They offer valuable property protection

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: The policy foundation of a strong patent system is threefold—to provide appropriate incentives to foster innovation, to facilitate broad dissemination technological advances to the public, and to create a sustainable innovation cycle in which new technologies can be profitably commercialised.

The Indian patent system meets these key objectives, providing appropriate protection for innovation in all industries, including the IT sector. The current law prohibits patenting of abstract ideas and computer programs per se. This precludes extending patent protection to software that does not have a physical application that is both new and useful, while allowing for protection of true innovations that reflect a clear technological advancement or benefit. Besides, the law provides mechanisms and safeguards, whereby even broad or frivolous patents can be reduced in scope or even cancelled under certain conditions, to prevent any misuse or abuse.

The government’s recent efforts to revise and improve the internal guidance mechanism provided to patent examiners, is a welcome move towards achieving clarity and consistency in the patent examination system. Contrary to the rhetoric adopted by a small group who oppose this effort, the proposed changes do not seek to alter the law, but rather to effectively implement current law. Opponents seek to confuse the legal issues by mischaracterising the proposed revisions to the Patent Office’s internal procedural guidelines as an indirect effort to change substantive patent law. Their efforts should be strongly rejected, as the proposed changes will benefit domestic companies as well, across all industries, including those in the Indian IT sector.

Today, India is a major hub for innovation and creativity. This is visible in practically all fields of technology, be it polymers, biotechnology-based applications, heavy industry, or software. While a significant part of the IT industry caters to application R&D based on existing software, major players are constantly investing in R&D into new software applications. India’s biggest strength is its large pool of young talented researchers, engineers, scientists, academic scholars, entrepreneurs, and science and technology students. The growth of Indian entrepreneurship is evident in the recent spurt of patent applications that are being filed both in India and abroad by Indian entities, including private entities, universities and government owned or controlled research institutions.