NEW DELHI: With rapid progress being made in the sphere of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in India, the next area of focus should be to enhance enforcement of said rights, say top officials of the International Trademark Association (INTA), a global organisation of brand owners supporting trademarks and intellectual property.
Speaking to The Sunday Standard, INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo pointed out that significant progress had been made in India since the launch of IPR strategy in 2016. “We can see the results, now. Today, our India office is ranked fifth in the world in terms of trademark filings. Pendency time in trademarks is down from 13 months to one month and filing of trademark applications has increased 40 per cent.”
“The next bet would be to concentrate on enforcement,” de Acedo said, stressing on increased cooperation between enforcement agencies.
INTA is also concentrating on interacting with top level officials from India’s Trade Marks Office, Customs, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion and IP attachés.
A series of workshops to discuss “IP issues” and how to enable “entrepreneurs to protect their innovation” was also held on March 14-16 in New Delhi and Mumbai. On March 14 -15, de Acedo and INTA President Tish Berard held meetings with IP constituents from the government and industry to share insights and best practices, particularly in addressing trademark related challenges.