Two-Day National Level Intellectual Property (IP) Rights Programme starts

The Uttarakhand Tribune Correspondent

Dehradun:

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the support of the Office of the Development Commissioner MSME, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India   is organizing Two-Day National Level Intellectual Property (IP) Rights Programme on 20th and 21st of December 2023 at Hotel Madhuban, Dehradun (Uttarakhand).

  The National IP Yatra Programme had participation of senior officials from Govt. of Uttarakhand, Ministry of MSME, senior officials of PHDCCI and experts from United and United. The programme had participation of more than 100 people including MSMEs, start-ups, students from law and technical universities.

Dr Ranjeet Mehta, Executive Director, PHDCCI in his welcome address highlighted that intellectual property is for MSMEs and Start-ups. He mentioned that India is a growing nation and the whole world is eyeing on India as it is the fastest growing economy. He apprised that India has over 1 lakh Start-ups registered with DPIIT out of which over 100 companies are unicorns. He further added that more products need to be identified and get them registered under Geographical Indication and exports of these GI products to other nations should be ensured.

Shri Dev Krishan Tiwari, IAS, Additional Secretary (MSME), Govt. of Uttarakhand in his inaugural address mentioned that the need for intellectual property was felt long back and WIPO was established in 1967 with sole objective to promote the protection of intellectual property worldwide. He further encouraged the MSMEs and Start-ups to innovate and making IP system in the State more robust by way of filing more IP rights. He also mentioned that the Govt. of Uttarakhnad supports innovation in the State and encourages MSMEs and start-ups to file more applications.

   Prof (Dr) Durgesh Pant, Director General, Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology (UCOST), Dehradun in his special address appreciated PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s efforts in organizing such programmes which is actually the need of the hour. He also apprised the participants that there are 30 Patent Information Centres (PIC) established in Uttarakhand under the Uttarakhand State Council for Science & Technology, Dehradun (Uttarakhand) with technical and financial support from Department of Science and technology, Govt. of India.

   Mr Hemant Kochhar, Chairman, Uttarakhand State Chapter, PHDCCI in his address thanked all the dignitaries and the participants for sparing their valuable time and joining in this important programme. He highlighted the importance of organizing this programme in the State of Uttarakhand. He also apprised that PHDCCI IPFC centres organizes seminars, workshops and conferences on various topics related to Intellectual Property Rights to promote IP in various states. He also shared some case studies on IPR with the participants and highlighted the importance of registration of IP rights for business growth.

  Dr H P Kumar, Advisor, PHDCCI in his theme address mentioned about the need for promoting IPR to provide competitive strength to MSME sector in the domestic and export markets. Further he mentioned that the intellectual property is an added dimension to the factors of production. He briefed that intellectual property is most valuable property as compared to any physical property and IP can be utilized for raising resources and take monetary and economic benefits. He also invited all the MSMEs to attend the IP Helpdesk Camp which is scheduled on the next day to get one-to-one filing support and getting their queries resolved regarding any IP issues.  Mr Hiroki Watanabe, Director IPR and Director IP Attache for South Asia, JETRO in his address shared the best practices of Japan Patent Office and encouraged the MSMEs of Uttarakhand to carry out innovation in their businesses and get their IPs registered. He emphasized that the trade relations between India and Japan have become stronger and mutually more beneficial.

Mr Amit Mohan, Assistant Director, MSME-DFO Haldwani, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India in his address mentioned the role of MSME-DFO, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India to promote growth and development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and providing all necessary hand-holding support and assistance to the MSMEs of Uttarakhand. He further apprised about various other schemes of the Ministry highlighting about the PMEGP Scheme, Technology Up-gradation, MSME Champion Scheme and MSME Innovative Scheme. He also mentioned the participants about the reimbursement scheme guidelines of the Ministry and urged MSMEs to come forward and take the benefit from the PHDCCI IPFC Centre.

   Ms Kanchan Zutshi, Director, PHDCCI moderated the inaugural session and mentioned that academics and industry collaboration is needed to make IP ecosystem more robust in the country. She also highlighted that there are two important parameters for a country to grow. One is economic development and other is intellectual development and India has retained its 40th position on the annual Global Innovation index due to its vibrant ecosystem and important MSME innovation schemes launched by our Hon’ble PM.

Mr Vishal Kala, Resident Director, PHDCCI gave the vote of thanks and thanked the participants for their valuable time and eminent dignitaries for joining the session and joining this National IP Yatra Programme.

The inaugural session was followed by technical sessions wherein experts Mr Gaurav Gogia, Principal Associate, United and United elaborated on the overview of IPR and highlighted some recent issues raised because of IP violations. Mr Vasant Chandra, Head – Trademark Prosecution, United and United and Mr Prem Veer Singh, Patent Associate, United and United deliberated on the topics related to registering IP and its procedures, patent informatics, commercialization and tech transfer and also from the gamut of IP related topics which are essential  for businesses to grow and scale-up.

The two-day programme will cover topics on enforcement of intellectual property rights, consequences of IP infringements in India. The programme will also have an IP Helpdesk for resolving queries related to IP matters by connecting the MSMEs, start- ups and other stakeholders with IP experts of PHDCCI IPFC Centre.