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25 June 2015Copyright

India and Japan sign IP deal

The Indian government has approved an agreement with Japan aimed at improving efforts to protect intellectual property in both countries.

Approved yesterday, June 24, the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) was signed by the Union Cabinet, chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The agreement is between the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion of India, the Japan Patent Office (JPO), and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

According to a statement, the purpose of the MoC is to “establish a framework for bilateral cooperation in the field of IP.”

Among the initiatives that will be implemented include, information sharing on IP Protection systems and practices, developing an IP infrastructure and awareness building.

The agreement will be renewed every four years.

Kensaku Takase, partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie in Tokyo, said the precise objectives of the MoC were not clear as yet but added that this kind of activity is “in line with the JPO’s focus on trying to be increasingly international”.

“The focus initially appears to be on generally improving India’s IP infrastructure, an area where Japan itself has being putting a lot of emphasis over the past decade.

“India will become an increasingly important market for Japanese companies, so having an arrangement put in place to try and give Japanese companies better IP protection there as well, is a logical step,” he added.

Ashwani Balayan, partner at ALG India Law, said one of the positive aspects could be cooperation in patent examination.

“The JPO is one of the most advanced patent offices, the Indian Patent Office can certainly benefit from such sort of cooperation with it.

“From India’s perspective, such cooperation may also help the IPO to understand the benefits of newer and efficient systems like Patent Prosecution Highways.”

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