IPR still an area of concern

NEW DELHI: Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) remain an area of concern for the knowledge-based industry, felt participants at a session on 'From Brains to Business: Future Knowledge-Based Industries' during the India Economic Summit 2005, jointly organized by World Economic Forum and Confederation of Indian Industry.

“The IT sector had developed best practices on IPR and patents, and other sectors such as biotechnology could learn from it,” said Agilent Technologies, India president and country general manager Venkatesh Valluri.

“In addition, the IT industry could offer valuable insights on how to attract bright Indians settled abroad,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, i-flex Solutions CEO Deepak Ghaisas said, “As an industry, IT has taken the intellectual property (IP) challenge head on.” Speaking on the allegation that IT industry attracts the best engineering brains, he said that if other industries are saying that the top engineering talent joins the IT industry then they should learn from the incentive structure in IT and follow it to attract talent.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Geneva, deputy director general Philippe Petit said that India has a large highly skilled manpower base and IT has made use of this resource commendably. He also spoke about greater awareness about IP rights for enforcement.

“India should become an IP producer, from being an IP consumer,” he said. Moreover, he stressed that the legal implication were complex and demanded a certain level of training.