India Makes Significant Stride in IP Law, Says US Expert

India, over the years, has made considerable progress in terms of coming up with experts and specialists in intellectual property (IP). India has also progressed a lot in developing new protections and laws dealing with issues related to this. That’s what a leading US IP expert said.

Christine Haight Farley, an American expert on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Copyright Law, who came to the American Centre in Kolkata said that her overall take is that India had a more recent interest in IPR (intellectual property rights) than the United States. In a short span of time, India has made a lot of progress in producing specialists in IP, in developing new protections and new laws dealing with issues in IP.

There is actually a long history of IP in India. But thanks to more technological advances, especially, internet, IP has become a much different and more fast-paced issue, she said.

Farley has been meeting with lawyers who focus on intellectual property law and also with engineers, investors, and groups of entrepreneurs, start-up companies in technology, science and engineering and people from the film industry in Mumbai, Pune, and Kolkata and will have meetings in Delhi.

Based on her conversations, she informed, there are lots of similarities between intellectual property laws of India and that of the United States and there some differences also.

Farley teaches Intellectual Property Law, Trademark Law, International and Comparative Trademark Law, International IP Law, Design Protection Law, and Art Law at American University Washington College of Law.

She said internet possesses a “lot of challenges” for intellectual property protections.

She also said laws related to intellectual property rights across countries differ but general standards are same and there are efforts to harmonize these laws of different countries.