CDS (I) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 112 of 120

Correct — C, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. Intellectual property in India is administered as an industrial-policy subject rather than a legal or scientific one, and the department that owns it is the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It houses the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, under which the patent offices, the trade marks registry, the designs office and the geographical indications registry work, and it is the nodal body that framed the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy of 2016. That policy is also where India's position on the World Trade Organization's TRIPS Agreement and the Doha Development Agenda is set out.

• (a)the Ministry of Law and Justice — Patents, copyright and trade marks are creatures of statute, so the ministry looks plausible. But drafting and interpreting law is not the same as owning a policy subject; the intellectual property statutes are administered by the industry department, and the courts and tribunals that hear disputes are a separate matter again.
• (b)the Department of Science and Technology — Research funding and scientific policy sit here, and inventions come out of laboratories, which makes the option tempting. The department has no charge of the patent system; that lies with the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks under the industry department.
• (d)the Ministry of Human Resource Development — Copyright was for many years administered by this ministry, which is the historical root of the confusion, but copyright administration was itself transferred to the industry department in 2016 so that all intellectual property would sit in one place. The ministry has since been renamed the Ministry of Education.

The National Intellectual Property Rights Policy, adopted in 2016, brought every branch of intellectual property under a single administrative roof and set out seven objectives, from public awareness and the generation of intellectual property to its commercialisation and enforcement. Its slogan, 'Creative India; Innovative India', reflects that it treats intellectual property as an instrument of industrial and economic policy.

The reliable route to the answer is to ask which arm of government runs the registries. Patents, designs, trade marks and geographical indications are all granted by offices under the Controller General, and the Controller General reports to the industry department — so that department must own the policy. Watch the naming history in older papers: the same department was called the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion until it was renamed in 2019, and UPSC's 2017 question on the intellectual property policy uses the older name. India joined the World Intellectual Property Organization's international filing systems around the same period, so the topic recurs in current-affairs form as well.

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is the nodal body for intellectual property rights policy in India.
• The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks functions under it.
• The National Intellectual Property Rights Policy was adopted in 2016 and reaffirms India's commitments under the TRIPS Agreement and the Doha Development Agenda.
• Copyright administration was transferred to this department in 2016 so that all forms of intellectual property would sit together.
• The department was called the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion until its renaming in 2019.

• Sending intellectual property to the law ministry because the subject is statutory.
• Missing the 2019 renaming — older papers say Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion for the same body.
• Assuming copyright is still with the education ministry; it moved to the industry department in 2016.

As a subject-to-department question, or as a statements item on the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks in India functions under

  • (a)the Ministry of Law and Justice
  • (b)the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
  • (c)the Department of Science and Technology
  • (d)the Ministry of Education

  Answer(b) the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade — which is why intellectual property policy is owned by that department too.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The National Intellectual Property Rights Policy of India was adopted in the year

  • (a)2011
  • (b)2014
  • (c)2016
  • (d)2020

  Answer(c) 2016 — it brought all forms of intellectual property under one administrative roof and reaffirmed India's TRIPS commitments.