India146;s secret weapon?

Its intellectual property rights protection regime

India is rapidly evolving into Asia8217;s innovation center, leaving China in the dust. Its secret weapon? Intellectual property-rights protection. In recent years, New Delhi has taken big steps to protect these rights, and the results have been dramatic. It may appear as if India8217;s recent economic rise is solely due to its low-cost outsourcing opportunities for foreign businesses. But this is only part of the story.

Thanks to international treaties such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property TRIPS of the World Trade Organization, Indian IP laws were significantly revamped starting in the mid-1990s. In 1994, the Indian Copyright Act was amended to clearly explain the rights of a copyright holder and the penalties for infringement of copyrighted software. The law has been called one of the 8220;toughest in the world8221;.

These changes, which significantly ramped up enforcement provisions, will undoubtedly prove the most important for copyright protection on the subcontinent8230; The Indian courts have risen to the challenge8230;

This trend continued last year when India put in place a new patent law that brought it further into line with international norms. For example, this law included new provisions that extended patent protection to computer software and pharmaceutical products8230;

As a result, copyright-based industries such as the Indian IT sector have enjoyed rapid growth. The annual average rate of growth of Indian software exports from 1994 to 2002 was 48, marking a drastic surge from the preceding five years8230;Within the next few years, annual revenues from Indian software exports are expected to reach 50 billion.

Furthermore, Indian entrepreneurs, business and government labs are filing for patents at rapidly increasing rates. The number of Indian patent applications filed has increased 400 over the past 15 years. Nearly 800 Indian companies submitted international patent applications to the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2004. This number may be fairly small by international standards, but is still more than double the number of Indian patents applied for in 20008230;

Excerpted from 8216;India8217;s Secret Weapon8217; by Richard Wilder and Pravin Anand, 8216;Wall Street Journal8217;, May 8