IPR: A Game Changer In India

New intellectual property rights office in India will be sophisticated and fully computerized; it is being developed in India on the same lines as that of the USA.

FREMONT, CA: A fully computerized intellectual property rights office in India will be a game changer to further hold the two-way bilateral trade and investment between the U.S. and India. In the Rajya Sabha, the concerned minister announced that a fully computerized India’s intellectual property rights office module is being developed in India on the same lines as that of the USA. It will grip further the two-way trade and investment between India and the U.S., which is one of the top priorities of 2020.

In the USA, for the whole country, there is only one sophisticated IPR office, and every state works online. In India, all major areas, including patents, copyright, and trademark (similar to the U.S. model), will be covered by the IPR module. As the U.S. had expressed concerns about this aspect, so this news will be a big welcome to them. Now the doors will be opened for all types of increased bilateral business, technology transfer, trade, and investment activities between the two countries as the proposed model in India follows the USA model.

The Indian IPR will also deal with the remotest places of India, where video conferencing to get advice on all areas of IPR will be available free of cost. This will be like a blessing for the growing “start-up business,” entrepreneurship-led businesses, V.C. and investor funding avenues from the USA, and the ever-increasing SME and the MSME sectors as well. Such an office will be fully equipped to protect the traditional knowledge of the country. This will ensure that the conventional understanding of the country in conventional medicine will have to be necessarily patented in India and not go elsewhere to other countries. Now, like other foreign technologies it will be tracked before coming to India on all the parameters of IPR and thus the foreign partner can be assured that there is no IPR infringement.

According to reports, it is estimated that in the year 2020 and beyond will see expanding trade and commercial linkages. As per the latest statistics, in the year 2018, the total bilateral trade (goods and services) between India and the U.S. increased to a level of $142 billion. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13 percent going forward. It is worthwhile to state that in this period, the growth in bilateral trade was accelerated by services trade, which grew at a CAGR of 13.4 percent. Goods trade grew at a CAGR of 10.6 percent. During the year 2018, goods trade contributed to 61.6 percent, and trade in services provided to 38.4 percent of the total India-U.S. bilateral trade of $142 billion.

Goods Trade: Making the U.S. second-largest trading partner the bilateral trade in goods has increased to $87.5 billion in 2018 (CAGR of 10.6 percent). Of this, India exported $54.4 billion to the U.S. and imported $33.12 billion from the U.S. There was an increase of 17.8 percent in trade during 2018, which was just $74.33 billion during the year 2017. During the period January-July 2019, trade in goods grew by 10.5 percent to $ 55.31 billion from $ 50.06 billion during the corresponding period in 2018.

Trade in Services: Since the year 2000, bilateral trade in services has grown at a very fast pace increasing from a mere $6 billion in 2000 to $54.6 billion in the year 2018 (CAGR of 13.1 percent). There was an increase of 5.2 percent in trade in services during 2017-2018. In 2019 during the period January-June, trade in services grew by 1.3 percent to 27.46 billion from $27.12 billion. From India, the USA is one of the top five investment destinations for FDI.

According to a CII survey which was done in November 2017, almost 100 companies, including Wipro, Infosys, L&T, and Mahindra, have invested $17.9 billion in the United States, creating 113,000 jobs in all 50 states of the U.S. India’s top companies. Now they are planning to increase their investments in the U.S. In more than 25 years to invest in Detroit investing $230 million, Mahindra became the first company.

Analyzing the V.C. investors market in California, and their interest in India:

Today V.C. investors seem open to explore new investment avenues favorably towards India. Accel has also upped its investment with Bangalore-based Taxiforsure and it was acquired by Ola. A company Matrix Partners has raised funds for its 3rd India fund to target the women’s market. The name of Sumir Chandra is also making rounds, while following innovations around fintech and consumer goods in India. Chiratae Ventures in Bengaluru is actively following leads with Silicon Valley V.C. investors. Their 4th fund is doing well under the new Chiratae brand.

The other company, Krish Panu’s Point Guard Ventures, is targeting Indians from the U.S. returning to India to start a business and wishes to capitalize on this to explore two-way investment flows.

The V.C. community of Silicon Valley has concluded that most Indian companies receiving V.C. funding from the U.S. are typically local Indian companies for the domestic market play and will thus remain conservative. Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart was a significant liquidity event on a large scale, not seen in the past.

 It is clearly seen in the last three years that the trajectory of the efforts made by both India and the USA in recent times to align with each other’s interests has been simply remarkable. Not only in the conventional sectors of activities but also in industries as aerospace and defense, freight sector, chemicals, infrastructure, IT/BT, and energy. Now the U.S.’s commitment to helping India create a blue economy provides various partnership opportunities in all forms of infrastructure development, energy sector, technology to forge a sustainable bilateral relationship.