Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Minister of Industry and Mr. François Loos, French Minister of Industry signed an MoU in Paris on 15th July, 2006 for cooperation in the field of intellectual property. This gives concrete expression to the commitments made by the two governments for co-operation in this field during the visit of the President of the French Republic to India on 20th February 2006.
Considering the imperatives of effective protection of intellectual property rights in a global economy and the commitment of the two countries in that area, this signing of MoU presents a major step forward in bilateral co-operation. The MoU seeks to achieve this cooperation through training of personnel, exchange of information and experts between intellectual property institutes, sensitization of the target audiences, computerization of facilities dealing with intellectual property and the development of intellectual property database, conducting joint studies in specific cases and a dialogue on international questions regarding intellectual property.
The implementation of actions of cooperation in the MoU would be entrusted to competent institutions i.e. the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI), for the French side, and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), for the Indian side.
On the occasion Dr. Kumar said “the signing of this MoU is a concrete manifestation of the government’s desire to strengthen international bilateral cooperation in the field of intellectual property and to ensure protection of intellectual property rights of foreign investors and domestic industry.”
On this occasion, Dr Ashwani Kumar invited Mr. Francois Loos, his French counterpart to visit India to carry forward the relation on bilateral co-operation in this area.
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SB/NR/SR
(Release ID :18889)