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05 December 2012
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and India’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) announced in late November the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on comprehensive bilateral cooperation on intellectual property rights protection and enforcement. Under the terms of the MOU, the USPTO and DIPP will cooperate on a range of IPR issues, focusing on capacity building, human resource development, and raising public awareness of the importance of IPR, according to a statement released by the USPTO.
Following an address by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the business community, Ajay Shankar, Secretary for the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and Sharon Barner, Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, acting on behalf of Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property David Kappos, signed the MOU during a ceremony at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington.
“This memorandum strengthens our commitment to growing the cooperative relationship between our two offices,” said Deputy Under Secretary Barner. “It provides a strong framework for moving forward in areas where we can together promote effective intellectual property rights protection and enforcement to the mutual benefit of our innovators and businesses.”
Secretary Shankar said, “India has taken great strides towards the modernization of its Intellectual Property Organisation over the last decade, including the legislative framework, physical infrastructure, human resource development, awareness creation and even enforcement. Our vision is to transform our IP system into a world-class organization by adopting transparent, automated and user-friendly procedures. The MOU that we are signing today would help strengthen our capacity to achieve this objective.”
Under the MOU, the USPTO and the DIPP also signed an accompanying Action Plan to carry out specific activities under the MOU, including exposure to patent examination practices, exchanges of information on patent databases and patent manuals, IPR awareness programs, exchange of information on traditional knowledge and genetic resources, exchanges of best practices, and other matters.
The two offices will immediately begin planning the implementation of these cooperative projects under the MOU.
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