Govt mulls to simplify patent laws

New Delhi: In a move aimed at giving a boost to research in India, the government is mulling over making Indian Patent Act (IPA) more simplified and research friendly for product-oriented results.

Outlining about the lackluster culture of patents filing and taking it to its logical conclusion, senior adviser at the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Dr Akhilesh Gupta said that despite having over 1000 universities, India is filing 23,000 patents per annum, while over 5 lakh patents are being filed in China.

Gupta, who is also Secretary of the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), said that the time duration of patents filing and grant of patents is three years in India, while the global average is two years.

As per the National Education Policy -2020, all funding agencies of research in the country will merge into a single entity and christened as National Research Foundation (NRF) with an objective to catalyse quality research in our country.

However, on the occasion, IIT-Delhi Director Prof Rangan Banerjee announced that IIT-D will start M-tech in Robotics this year and asked industry to support this mission. Present on the occasion, Ryuhei Nishi, First Secretary, S&T, Embassy of Japan, said, “India and Japan are natural allies and human resources of both the countries should join hands to deliver the best STI products matching global standards.”