During last week’s PWS Session, Priyanshi Rastogi (Trainee Associate) led a discussion on “Whether Transfer Pricing Manipulation of Intellectual Property is Detrimental to Rights of The IP Owner?”. The session commenced with a brief discussion on the applicable transfer pricing regulation and methods for valuation of IP in India. The members discussed and debated the incorporation of a tax (based on self-declared valuation of IP) at the time of registration as a means to offset the loss of tax revenues from IP-related tax base erosion and profit shifting. The members also discussed whether transfer pricing and valuation of intellectual property impacts a trademark owner’s legal claims in contentious matters and on a proprietor’s ability to commercialize its intellectual property.

The session concluded with members evaluating whether the introduction of self-declared IP valuation as a pre-requisite for IP registration could adequately address the issue of transfer pricing manipulation of IP for tax avoidance.

National Technology Day is celebrated on the 11th of May to commemorate India’s technological achievements and to encourage the pursuit of scientific and technological excellence in the country. This day marks the anniversary of India’s successful nuclear test in 1998, which demonstrated the country’s advanced technological capabilities.

On this day, we take note of some path breaking IP innovations and technological leaps India has taken in the past year.

1. AI & Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK) – India’s first artificial intelligence and robotics park set in Bengaluru. (Read more here)
2. The ‘INSPECTOR®’ drone – Exhibited for the first time at Bharat Drone Mahotsav, INSPECTOR ® is an AI driven drone, designed for inspection of assets, transmission lines, telco-towers, and thermal lines. (Read more here)
3. Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) – A first of its kind initiative, with the mission to increase e-commerce penetration in the country through inclusion of all sizes and types of sellers.(Read more here)
4. The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) project -A concept note launched by RBI in the retail segment has components based on blockchain technology and is expected to increase efficiency in the inter-bank market. (Read more here)
5. Vikram-S: India’s first private rocket to enter space. Skyroot Aerospace launched India’s first private space mission with Prarambh in a partnership with ISRO from Sriharikota. (Read more here)

A ‘Legal Issues Seminar- General IP’ (LIS-GIP) was conducted by Arundathi Krishnadas, Trainee Associate on “Is There a Threshold for Protecting Copyrightable Materials as Confidential Information?”.  The seminar delved into relevant provisions under the Copyright Act, 1957 and the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. It explored the exercise of Courts while interpreting confidential information as copyrightable material. The seminar also addressed the divergent views taken by the Court while granting interim injunctions in cases of alleged copyright infringement of confidential information, and breach of confidentiality. The session concluded with an interesting discussion to determine if there can be a threshold for protection of confidential information within copyright law.

The presentation can be accessed here.

Sucharitha Banda conducted a session on ‘Methods of Safeguarding Intellectual Property’ at the Faculty Development Program organized by IIMT College of Engineering, Noida. The session was held as a part of IIMT’s Faculty Development Program which aimed enabling members of the institute to incorporate elements of IP in their regular curriculum. She touched base on various methods in which one may choose to safeguard different kinds of IP that one creates.

Sneha Tandon attended the Global Science, Innovation and Research Summit organized by CII at IIT Delhi on 2^nd May, 2023. The summit highlighted the importance of fostering investment in R&D by private sector and need for collaborative efforts by Government, Industry and Academia to unleash India’s growth potential. The session titled “Advancing women in STEM” focused on the identification of challenges and the opportunities required to improve the representation of women in technical disciplines of Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In the session titled “Fostering R&D Investment: The Winning Leap”, growing need to adapt to usage of technology even at grassroots level was stressed upon.