Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the past 15 years has been working on strengthening the Intellectual Property (IP) eco-system in the country. It does so by demonstrating the vital role of IPR in making businesses more competitive and public services more effective. In order to create an appreciation for IPR and expand its protection among Indian industry, CII has set up a department for IPR and has constituted a National Committee on IPR to guide, steer and direct newer efforts in fostering IPR culture in the country. This year the CII IP Committee is focusing on the theme, 'Business Growth through IP Intensity'.
Laws related to Intellectual Property and competition have coexisted for over a century, the IPR providing exclusive rights to the owner of intellectual property but the competition law is designed to minimize the ill effects of exclusivity awarded under the IPR. In today's technological era, IP laws and competition law will play an important role in cases of joint venture, mergers and acquisitions, cross licensing, patent pooling, utilization of standard essential patents and licensing in general. Licensing helps in having alternate form of production and therefore, the right holder should be encouraged to license IP as freely as possible. This calls for revisiting the tenets and practices followed under competition law, the judicial reasoning and logic and tenets of IP laws.
To discuss this, CII in partnership with Department for Promotion of Industry and Trade (DPIIT) is organizing the 6th International Conference on IPR (Digital Platform) with the theme Synergy between IPR and competition laws- perspective and way forward for ease of doing business on 18 December 2020. On this occasion, the sixth edition of CII Industrial IP Awards would also be given.