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Jalan seeks patent intermediaries between science and markets

Reserve Bank of India Governor Dr Bimal Jalan has suggested the need to develop intermediaries like patent agents and patent attorneys to bridge the gap between scentists and markets alongside the ongoing extensive activities in research and development.

Delivering a lecture recently on Science, Technology, and Development, at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, recently, the governor stated that India has the talent, skills, and resources to be on the forefront of the technological revolution that is taking place in the new sectors of growth in the global economy.

He stated that in the new global regime as represented by the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights, the benefits of innovation was in favour of the private innovator. Since India had signed the 1994 Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, it is bound by the regulatory framework of the recently set up World Trade Organisation.

This may have consequences on the oft-adopted modes of industrial research or reverse engineering, he said, adding that patent agents and patent attorneys could take care to bridge the gap between markets and scientists.

He pointed out that the draft ninth plan stressed the need to secure a more favourable deal during the impending review of the TRIPS agreement in the WTO. This, he added, was a challenge before the country.

Jalan felt that India has come a long way in her quest for scientific pursuit -- both in material and intellectual sphere. The winds of change that have been blowing over India since the last few years have changed the entire scenario a great deal, he said. While agreeing that the new global world posed new challenges and opened new opportunities, he declared that that the problems of TRIPS, GATT, and WTO have to be tackled properly to get the due advantages in the globalised era.

Talking about R&D in the country, the governor stated that the Technology Development Board was established in 1996 and that its budgetary allocations has been increased considerably.

He pointed out that at times, innovative activities often turn out to be risky from the standpoint of the financier. The existence of an effective and speedy patents legal framework will go a long way in solving the incentive problem associated with innovative aspects. Though the Indian Patents Act, 1970, was indeed a breakthrough from the earlier archaic Indian Patent and Design Act, 1911, still much more needs to be done, he added.

He pointed out that while during 1994, 4,000 patents were filed in India, China in the same year had 70,000 patents. The slow process of patenting not only hurts the interests of the innovator, but also discourage the potential ones, he said.

The existence of loose patent laws or its violation, like in case of software, is not a good sign, he stated.

Jalan talking about the employment potential of technology-induced growth said that though per se the innovation of a new technology may be labour saving, the development of ancillaries or related products may give rise to newer employment opportunities.

Dispelling doubts about technology leading to manpower cuts, the RBI governor said there is strong evidence that as long as technology helps widen the resource base of the production system, there is no reason for technology to be employment reducing.

He pointed out that knowledge generating activities like R&D suffer from three types of market failure: invisibility, uncertainity, and externalities. Moreover, there is a wedge between private and social profitability, like that existent in pure research which may not be forthcoming.

Thus, even in a deregulated regime, the state will have three specific and selective roles in fostering science and technology, said Jalan. These, he added, are: financing fundamental research, providaing infrastructure, and regulating property rights.

UNI