As part of the green partnership which Denmark entered into with India in September last year, the Indian authorities, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Danish Patent and Trademark Office have launched a new project. the aim of the collaboration is to assist the Indian authorities in raising the level of quality management, to exchange technical case processing practices, and awareness activities within the field of IPR.
“Many businesses are ready to access the Indian market. Therefore, we consider the cooperation with the Indian authorities to be very important in the efforts of making it easier for Danish companies to protect their innovation and growth opportunities in India,” says Trine Bargsteen, who is the DKPTO’s seconded IP Advisor to the Danish Embassy in New Delhi.
“Although COVID-19 is making physical meetings between the Danish and Indian experts impossible, the project has got off to a good start in 2021. Since 2018, the Danish Patent and Trademark Office and the Danish Embassy have collaborated with the Indian authorities. Being familiar with the Indian procedures definitely gives us some advantages in the collaboration,” she says.
Cooperation must streamline and raise the quality of rights
An important part of the collaboration is related to quality management of case processing. A uniform case management, where deadlines are met and practice is uniform, is essential to an authority's credibility and relevance. The Danish Patent and Trademark Office has been ISO-certified in this area for 10 years, and the collaboration should help the Indians in becoming so too.
“Our expectation is that quality management improves both the quality, efficiency and consistency of the deliveries of the Indian authorities, and we know that it is required by Danish businesses using the Indian IPR system”
“Our expectation is that quality management improves both the quality, efficiency and consistency of the deliveries of the Indian authorities, and we know that it is required by Danish businesses using the Indian IPR system” says Trine Bargsteen.
The project has also provided the possibility for Danish and Indian experts to exchange experience on how to create information activities aimed at users of the IP system. Particularly, small and medium-sized businesses need to know and use the opportunities that the IP system provides. Therefore, the project focuses on the small, technology-based business environments in India, because the experience from Denmark is that this environment in particular needs more knowledge about protecting IP rights.
In the future, Denmark and India will cooperate in relation to the trademark area, IP commercialisation and IP enforcement. "There is already a good dialogue with the relevant Indian authorities about relevant activities under each of these topics, and we expect to be able to start the activities later in 2021," says Trine Bargsteen.
Denmark’s investment in the technical cooperation in terms of man-hours, travel, training, etc. has a total budget of 8,000,000 DKK for the next three years.
Read more about our International Partnerships