What's New

Comments & Summaries
September 16, 2021

Summary: Review Of The Intellectual Property Rights Regime In India (Parliamentary Standing Committee Report No. 161)- Section On Counterfeiting And Piracy (pp. 23-26)

Author: Intern - Netra Vasudevan

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, under the chairmanship of Mr. V Vijayasai presented a report titled ‘Review of the Intellectual Property Rights Regime in India’ in the Rajya Sabha on 23rd July 2021. The Report was based on the intellectual property landscape in the country, and highlighted that several changes had to be made to overcome the shortcomings in the existing IPR regime. The report also laid down a list of detailed recommendations for different types of intellectual property rights, and addressed the issue from a public interest perspective, by delving into the amendments to the existing IP legislations, the need to improve IP awareness, and the importance of active government involvement to further the goal of strengthening the IPR framework in India.

One of the key aspects that the report dealt with was the issue of counterfeiting and piracy. Counterfeiting can be defined as the fraudulent imitation of things to deceive others, whereas piracy occurs when an original work is illegally copied and marketed at cheaper rates. Both counterfeiting and piracy have been established as criminal offences under a number of Indian legislations, which work in conjunction with each other to combat the spread of such practices.

The report highlights that it is essential to spread awareness about the trends and challenges surrounding counterfeiting and piracy among law enforcement agencies as well as the public. They proposed to do this through a myriad of schemes ranging from training programmes, street plays, social media campaigns, developing IP toolkits for the police, as well as multi-party webinars. The report also stressed on the importance of capacity building and inter-departmental collaboration to facilitate law enforcement agencies in implementing IP laws more stringently and efficiently. Additionally, the report features a recommendation that a special legislation be formulated and a central coordination body on IP enforcement be established in order to restrain the growing menace of IP crimes in a coordinated manner. 

The report mentions that development of a method that could estimate the revenue losses that the Indian government incurs due to counterfeiting and piracy is needed. This would then act as a tool in analysing the adverse effects of such crimes on the Indian economy, and aid the government in implementing corrective measures accordingly. 

Disclaimer: Views, opinions, interpretations are solely those of the author, not of the firm (ALG India Law Offices LLP) nor reflective thereof. Author submissions are not checked for plagiarism or any other aspect before being posted.

Copyright: ALG India Law Offices LLP

  • Non Solicitation
  • Data Privacy & Protection
  • Conflict of Interest Policy
  • Data & Document Retention Practice
  • Firm Management Policy
  • Liability
  • Disclaimer
  • Privilege
  • Copyright
  • Billing Policy
  • Pro Bono