By Vivek Dahiya
The recent events between two big economic powers of world India and Australia paved way for trans-pacific business collaboration.
This is no doubt a great era for businesses and collaboration. However, Australian industries must be careful about protecting their Intellectual Property (IP) as well as respecting others IP rights in India and vice-versa.
On this World IP Day (or “WIP-Day”), April 26, it is important to understand importance of IP in business growth and developing partnerships.
If you have filed patent to secure your technology, trademark to protect your brand or design to secure aesthetic looks of your creation then you can deter your competition from copying you innovations, create credibility among your customers, develop partnerships with ease in other countries. For example, you purchase Puma shoes for AUD 200+ but if Puma’s trademark is not on that shoe will you buy it at AUD 200+? The answer is simple: NO
As per IP Australia Report of 2022 there has been an increase of 11% in number of Patent applications filed, a total 32,397 were filed in 2021. However, only 9% of these applications were originated from Australia, a total of 2,996 applications were filed having Australia as origin.
The above shows that Australian are not protecting their innovations and need to be aware of the monetary benefits of protecting innovative technologies.
On the other hand, it is utmost important for all Australian companies to ensure they do appropriate IP due diligence before they launch their products/services in India to avoid any IP dispute or to explore partnership opportunities.
To encourage more IP filings in Australia, it is important to incentivise innovators. For example, Indian government provides substantial reimbursement at the tune of AUD10,000 for their nationals/SME if they receive Patent in other country.
For about two decades, a theme has been chosen in the year to celebrate WIP-Day. For 2022, the focus will be on “IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future” to enable young people to discover how intellectual property rights can help them achieve their goals.
It is my belief that to maintain and promote a good start-ups ecosystem in both Australia and India that can lead to exponential growth of economy industries needs to be IP aware and youth of the nation should be incentivised for their start-up efforts.
Contributing author: Vivek Dahiya is an engineer, patent agent, advocate, and strategist. He is the founder and director of StartUpIPTeam.
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