders from 51 countries,July 21, 2015 

IPR and Innovation 24, The US-China IP cooperation dialogue, August 18, 2015 

IPR and Innovation 25, Malaysia's IP Monetization strategy, September 13, 2015 
IPR and Innovation 26, Countries with most patent applications, most innovative universities, September 19, 2015

IPR and Innovation 24, The US-China IP cooperation dialogue

Here is another instance that while there are hawkish calls for military and political confrontation between the US and China in the future, another side of reality is that there are many instances of cooperation and dialogue between the two biggest economies in the planet. Being a non-believer and non-advocate of  BIG government, I side with the non-militarist view, of more trade and investments relations between and among countries as the key to a more peaceful, more prosperous world.

There is an existing US-China Intellectual Property (IP) Cooperation Dialogue. The first report was released last year and the new, second report was released by the joint US-China working group only last August 10. This initiative is a collaboration between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Renmin University’s China Intellectual Property Academy.  Meaning this is a non-government, civil society initiative, and it brings together 10 thought leaders annually, five each from the US and China.

It is a good initiative, to strengthen IP rights in China. Being politically socialist, the possibility of the China government socializing and nationalizing certain private properties, physical or non-physical/intellectual, will always be there, no matter how small that possibility is. Thus, involving the academe and other civil society actors to help strengthen the rule of law, encourage people, public and private leaders, to respect and protect private property is a great initiative.

I saw the report. It examines five key areas: (1) IP and innovation in the technical sector, (2) IP and innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, (3) judicial protection of IP, (4) trade secrets protection, and (5) copyright enforcement.

This is the report’s Executive Summary:

• Use quality instead of quantity as the measure of innovation.

• Explore the possibility that a judicial interpretation be issued to ensure no injunctive threat is available until utility model patents have been substantively examined for validity.

• Adopt a more balanced and market-driven approach to promote innovation by entrepreneurs, inventors and universities.

• Improve the patent linkage system, and provide effective protection for clinical data of new chemical entities by using the ongoing effort to amend the Patent Law and the Drug Administration Law as an opportunity for change.

• Initiate a special study on establishing a single IP appellate court to unify China's judicial adjudication of IP.

• Improve the guiding case system with respect to procedures for reviewing, selecting and releasing cases and support better adoption of case law information.

• Recommend research on the possibility to have a stand-alone and uniform trade secret law, in order to effectively maintain a fair market competition environment.

• Address new problems created by changing technology and business models; develop a good ecosystem for innovation by the interaction of law and the marketplace; and provide more market opportunities for copyright holders while dealing with piracy.

Cool. The report also examines why China’s talent pool and investments did not result in new drug discoveries and calls for transparency and stability of the Chinese legal process, including establishing one single IP appellate court, a searchable case database and an amicus system. 

As I argued in my previous papers here, not all ideas are the same. Many are too common or wild or plain lousy and idiotic and hence, they do not need protection. Their supply is very high and non-scarce. Bright ideas are scarce, they need protection. 

An effective IP system that leads to a lot of innovation should be supported by the rule of law and implemented in a competitive environment. Continued innovation, improvement of old and existing technologies and processes, is our assurance for a more prosperous, wealthier and healthier life in the planet.

I hope that this non-government, civil society initiative will be heard and studied especially by the China government. Being a member of the civilized international community of nations and governments, respect of private property even by socialist leadership is a responsibility of member-governments.

See the full report here, 70+ pages, more than half in Chinese language, http://www.theglobalipcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/US-China-IP-Dialogue_2014-2015.pdf

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See also:

IPR and Innovation 20: The GIPC Intellectual Property Index, 2015 Report, February 06, 2015

IPR and Innovation 21: Recent News + IPN Assistance to Asian Think Tanks, February 15, 2015 

IPR and Innovation 22, The USTR 301 Report 2015 and the Philippines, July 10, 2015  

IPR and Innovation 23, Letter to WIPO by 85 think tank leaders from 51 countries,July 21, 2015