New Delhi: External Affairs Minister of India Dr. S Jaishankar met Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Secretary-General of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants Daren Tang Heng Shim on October 13.
Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Secretary-General of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants Daren Tang Heng Shim and other distinguished delegates from the WIPO visited the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)-Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) facility and participated in discussions on the CSIR Innovation System, TKDL, CSIR Technologies, and CSIR’s Current IP Strength & Strategy on October 12.
The CSIR team was led by Dr. N. Kalaiselvi, Secretary, DSIR and Director General, CSIR. The distinguished guests included Prof. Unnat P. Pandit, Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM), and representatives from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the office of the CGPDTM, and Ministry of AYUSH.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Kalaiselvi elaborated on the proud IP legacy of CSIR, including the IPR policy and strategy. Welcoming Mr. Tang, she said his visit and the discussions would provide further impetus to the innovation ecosystem of the CSIR family. She also spoke about the potential for new collaborative efforts between CSIR and WIPO. She also opined that this visit by Mr. Tang and the WIPO delegation would highlight CSIR’s S&T capability at the global level.
According to the Ministry of Science & Technology of India, Mr. Daren Tang elucidated WIPO’s vision to bring about more inclusiveness and position it as a powerful catalyst to transform IP system. He said that India’s S&T capacity was not new and dated back several 1000 years. He was happy to note the great strides being made by CSIR as a key Indian innovator, and appreciated the organization’s activities related to the TKDL, IP targeted at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Patinformatics and IP Audit. He expressed WIPO’s support to CSIR for a meaningful and impactful journey together.
Ministry of Science & Technology of India said that the visit to CSIR-TKDL Unit showcased the various activities related to digitization of ancient Indian texts of traditional medicine namely Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and Sowa Ripga, Yoga and the third party submissions to prevent misappropriation of traditional knowledge through wrong grant of intellectual property. The WIPO delegates interacted with the CSIR-TKDL team to understand the interdisciplinary nature of the work and its impact as a one of its kind prior art database of traditional knowledge. Mr. Daren Tang and team WIPO appreciated the work on TKDL and opined that this is a required strategy for the South-South cooperation.
At the exhibition, CSIR showcased its globally benchmarked technologies and potentially game changing technological pursuits in pipeline to the delegates. The DG, WIPO, CGPDTM and team appreciated the activities of the CSIR, stating that the technologies were all objective oriented and supported by a well thought through IP strategy. The DG, WIPO and CGPDTM requested that the details of the showcased CSIR technologies be included in the national IP Compendium being put together by the O/o CGPDTM.
During the meeting with Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Secretary-General of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants Daren Tang Heng Shim on October 13, EAM Jaishankar discussed the benefits of a closer India-WIPO relationship and focused on making IP more Global South friendly. They also spoke about the promise of space technology and traditional knowledge respectively.
EAM posted on X: "A good meeting with Daren Tang, Director General of @WIPO. Discussed the benefits of a closer India-WIPO relationship. Focused on making IP more Global South friendly. Also spoke about the promise of space technology and traditional knowledge respectively."
