moreIn a welcome development, the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry has removed curbs on the payment of royalties to foreign partners under technology transfer agreements and IP licensing agreements entered into between an Indian entity and a foreign entity. Press Note No. 8 of 2009 issued by DIPP states that the Government of India has reviewed the extant policy and “has decided to permit, with immediate effect, payments for royalty, lumpsum fee for transfer of technology and payments for use of trademark/brand name on the automatic route i.e. without any approval of the Government of India.” The Government plans to separately notify at a later date, a “post-reporting system” for all such agreements.
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moreAccording to the launch announcement , the taskforce has been created to contribute to the debate on the appropriate governance arrangements for IP rights, given that ‘knowledge’ is now key to innovation, growth and competitiveness and is therefore crucial in enabling societies and nations in meeting their political, economic and social challenges.
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moreAccording to an illuminating article co-authored by GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt; GE’s chief innovation consultant Vijay Govindarajan, and Chris Trimble, GE needs to disrupt itself and reverse its decades-old traditional business model based upon the glocalization approach. This article published recently in the Harvard Business Review, makes the argument that GE now needs to master “reverse innovation” not only to fully exploit the large emerging markets in developing countries but also to protect its market leadership position from attack by large emerging corporate giants, who these GE leaders think could otherwise “destroy” GE. Glocalization (where companies like GE develop high-end products for home markets – read US and Western Europe – and then adapt them for other markets around the world) is no longer a complete business strategy suited to a flattened global economy.
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moreThe Council of the European Union meeting as the Competitiveness Council arrived at an in-principle agreement on 4 December 2009 to introduce a single EU Patent and create a European and EU Patents Court (EEUPC). This takes the European Union a step closer to a single market for patents though tough hurdles still remain. The critical issue of what would be the system’s official language and how translations into 23 official EU languages would be effected is still to be resolved and the Commission will present a separate proposal for this next year.
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